[whenwillitend]

The puppy is about 5 months old, not neutered yet (has appt in April), and noone has any problems with him but my 8year old son. Not even the 2 year old has any issues with the puppy. But the puppy has ZERO respect for my older son. He jumps up on him, snaps at him, bites him. I know it's something my son has to teach the puppy, I can't do it for him. But how? I think the problem is that my son plays really rough with the puppy. Noone else does that. Dusty, the puppy, is extremely food motivated, I don't know if that woudl help.
Any advice anyone? I don't want to get rid of the puppy, like I said, it's not an issue for anyone but my older son. But what can I do?

[(JD)]

Originally Posted by whenwillitend

The puppy is about 5 months old, not neutered yet (has appt in April), and noone has any problems with him but my 8year old son. Not even the 2 year old has any issues with the puppy. But the puppy has ZERO respect for my older son. He jumps up on him, snaps at him, bites him. I know it's something my son has to teach the puppy, I can't do it for him. But how? I think the problem is that my son plays really rough with the puppy. Noone else does that. Dusty, the puppy, is extremely food motivated, I don't know if that woudl help.
Any advice anyone? I don't want to get rid of the puppy, like I said, it's not an issue for anyone but my older son. But what can I do?

I think you're onto something there, about how the 8 year old treats the dog. Dogs respond to how they are treated. All dogs are treat motivated The puppy is well old enough to learn many good manner skills. There are basic training videos on the internet I think. Have your son begin to train the puppy, treat in pocket etc. He has to stop roughhousing with the dog as well until he can train the dog to "play" or "work" etc.

Be sure to break the treats into tiny pieces. My labradoodle is 90lbs and he will still do anything for even a 1/4" nibble of a pupperoni!

[kitty004567]

There's a lot you can do:

1. Tell your son he is no longer allowed to play rough with the dog until the dog learns to respect him (this includes tug-of-war)

2. Have your son feed the dog. The dog must sit and wait for an ok command from your son before the dog is allowed to have the food. Your assistance will probably be required with this step. (This establishes your son above the dog in the pack. It's especially effective if the family eats and then the dog gets fed. The higher you rank in the pack the better food you get and you get to eat first.)

3. Have your son knee the dog in the chest when the dog jumps up and say no loudly.

4. If the dog jumps up when your son first walks in the door have your son walk in backwards.

5. If you can afford it put the puppy in an obedience class somewhere. Take your son and have him do the training exercises. Practice these at home.

The more the puppy learns that good things come from your son and the puppy does not get these good things with bad behavior the faster the puppy will stop the bad behavior.

Good luck! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

[whenwillitend]

Thank you both! Puppy classes aren't an option right now, but soon it will be, and I had been planning on taking him anyway.
I already taught the puppy to sit when he gets fed, and he has to wait for me to say "Go get it" before he's allowed to get up and eat. He's VERY good at that.

I already told my son he's no longer allowed to play rough with the puppy, no chasing games, nothing. Fetch, that's it. And earlier I started having my son practicing "sit" with the puppy. He knows sit just fine, but when he sees the treat he gets overexcited and keeps jumping up the closer the treat gets to his nose. So we're working on that, including my son.

Looks like I'm doing SOMEthing right.

[kitty004567]

You are doing it right :-) Good job with working with your son and the puppy on basic commands. The puppy will soon learn its place in the pack. I would definitely recommend your son take over feeding the dog (with your help). Good luck!

[Fresia]

The above suggestions are great. Also, I don't know how big the 5 mos old is but if not too big, it would help too if your son was the one to take him for walks on the leash, for exercise and to reinforce his authority. Some tips for training to walk on the leash:

http://dogtime.com/leash-training.html

Good luck!

[lynn P.]

It good you're considering dog training -it was the best thing we ever did for my dog Bella. Bella was very nippy when she was younger and biting us/pants any chance she got lol. Your dog is obviously smart since he picked up on a few commands.

It's very good you told your son, no more rough play. My girls wanted to play tug of war when Bella was younger, but a book I had said that's not good when they're young because it makes them aggressive. Once she became well trained, tug of war is one of her favorite games. I think this is why your dog misbehaves with your son.

It's important your dog respects all members of the family, otherwise he'll try to be 'alpha dog' with what ever member will tolerate it. When your dog bothers your son, tell him to totally ignore him. Another alternative is, we taught our dog the 'relax command' for nipping - by putting the dog on his side with your hands on the ribs and say "relax'. At 1st you'll say the command firmly(not yell though) and keep the dog in this position, eventually saying the command calmy while stroking your dog - this ends up calming the dog and becomes a soothing experince. Once your dog is calm, then you say "good dog' and give him a treat. Anytime your dog is nipping or overly excited you can use this technique. My dog knows it so well now, all we have to do is say "relax' and she immediately lays on her side, waiting to be pet lol.

To teach him not to jump for treats, you can teach the "down" command. Here's how it goes - let your dog know you have a treat....keep it in your closed hand. Tell him to sit and put your closed hand under his chin and then down to the floor - the trick is he'll follow the treat in your closed hand where he can't grab it . Eventually he will lay down on all four. Make sure all the family members use the same command words - you don't want one saying "sit down' and the other saying "sit" etc. Make sure he get some rigorous exercise so he won't be so hyper at other times. If your dog is jumping, turn your back and ignore him. Training was the best thing we did for Bella and ourselves because we're now in tune with other. You can look up the basic training methods like "down" online also. Good luck.