I have grown up with Briards all my life, and now have a beautiful 19 week old Briard puppy (dog) of my own. I also have 2 children aged 2 and 5 who have grown up with my parents' briard dogs/puppies and there has never been a problem. As with all puppies mine nips quite a lot, and this is NOT aggressive. My daugter (2) handles it well and just tells him off, but my son (5) flaps around him and squeals which makes the nipping worse. I ended up segregating them to ease the problem hoping that Barney would just grow out of it with time. He is much better with my husband and I now, so we want to reintroduce Barney with the children. This is harder than I thought, because now Barney gets so excited with the prospect of being able to play with these 2 small active children that he jumps up at them, grabbing their clothing, arm, feet (basically anything that moves). Bless him, all he want to do is play! I would be grateful of any ideas or suggestions as how to handle this.
p.s. We got him at 7 weeks old from a lovely breeder and he is now on his 2nd puppy training course!

> We got him at 7 weeks old from a lovely breeder and he is now on his 2nd puppy training course! <

Surely this is one of the basic things that should be covered at a puppy course?  What does your instructor/trainer advise?

Wendy

He suggested separating them, but only in passing. He has little or no knowledge of the breed, and the one that he has come across was aggressive, so it is difficult for him to give impartial advice.

First of all keep excitement levels down.  Get the children to play games such as throwing a ball or toy.  [An adult will need to take the toy out of the dogs mouth].  The children must be taught to only throw the ball or interact with the puppy when he has all four paws on the floor.  This rule must be backed up by everyone - only when all four paws are on the floor does the puppy get interacted with.

The puppy must be actively taught not to jump up but this cannot be done by young children.    Teaching the puppy that he gets a food reward for not jumping and that the food disappears if he does jump should help to break the habit.  It must be practised a lot however and the puppy must not be allowed to practise jumping at all.

If the excitement [and the puppy] get over the top the best thing for the children to do is to stand still and be a branchless tree [arms tucked in] and call an adult.

Play biting is very normal and healthy in a puppy but it must be taught to lessen the strength of its bite and to not grab at clothes etc.   Again, your children are too young to teach this, so the bite inhibition training must be done by an adult.  I think there is quite a lot of information already on this site with regards to teaching bite inhibition.

Wendy

I would have thought that separating dog and children is counterproductive By keeping them apart you are NOT solving the problem, only delaying the solution.

Having had some experience of Briards AND children, both are boisterous and need to be trained to live in harmony. I know that they are very stubborn dogs and you should start as you mean to go on. I have never met a trainer who would advocate this action. Surely if he is an accredited trainer he will give "impartial advice" on all dogs. And if he has to have experience of a breed before he can make sound judgement, then perhaps you should find yourself another trainer. Afterall, Trainers/behaviourists deal with dogand people psychology. I do not believe that they base their training on selected breeds.

Wendys advice should be followed as she is obviously talking with experience.

>I have never met a trainer who would advocate this action. Surely if he is an accredited trainer he will give "impartial advice" on all dogs. And if he has to have experience of a breed before he can make sound judgement, then perhaps you should find yourself another trainer. Afterall, Trainers/behaviourists deal with dogand people psychology. I do not believe that they base their training on selected breeds.<

That is what I felt like saying, hairypooch, but did not like to.   It is true, a dog trainer taking classes should be informed on dog psychology not just breed specific stuff.    Dogs come in all shapes and sizes and some behaviours can be classed as breed specific [or at least breed should be taken into consideration].   However. jumping up and play biting is seen across all breeds and types and should be treated from a psychology/behaviour approach.

Wendy

Thanks to both of you,

My trainer is very good, although I do see what you are saying. I dont blame him, but the situation ran away with me, and I more likely blame myself! I just need the advice on how to handle it now. You would think that with 25 years of living with Briards/dogs that I would know better, but I suppose we are not all perfect. The important thing is that I have recognised the problem and need to deal with it, and sharpish! I expected my son to deal with the whole situation better (he is fine with my parents dog, even as a very young puppy), and expected him to be the same with Barney, but I should have realised that it was only 6 hours a week rather than constant. Wendy, I have taken on board what you have said and will give it a go. We are also having him on his lead in the lounge when with them, so we have some degree of control over his behaviour.

Julia

Hope you manage to sort it Julia.

Wendy

I wouldn't keep them seperated, but would supervise all interaction with puppy and children. Children need to be shown how to play nice and so does puppy, have the children tell him to sit then treat/praise, if puppy does not sit you make puppy but your children treat/praise him. I would also have the children feed him so he see's that his food also comes from them. He see's them as playmates  and he's treating them as that. The more your children do with him, be it play, obedience, feeding the nicer they will play together. I would not allow any rough play and when he starts playen rough have your children ignore him and walk away.

Sorry if this has been said all ready :)