Hi all
Just wanted a bit of advice - Sam my 14 week old lab is very excitable  - especially around young children. We have friends that have a 2 1/2 year old and whenever sam see him he tries to jump on him and start playing - we know Sam dosent mean it, but its a habit that i want to get him out of quickly, becase he does tend to get a bit rough - we have tried taking attention away from our friends son with his favourite toy but it dosent last long!!
We really need some help, because our friends have said that they can dog sit if we ever have to go anywhere and cant take the dog.
Any ideas?

Thanks Jenny
  

hi

i can totally sympathise with you as i have a 3 yr old and 7 mth old Bc who play together and cuddle all the time - which is lovely untill we go in public and guinness sees other children and he will drag me if he can to try and jump at them and play the way he does with cameron (well he doesnt jump on cameron but they follow each other around all day etc)  :(  i have tried squeaking the toy, treating him but he just wants to play lol and obviouisly i cant have him doing this.

i will look forward to your responses to this question.

nails :0)

Hi,
I have a 10 mth gsp who is VERY bouncy and I have 2 children - one is nearly 4 now so she was just 3 when we got the puppy ( the other nearly 10 so not the same issues) - for a while it was a problem ie the jumping up etc but after time things got stacks better.  A few things helped. (I've never had a dog before so there may be other tried and tested techniques that I don't know about).

Firstly just familiarity - they kind of got used to each other and its not so fraught when the bitey/mouthing stage is over. Try and get them together as much as possible as I think once the puppy gets familiar with the child things may improve.  I've noticed that our dog Freya gets very excited when other children visit but this wears off after a short while - especially if the child is confident around dogs and doesn't run away squealing.

My daughter got really good at turning her back, folding her arms ( 'I don't want to play with you' ) and ignoring the puppy when she jumped up - best to get this in early before the puppy can push the child over by jumping. It's surprising but they catch on quickly even very at a very young age - both child and dog.

It might seem obvious but I dressed my kids in long sleeves and long trousers to protect from scratches which you can't avoid.

She (my daughter) also got involved with 'training' the puppy and this built her confidence up. She is really good at getting her to sit and stay.

(she also got good at finding 'high up'' places where she wouldn't be bothered by the dog).

I also use stair gates to keep them apart when they need to be - so every one gets some peace.  They aren't actually fixed in place permanently but if I lean them against an open doorway Freya doesn't try and come through I don't think she realises she can push them over easily (and I'm not going to tell her).

We still have situations where my daughter comes off worst eg if Freya rushes past too quickly or uses her paws and catches my daughter with her claws - but it is very rare and I think you just have to go with that - our dog is not allowed upstairs so there is no issue of my daughter being pushed over on the stairs.

Good luck  - hope things work out because a dog sitter is a godsend

Matilda