Puppy biting son

[Silentnighttwo]

I have posted about this previously.

We have an 18 week old working cocker puppy. With me she is wonderful - sweet and gentle.

With my 5 year old she is fine 95% of the time, but then will suddenly bite him for no reason. Today she was on the lead and DS was walking next to us. All was calm. Without warning she jumped up and bit DS on the leg so hard it drew blood, then had to be pulled off as she tried to go back for a second chomp.

They are never left unsupervised. He knows not to scream and yell or run around her. Yet he is always the target.

She never does this to me, only to him. Most of the time she seeks him out and loves being with him, and they interact happily. But then, out of the blue, she bites him.

Can anyone help with this, is it normal for puppies? Will she grow out of it?

this is normal, puppies are playing and testing the water, my two grandsons have the same with our 18 month yorky, when they ignor him he is fine then jumps once in a while, the best advice I had was for the child to shout when he was bitten, like a litter it tells the dog when it has crossed the line, you hurt me back off !

Unfortunately it's puppy behaviour. Previous posts advice was spot on, get your son to do a loud yelp, it's what other dogs in the litter do.

DO not get your son to yelp - it will make it much worse.

As this is still continuing and online advice has not helped I would contact a qualified trainer to help in rl. If you want to give rough location I can recommend a trainer.

I have had similar problems in the past with my children and I found that this works best: teach your dog the "leave" command. Teach your son to correctly interact with the dog by focusing on simple training commands like sit, down, come and yes leave! You have to teach the dog first and then show your son how to get the result... best is to use voice and hand signals.
Your son is not a dog / litter mate. But a human play mate like yourself. It is very important to teach your dog and son how to play safely with each other. I know this is not an instant fix but it will be a lasting one that both will enjoy for many years to come.

Since the pup is actually drawing blood, I would get a behaviourist involved asap. You need someone who can see exactly what is going on, read the dogs body language, and workout why this is happening.

I disagree that it is normal puppy behaviour since this isn't gentle mouthing or playful nips - it's actually drawing blood and is only aimed at your DS not you. That's not normal.

I have the exact same problem with our whippet puppy and my 7 year old son. Can’t offer much advice but I sympathise x

It's very unusual for a whippet to be at all aggressive except to small furry animals. We're doing the same with our 12w 6d old whippet pup Bracken as we did with our previous whippet Chase - if she nips us even slightly, a calm but firm "No Bite!" is said and she is immediately handed an appropriate chew toy and placed at arms length. Equally, if she tries to grab something she shouldn't have, we say "No!" firmly and swap it for a toy. She is getting the message, as did Chase at the same age. Just like teething babies, puppies need to chew; it's just a case of making sure they have something suitable i.e. not someone's hand or leg etc.

I agree with others though that the OP's pup has issues beyond normal puppy nipping. Neither of our pups have ever drawn blood, and I would be very concerned if they did.