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The doghouse

If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.

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Original poster

Play biting

4 replies

PrudenceDear · 18/04/2017 14:39

We have a 9 month old labradoodle and 3 children aged 8, 8 and 9. The dog constantly jumps up and chews/ bites the children. He grabs their arms and pulls them to the floor. They scream & squeal, he carries on thinking they're enjoying it.

Any help to stop this would be much appreciated

OP posts:

BiteyShark · 18/04/2017 16:46

You need to get the children on board to not squeal and scream as that is reinforcing that biting during play is acceptable. I have a 6.5 month old puppy and he can be nippy when he is overtired or over excited and it can hurt.

With mine he gets a few mins timeout to calm down and stop biting. Really I would not want to encourage this behaviour at all. Can you imagine if a toddler screams near your dog and they think it is ok to play bite.

I would get your children to stop and stand still with no noise and then you can work on teaching your dog not to bite either through distraction by giving it something to chew or a timeout.

Original poster

PrudenceDear · 18/04/2017 22:39

Thank you, yes it a bit of a battle. One of the children is fine and totally nonplussed by him. The dog respects him. The other two children are scared and he picks up on that. He just goes crazy, he wants them to play but because he hurts them (unintentionally) they don't want to play with him.

OP posts:

BiteyShark · 19/04/2017 05:48

Maybe you could practice with the children standing still and tucking their arms away etc and a code word that they can shout which means you know that the dog is trying to bite them and can intervene very quickly.

When my puppy is trying to bite my DH feet or legs (and yes he thinks this is initiating play) he stays still and I jump up and either distract or if he is too bitey wrestle him out of the room. This tends to work quickly because he then is removed from the 'play' and wants to be back with us but biting means he is on his own on the other side of the door. At first I had to maybe remove him from the room a couple of times until he 'got it' but now it tends to need just one time out to settle him down and he doesn't do it very often.

Yokohamajojo · 19/04/2017 09:34

Yes BiteyShak, the standing still and looking up in the air with arms crossed is really working with our 6 month old pup. Also a firm Ah Ah helps. Also when you see he is in his bitey mischievous mood don't let the kids play with him at all and if he chases them just stand still then it's no fun for him.

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