Advice on managing puppy biting with three young children at home

[DisneyDreaming2026]

Hello,

I am considering getting a puppy to add to our family.

I am pretty much decided on breed etc (I'd like a Working Cocker Spaniel).

We are used to having pets/dogs and are aware of the time and costs involved.

The only thing that is putting me off is managing the puppy biting stage with three young children. Any advice on this please?

Thank you x

Bonkers - don’t do it! For the dogs sake!

The kids would wear socks and shoes in house around puppy, and have a dog toy to hand for any nipping, and also shout me.

We got a lab when DS was 6. It was really hard. DS didn’t like the nipping so didn’t really bond with him and just stayed out of his way. It was full on for the puppy stage but got a lot harder during adolescence!! I wish we had waited until DS was older. It’s like having a full on child.

We have 3 working breed rescue dogs including a guardian dog/Lab mix puppy, and I agree with you. They are not suitable pets for young families. We have also fostered over the years, mostly collies and herding breeds and none of those rescue charities will allow puppies to go to homes with under 5s.

I've posted on here before about our newest pupper who was in a home with young kids and the owners let them roughhouse with him, which then got dangerous when he got bigger (duh). It all starts out with the best of intentions, but often as soon as there's a problem, parents are very quick to want to return the dog, surrender it to rescue or even PTS. And I understand it, because your children's safety comes first. But 9/10 times they cannot accept that they have caused the problem, either with inadequate training, inappropriate handling, lack of supervision, insufficient exercise and stimulation, etc, and they blame the dog. The dog is then difficult to rehome.

It may well be unfair to ban all young families from adopting puppies, as I'm sure there are rare owners out there who genuinely do know what they're doing and have the time, the resources and the parenting skills (both canine and human) to manage it. But am I ever, ever going to take the risk with any puppy in my care, knowing that there are far more clueless parents with young children who want the benefits of a puppy without the hard work than responsible ones? Absolutely not.

There’s a real rural/urban divide on having puppies with kids. Most of the rural families we know have had puppies with toddlers and most urban families would think it unspeakable. You need to have a tolerance to your kids being nipped AND be willing to firmly correct the pup.

@Horsepoor we're a rural family these days and I think the farming families around here are probably more like you describe. I think it's generational too. DH and I grew up with dogs and the attitude then was, if you teased or manhandled a dog as a kid, it was your own fault if you got a nip. The things a lot of families expect dogs to tolerate these days we'd never have been allowed to do - I've seen kids trying to climb on dogs, pull their tails, ears, tease them, wave things in their faces, and the dog is supposed to just take it. I'm always happy if kids want to interact nicely with my dogs out and about, but any child that's rough with them gets sent packing straight away, because I'm not about these bloody parents who think dogs are kids' toys and would be demanding a dog be put down if it so much as looked at their child the wrong way.

My grandparents‘ wcs bit a younger relative in the face as he bent down to say goodbye to it. Dont think it’s a good breed with small children.

Thank you for your messages.

Regarding the urban/rural divide I completely agree. We live in a rural area and majority of families we know have puppies/dogs with their children and have had no issues. I also imagine that the breeders that won't sell to people with children are from urban areas, as we have not experienced anyone even suggesting we shouldn't have a puppy with children.

It's quite worrying that some of you are commenting that your dogs are still destructive/biting at aged 5 - that suggests lack of mental and physical exercise to me.

When we had our previous dog (Springer Spaniel) before having children we never had any behavioural issues and when we had the children it was us that taught the children from when they started moving around the dog. The dog always knew how to behave as she had been trained and socialised. The children were not allowed to pull or do anything inappropriate towards the dog.

In terms of working, to answer some queries, the dog will be trained as a gun dog. I'm not sure why some of you suggest that this would then not be suitable as a family pet? Most of the gun dogs we know are family pets also.

We have plenty of time to exercise the dog, and the majority of our time is spent outdoors anyway. We go on long walks daily as a family and have acres of land for the dog to enjoy. The dog will spend the majority of it's time outside, with it usually only being indoors to sleep (although our old dog often chose to sleep outside).

I personally grew up with dogs/puppies and this period of my life (3 years) has been the longest I have gone without one, this is due to me wanting to wait until my newborn was 'easier' and I didn't have the time to train a puppy properly with a little baby.

I'm not sure why I am even having to justify all of this, all I asked for was the best day to deal with puppy biting with children, as this is the only part of having a dog that I am not experienced in.

Thank you :)

It’s doable - just have to train the kids & the puppy :) & keep everything consistent
Dog free zones where they can go to (room or furniture), Child free zones where puppy can go to chill out ( stair gate / pen )
Show the kids how to ignore puppy & a simple command ( no / off )
Use long toys so little fingers keep away from little teeth

Most people take an urban/suburban view on dogs because that’s where most live. It’s a very different scenario to have a puppy with young children when you have a stay at home mum who spends her days walking through the countryside with children and dog in tow and maybe even visiting the riding stables etc than a hassled mum who works full time and shoves a working cocker into a crate for 6 hours a day then picks up kids from nursery and hopes for the best in the hour she’s also trying to cook dinner. Working dogs don’t fit into most people’s urban lifestyles and they’re entirely unsuitable regardless of whether or not children are present. At our stables you often find babies and toddler on the floor in the shop with puppies dancing around them. No one bats an eye lid. The dogs are swiftly told off if they’re too rough as are the kids. Rural families in general have a higher tolerance to kid/animal interactions.

As for the actual practicalities I’d get the puppy out first thing and use its breakfast as training rewards. We didn’t let our puppy and our 3 year old interact first thing because that was when they were most bonkers. Get some quick recalll work in outside. Get some energy out and get the dog focussed on you. Teach the pup to go to their bed on command and teach the kids to ignore the dog when he’s in his bed.

@Horsepoor thank you for your comments - you sound much more on my wavelength.
I'm not a stay at home mum but I work from home for our own business so I am flexible and work as and when.
Also have numerous other animals including horse, cats, goats and chickens, which are all happy, healthy and cared for.