puppy bit kid's ear

[Wordsaremything]

Advice please- posted for a friend.
Never had a dog before. Have acquired an 8 week old lab puppy from friends of friends. They sAw mother and sibs. Dad has always wanted a dog, so has child (9) allegedly. No idea how sound it is, whether hip scored, etc. Don't think they did much homework.
Was shown some video of this puppy boisterously trying to get attention from child, who ignored it to play on game console. Puppy tugged on kids trousers ; kid reacted irritably, and went back to game . Dog came back for more and tore them. I did the speech about appropriate play, socialisation, time out, and not remotely funny.
Next news is the puppy has bitten child's ear badly enough to need stitching. No info on what led up to it, who witnessed it, or what. Obvs this needs to be gone into but for now:
Advice:

Vet to rule out any obvious medical issues and advice re puppy basics
Puppy class for socialisation
Vet recommended behaviourist?
No unsupervised play with child
Crate training ?

Anything else? I'm so sad on this dog's behalf.

Thanks.

[RubbishMantra]

Hello Words,

A child preferring gaming to a new puppy? And behaving irritably towards it? Hmm...

You may find more responses if you post this on (I think it's called) The Dog House section in Chat.

[DawnMumsnet]

Hi, we're moving this over to our The Doghouse topic now.

[Wordsaremything]

Thanks so much- much better home for it. And yes, I thought that too. A puppy at age nine was my idea of paradise ( still is.)

[tabulahrasa]

Well either the child was at puppy level or the puppy was at child head level...either of which is pretty lacking in common sense with a mouthy puppy, ears stick out and are delicate the puppy wouldn't have had to be doing anything worse than he was to the trousers to cause an injury needing stitches.

[NoneOfYourShenanigans]

I have a young Labrador and when she was 8 weeks old would have happily bitten someone's ear if it was near enough. At that age it is all perfectly normal. All puppies bite and hard.

[Wyldfyre]

Puppies, much like babies, learn about the world through their mouths and mouthing is a big part of learning bite inhibition.
As a PP has said ears stick out and would be considered fair game for such a young pup.
Only advice is when the pup starts mouthing they should move away until it has calmed down.

[NaraDeer]

Our pup is now 17 weeks old and was a little bugger for biting/nipping. She made me and DH bleed a few times during her first few weeks with us. The methods I've come across to stop biting are:
Yelp like an injured puppy and go limp where bitten and ignore puppy for few minutes.
Make a very low, deep "Ah ah" noise when bitten to sound like the mother telling pup off.
Turn back on pup and ignore when bitten.
Now all of them made our puppy nip more so what worked for us is to have playpen and the moment she put her mouth on us she went straight in the playpen, no words whilst doing it, the ignored for 1 minute.
It had a huge affect very quickly.

[HoneyDragon]

I have a scar on my septum from a Labrador puppy of that age.

I have a scar on my toes from another Labrador puppy from around that age.

One of my school photos as a child is with a huge scratch across my eye from a ...can you guess?



Young puppies are Wee land sharks, it's at this age they need to learn about bite tolerance and socialisation. The puppy did absolutely nothing wrong.

It was left unsupervised with an equally uninterested child.

Both child and puppy need training and mutual no go areas for their own safety whilst the puppy is learning.

[HoneyDragon]

As you can see none of the injuries put me off Labradors, nor the constant moulting, love for muddy water, tendency to be unnecessarily enthusiastic in all things and insistence that they are lap dog sized

[FATEdestiny]

"Crate training" - You should never use a crate for punishment.

Puppies nip and bite. Hard. Their teeth are like swords, very sharp and thin so pierce easily.

No issue here aside from inexperience owner.

Pup is just exploring using its mouth. Have lots of appropriate and interesting things available for pup to chew and bite. Accept that pups will chew and bite and rather than stopping it, manage in a controlled way until dog grows out of it.

[Wordsaremything]

Oh god Know not crate as a punishment, more a sanctuary.

[Wordsaremything]

Reply gone awol.

[FATEdestiny]

It's just you mentioned crate training alongside other training for dealing with behaviour issues:

Puppy class for socialisation
Vet recommended behaviourist?
No unsupervised play with child
Crate training ?

Not sure what you were thinking crate training could do for a puppy who was biting?

[KindDogsTail]

They should not have a dog.

Give the puppy to someone who knows what they are doing. Labradors are usually wonderful dogs.

If this impossible or they won't give it up, get a dog trainer to come to the house for several sessions to get them on the right track.

The puppy was just being a normal puppy and would have treated the child like another puppy. Puppies play together biting.

Puppies cannot just be left to bring themselves up. They can't just be ignored.

[lougle]

Why would you need to take this puppy to a vet to rule out medical issues? The puppy has displayed perfect puppy behaviour.

There is absolutely no need for a behaviourist either, because there is no behaviour problem to correct. The puppy has behaved like.....a puppy.

The owners need some help to understand the reality of raising a puppy and would definitely benefit from puppy socialisation classes.

[KindDogsTail]

They do not seem to know what is entailed, and some local dog trainer could probably come to see them on a one to on basis to set them on the right course.

This would not be a behaviourist as such. There was nothing unusual about the puppy's behaviour. Just someone who has a lot of experience.

[wispaxmas]

Mouthing is completely normal puppy behaviour!! Both child and dog need to learn how to treat one another, and both need training. Without knowing more about their situation it's impossible to advise. You, as an outsider, don't really have a place to judge or advise them unless they've turned to you specifically for advice. As you had no specific info about what led to it or what they are doing I assume they haven't asked you for help and have just mentioned stitches.

Perhaps you should ask THEM to seek help online rather than asking on their behalf. Unless they asked you to.

We struggled with our labradoodle puppy when we first had her, not for biting (because we knew mouthing was totally normal and how to deal with it: stag bars for teething and yelping as if hurt when puppy mouthed on us), but for howling and crying, and I would have been MORTIFIED if anyone I confided in briefly had told half our story to an Internet forum and opened is up to ill informed judgement when I was seeking help and advice on my own.

[Shriek]

this sounds like perfectly normal lab dpup.

children shouldnot be left alone with dpup unsupervised, and advised to keep faces, fingers, hair well away from dpup. I have seen terrified children who finally got a much wanted dpup because the dpup of certain breeds will literally launch an attack on children, feet, shoes, trousers, anything.

perfectly healthy normal dpup. please don't worry about dpup, its fine and they will need to look out for their children and everything in the house!

If you want to help somehow then offload a lot of chew toys on them! including the very small stag bars for knawing, and treat toys for keep the dpup busy searching for treats.