[aldelgreco]

Originally Posted by LKLMommy

i have a 4 1/2 month old female rottie pup...shes been a great dog, really. shes sweet, loving, funny, we've had her housebroken for about 1 month now, and her obedience training is going great. my only concern is her with my kids, who are 4 and 2. shes always chasing them and nipping at them. we've kept her on the leash for a while to take more control of the situation, but our trainer suggested its not a great idea because shes not really learning anything and we need to just correct her. the correction is working 90% of the time, but the other times, she doesnt really seem to care. my question is, has anyone else had this problem with their puppy, but as an adult, the pup ended up loving your kids? everyone i seem to talk to and ask this question always say things like, we never had that problem, my dog even as a puppy was always great with my kids. (these are not rottie owners, by the way though...the most recent guy i talked to has a GS). I like to think that shes just playing with the kids, and doesnt realize how rough she is being...and once shes out of the puppy phase she'll be gental and protective of the kids. i expect that shes going to do a lot mouthing, because shes a puppy, but i just hope this isnt how shes always going to be with them. maybe its a dumb question, and i'm sorry....i just want to make sure that its just a puppy thing, and she doesnt hate my kids!

of course she doesn't hate your kids. she is just a puppy with a basic chase instinct. they all have it, across many breeds. it has nothing to do with her having any feelings towards your kids, it just has to do with the fact that she gets a whole heck of a lot of utility from giving chase, she's doing her job. the only thing is, at her age, she is also still naturally prone to "examining" and playing by using her mouth which happens to have some kind of sharp little baby teeth in it. something i might do is talk to the 4 year old about not running from the dog and instruct him to stand his ground and to make a LOUD "YELP!!" sound if she does any investigating on him. in puppy language, a "YELP!!!!" means "the play has gone too far, and this hurts." As far as the 2 year-old, well...you just might have to keep your eye on him until the dog is old enough to get over some of the silly little puppy behaviors.