Biting Puppies: Help For New Puppy Parents

It's absolutely fine for her to have half an hour in her pen while you're in that mad rush of trying to get 3 kids out the door for school

But for less frantic times of day, the ideal is to have a zone, such as your kitchen, that is 'hers' to roam around in, and teach the older two kids to step out of the zone if she's harassing them. For your youngest I would just keep them separate from pup unless you or another adult are directly supervising and managing interaction I'm afraid. So baby gates to keep the puppy in, and the 4 year old out!

I have a 4 year old myself - I know this level of supervision is a total nuisance when in many ways they are so much more mature than they were a year or so ago. But they are still very young, and making the 'right' decisions when a puppy is (in their opinion) trying to eat them, is just too hard for most kids this age.

 

This sounds frustrating for you and your 6 year old. But it is SO normal for puppies to find young children over exciting - as long as you don't reinforce it, this stage will pass! I would use the same system as I suggested for the 4 year old - separate them from the pup unless you are there to give arms-reach, engaged, supervision.

I don't recommend saying 'down' - you can't reward her for getting down without creating a behavior chain that reinforces the biting (biting -> "down" -> gets down -> treat. This chain makes biting MORE likely not less).

Instead, the moment pup starts to bite, I would just gently lift pup into their pen for 30-60 seconds (her memory is short. A minute is plenty). Then let them out (as long as they are quiet! Wait for quiet if they are yapping or whining), and try again! If they tend to fuss in their pen, lift your child over a baby gate or onto the kitchen table, etc, for the time out period instead (make sure they know it's the puppy that's having time out, not them!).

You can also work on reinforcing your pup for ignoring your 6 year old. So if your 6 year old is in the room and pup is quietly doing their own thing, calmly place a treat by pup's front paws. (You can adapt the techniques in "keep your dog off the couch" and "click for quiet" to teach this 'ignore the children' behavior more thoroughly )

If you reinforce the calm behavior, and make sure the biting isn't reinforced (by just removing her when she does it) - this really will pass!

I'm not sure if you've seen this link on how to play with a puppy, but if not, it's worth a read too

 

Hi Rhian. This is normal! But the more you can preempt, so it doesn't have chance to happen, the sooner it will fade. For example, I wouldn't attempt to leash-walk your pup while there are kids on bikes with you, until she has a really reliable leash walk without bikes present, and can sit quietly on the leash and ignore bikes moving nearby. It's just much too tempting a 'target' at this age!

I know this is so hard when you have a lot of commitments to juggle, but ideally I wouldn't bring the kids on her walks at all at the moment. Setting up good leash walking habits is so much easier when you can give pup your full attention! And you have a lifetime of family walks ahead of you once the puppy phase has passed

 

Please don't apologise! You are doing really well - this is a steep learning curve! It sounds like she's a bit nervous of some people, so I'd work on taking her to some places with a good amount of passers-by, where you can sit at a distance from them and stream her treats. If she's stressed, use a location that's further from people next time. If she's happy, move a little closer next time. It's all about really gently pushing at her comfort zone while distracting her with food .

If she does growl, just distract her. It's important not to correct the growl, even with a lead jerk, because we actually do want to know if she's feeling anxious - teaching dogs they aren't allowed to growl doesn't make them less worried, it just stops them warning people how they feel!

If practicing ignoring people on a regular basis doesn't help over the next few weeks, or if things get worse, it may be worth considering a 121 with a specialist behaviorist. They can suggest ways to help her feel more comfortable, that are specific to her needs and worries