I have 2 kids and a puppy who's almost a year old. It's all brilliant, we love him lots and he fits in perfectly. I expected a lot of hard work and of course I got it, but by far the hardest thing for me and the kids to deal with has been that nothing can now be on the floor or low tables, and obviously with kids toys out this is hard. The kids have to play in their rooms with the door shut, or play on the kitchen table. No toys in the living room at all, or he tries to eat them or grabs and runs and we end up chasing him around the house hoping he doesn't swallow before we get to him. It's been hard, we've lost a lot of toys and even with us all on high vigilance, the chase is still happening multiple times a day. He is obedience trained but when he's excited like this he won't listen to anything or stop!
My questions is, is this something that continues forever now, for the life of a dog? Is it a puppy thing or a dog thing? Is there anything I can do except get better at policing it and making sure the children pick up after themselves? It's not a big problem by the way, so I don't need the "you should've thought about this before you got a dog" as it's a very small price to pay for completing our family and it's only a niggle really.
If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.
The doghouse
Dogs and kids!
pineapple22 · 02/12/2018 16:38
is this something that continues forever now, for the life of a dog?
No, definitely not, but I can’t pretend the journey to training it out of them isn’t difficult 
? EG Our old boy can now be trusted to not bat an eyelid at a whole cooked chicken, left at eye level (he’s big!), even if we leave the room. When he was an adolescent, however, he snaffled more than one and three packs of doughnuts in one go once. Plus all manor of books, toys and socks. I knew we’d had a breakthrough when, instead of running off with it, he picked up a dropped sock and placed it neatly on the bottom stair with the rest of the clean washing, ready for putting away! He’s a clever dog!
I'm afraid I allowed the swallowing of many Lego heads and then retrieved them 
and washed and soaked them in Milton. Anything that looked like it wouldn't do internal damage could be eaten. Otherwise, drop it training with high value treats (hotdog slices work well) works well.
Chirag Patel has a really good video (domesticated manners)
It’s a puppy thing.
Unless you’ve got a Labrador. Then it’s a lab thing.
I can leave two year old wolfhound alone and she won’t touch a thing. As a pup she was in a pen (inside) if I couldn’t watch her. She chewed rubber off non slip mats on the floor, through a wall, all the children, took chunks out of clothes and devoured half a slipper sock.
At least sparkly poo is easy to find to pick up!
The puppy stage is tough. We kept kids’ toys upstairs and had a tall doggy gate. Stuffed kongs are great. Mine was on dried food so soak it, stuff Kong and freeze. Frozen carrots and nylabones too.
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