Biting kids while playing in the backyard
Lennon has started to bite kids when they are playing in the yard with him. He's usually very friendly and playful with everyone, but he has started to bite kids (No adults) if he feels threatened by them or when they go close to his house or the hall where he sleeps when he's bored. He's always playful in the park, and has not shown any aggressive behaviour when it's outside the house. He's so easy going outside that I can leave him play with any kid or baby in the park and nothing has happened. His biting has happened only while he's in the backyard and for what I've seen, only in what seemed as self defense, because he's never attacked any of the kids. After biting he looks ashamed of what he did, all we do is keep him away from the kids and confined for a while. People has been very understanding, since this happens only with new kids and not with the neghborhood kids. We belive that the kids get too confident since he looks all whooly and huggable and feel like he cannot harm them. He's 8 months old, so you know that his bite can be very hard. Have you had simmilar experiences? How can we make him more confident on new kids so they can play with him in the yard? Thanks for the advise!!! Idania & Saul. |
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| I never let new kids play unattended with my dog. I have to watch my 8 year old like a hawk. She teases Abbi terribly. I am always having to stand up for Abbi lately because Angela will even lie about being bit to get her in trouble.
If the puppie is not biting you or yours, then I suggest that a grown-up be present to moderate the next play time with any new or neighbor hood kids. Make sure the kids know how to play with a big dog and what to avoid. No one new should ever play tug games with any big dog. This is more than a game to a dog. In packs, to move up in status, you must prove your strength. Tugging games can lead to this type of competition. Games of chase or keep away also need to be carefully watched. The kids need to stay away from directly competing or challenging the dog for a while. Make sure the dog sits for your kids. Teach him how to give his paw. See if you can teach the puppy how to come, lay, and stay on command. Playing fetch is also a great way to introduce play with no competition. If the kids give treats while they run through the puppies tricks, the puppy will be theirs forever. No new children should ever be allowed to mess with your dog's house, this is the dog's only sanctuary. And you need to be out there to explain, as it occurs, that the dog should NEVER bite or nip anyone. Puppies are not fluent in English, thus a grown-up needs to be their to discipline. Don't leave this up to even your kids. Your dog is a member of your pack. He is competing for attention with your children. You are the pack leader and if you don't administer the admonishing, the dog may not accept it. Especially if it feels threatenned or like it has to compete with even more, newer additions, for the attention available. A dog has to be pretty secure of its position in the family before you can trust it with kids in the first place. At 8 months, your puppy is going through adolesense, and is trying to establish it's ranking. By biting it, like so many younger children, is resorting to force. Do not let it intimidate you or anyone else. But also do make sure it has a secure place in the family. It is wonderful that you are trying to socialize the young fellow, but don't expect too much either. It is a 2 year old child going through its teens. A hormonal 2-year old is difficult, but the phase only last a few months usually. Still, this is the best time to make sure you are training the dog as much as possible. Read about how to make it speak, on the barking topic below. Keep it busy and distract it from doing bad behaviors in the first place. Give the puppy a chance to show off its abilities and it will shine. In the end, it just wants to make YOU happy, while enjoying the maximum amount of attention and praise possible. Also, make sure it isn't hurting. Dogs who bite can be suffering from hearing loss in one or both ears. Its eyesight may be bad in one eye. It may be irritable due to inflamed gums from chewing too much. It doesn't sound like this is a problem at all. But it is better to check. My four year old OES started misbehaving when I kept putting her out for wetting herself. Turns out she had no bladder control due to a lack of hormones (due to having her fixed and they took out the ovaries). Once I figured this out, we haven't had any problems (except I feel guilty). |
| It is comforting to know that we aren't the only ones with this problem. Grizzly (our 11 year old OES) recently bit a child who wandered into our yard and tried to pet him while sleeping.
We've found that many people see the OES as a big cuddly bear and may not treat them with the caution that they need. In our case, we no longer let Grizzly interact with younger kids and watch him very closely around even adults. Good luck! |
| Yup, I know how that is. My family is back in town and Lennon did it again, he growls at my niece and is very agressive with her inside the house. We let him to run it the park outside the house with all the kids and he does not pay attention to her or any other kid, just plays fetch and runs after them.
After giving it some tought, it seems that he senses that we are stressed with her upsetting him and he thinks she's dangerous to him so he takes the first step. No other kid upsets him that much like she does, so what we do is now watch him very close when we have visitors around the house. |
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