My rottie pup and my kids

[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!

[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.

[hokisteph5]

This sounds like normal puppy behavior. Nipping, mouthing, etc. is all something a puppy does. The key is to teach her what's acceptable and what's not.

For example, when my dogs were younger, I redirected their attention to chewing on me to chewing on something I found acceptable. Some use a toy, I usually used a "chilly bone" I bought at PetsMart.

If you do a search of the forums, you'll find a lot of tips on how to raise a puppy and small children up together. Here's a thread to get you started.

[LKLMommy]

thats what i thought....but talking to so many people, everyone seems to say the same thing....that their puppy never chased or nipped their kids. whether or not they are choosing not to remember those rough few months of puppy trainging, i do not know...lol. maybe by the time Sasha is out of the puppy phase, i'll forget the last few months! kinda like when you have kids....you tend to forget how hard the first few sleepless months are! shes a great puppy, and i know shes going to be an even better dog! :o) sometimes just a little reassuance is nice, though! thanks :o)

[hokisteph5]

Never is such a strong word. I haven't met a perfect puppy or dog yet. I think like you do - the dog grows up and you develop amnesia about how much work was actually involved. Right now, I'd like to be around puppy breath, but just for the afternoon. I want to be able to hand the puppy back to his or her owners.

[Chantal]

I have a 4 year old & 7 month old female puppy. At first, they were snuggle friends, then the pup wanted to play & got rough, so they of course we separated & we always kept the leash on in the house -- it's easier to grab that way. Now, they are completely fine together. When Marley starts to get excited, I just give a quick "Hey" in a loud voice & she realizes that she is getting to crazy. Sometimes in the back yard she will get knocked down, but that's because my daughter runs & then Marley thinks it's time to play. I really worked on my daughter realizing that she can't run around the house when the dog is out, because then she wants to chase her. She still talks about when Marley was little she used to bite alot........but that's over now, I always have to tell people she wasn't really biting, she was just a young puppy. I also allow her to feed the dogs if she's around when I feed them. She says "wait" & then puts the bowl down & then says "ok". And my older 2 dogs were 3 & 4 when we had our daughter & I never had any issues with them accepting her. People would ask "are you going to get rid of your dogs?" when I was pregnant. Can you believe that??