Help with dog jumping up at children

[lollipoppi]

Hi all hoping for some advise

My parents have got a German Shepherd, she is beautiful, but very excited and huge already!
She is 18 weeks and towers over my children.

My DS is 4yo and my dd is 2yo

The problem is she is jumping at my children, she has scratched my DS face a number or times.
Yesterday she jumped at my DD and floored her, the dog was on top of my DD and dd was terrified as she was pinned underneath her.

My parents are not wanting to lock her away when the children come round as she is part of the family now, but I'm not happy to take them round until she is trained. It's all very well trying to get her used to children but I'm not happy for my children to be hurt in the process

Any suggestions?

Put her on the lead, stand on it - that stops her being able to actually jump up when she tries.

Get the child to take a step back and completely ignore her if she tries to jump up, don't look at her, don't talk to her and then give her lots of attention when she's got all 4 paws on the ground, then ignore her again if she tries to jump again.

Repeat that until she works out that jumping up doesn't get her the greeting she wants.

DS did really well yesterday and turned his back on the dog when she jumped, problem is she still managed to get to his face then he gets scared

Dd is too young to understand turning her back ect, she is only just 2

YY to the lead method, or to brief separation where he can see everyone but isn't in contact.

My dog LOVES children and couldn't understand why they don't want to be licked by 40kg of terrifying black shaggy dog; the children couldn't understand why them screaming and flapping about looked like a game to him!

He is 3 now and he has learnt "paws on the floor" and "sit" - I get the older children to give him a treat to reward his good behaviour but if any child or visitor looks uncomfortable I put him in the kitchen behind a baby gate.

Kids and young dogs don't mix. Keep them separated.

A firm NO stops our lab when he gets boisterous with my 2 year old, we've also pulled him down and put both an adult and child hand on him to make him submissive. It's different when you don't live with the dog but we've taught the children not to scream and to firmly say no. The dog needs to learn that the children rank higher, never safe to leave dogs with young.children but far safer if the children are the boss. The older child should raise his/her knee into the dog when it jumps, to save the dog from getting up.

The dog should be on a lead, so meetings can be closely controlled. Dog should also be rewarded for doing the right things. Eg, whilst children are present reward for calm behaviour, 4 feet on the floor, lying down and ignoring them. Whoever is attached to the other end of the lead should be doing other things with the dog whilst children are there. Doing a bit of training or playing with a toy. Basically taking the focus off the children. Once the pup is used to the children being present, without getting over excited then perhaps the children could start interacting more with her, but always with the line attached so it's not possible for the dog to practice the unwanted behaviour.

You don't need to pull rank on a dog, they aren't actually pack animals and are not trying to dominate. They jump up because they want to get closer to the person's face, then all the squealing and flapping of children gets them excited and it turns into a big game.

a bit about dominance and why it's a false concept

good article about dogs and children

Oh well, works for us, so if it's not broken don't fix it. Just saying what we did to help our 4 kids, not to mention the cats and chickens. He's a good dog and this is what we did.

Just because it works does't make it right.

So making children able to control their dog and ensuring the dog obeys the children is wrong? They push him down and stroke his back, scratch his head, give him attention at his level. But he's not jumping all over them, biting them and scratching their faces. This is ideal. I believe this is what the OP wants to achieve and I'm just giving my experience.

it doesnt make it wrong either.
Advice changes with the wind. The dog does need to know that the children are more important and are not its littermates to be jumped and chewed at

If you put a knee up to a jumping dog you might as well punch it in the chest

I wouldn't be trying dominance tactics on a german shepherd (or any other dog).

Thank you for all the advise.

Bless her she doesn't realise her own size, the lead idea is a good one I will get my DF to try that when we next go round.

DS did really well turning his back on her and she stopped jumping at him, it's dd I worry about as the dog is bigger than her when she's stood up and she floored dd when she jumped at her

Advice may change with the wind, but science doesn't. Don't get into an argument with your dog about behaviour you don't like - just prevent the behaviour (use a lead or a stair gate) and reward an alternative, appropriate behaviour (get your children to feed the dog treats to reward the dog for sitting quietly).

Verystressedmum, you raise your knee so the dog can't reach around the knee and damage a child's eye. You don't knee the dog in the chest!! Just a method that an experienced dog handler taught me when I was 11 and the new owner of a puppy that had been abused previously.

Thank goodness dog training has moved on.

I have a question. If the dog is attached to a lead and IF the dog jumps up at the children, what is the person holding the lead supposed to do?

If you have the lead, you have control of the dog...so you prevent it doing whatever you have it on the lead for, whether that's jumping up on children or chasing a new cat or walking down the street running from garden to garden...whatever the lead is needed for.

For jumping up, I advise standing on the lead because the lead is then stopping them going up, if it's in your hand you're reacting rather than preventing because the dog is still able to go up (as it's the direction your hand is in).

Taking the dog back down after it's jumped up will work, but just stopping them doing it to start with is better.

Obviously when they're wearing a harness not a collar right?

Using whatever you normally use to attach the lead to, they haven't got the slack to jump so it wouldn't hurt their neck...though I do it with a harness on, because I use one anyway.

You're not having to jerk them, just literally not letting them have enough lead to jump.

Well I suppose you might be a bit if you let them jump up and pull them off, but no more than walking them on it normally and having to change directions or stop them doing something.

The lead is currently our problem. We've overcome everything else, even the mouthing....but the lead we don't use. I've tried to get the kids to walk him around the house. But they just forget. So it's all on me to teach lead skills. Tips welcome

Have a look at kikopup on YouTube

Eric's only small but we taught him to "dance" (get on his back legs) and now he only dances on command, although I don't suppose that's really an option with a big dog.