Puppies & Children What You Should Know
Before you get a puppy if you have children, you should be prepared. Understand that children and puppies can hurt each other. If that happens only the parents are to blame for not supervising properly. I know, I had puppies when my children were babies.
Puppies love to jump on children, pull their hair, chew on their clothes, bite their ears and nose (boy does that make my eyes water when they do that to me. Ouch!). Children can get scratched on the face, eye, legs or arms by playful puppies. Have you ever seen a litter of puppies play together? Then you know how rough they play with each other and how hard they bite each other. Puppies will play the same way with you and your children until you teach them that this kind of playing is not acceptable.
Small children have no concept of pain to others. They may pull the puppies hair, leg, tail or even bite them, throw toys at them and even spank them. Children should never and I mean never be allowed to punish a puppy or dog. That is a job for the parents alone. Children need dicipline so how can they administer dicipline themselves? If a puppy is hurting your child then teach your child to immediately stand up or sit in a chair with their feet up to get away from the puppies playful bites.
It is also important that you teach your children not to pull things out of the puppy's mouth such as their shoe strings if the puppy is chewing on them. Tell your children to gently open the puppy's mouth and take the shoe strings out. Otherwise if they yank the shoe strings out they could chip the puppy's tooth. Never let them play tug-o-war or rough house with the puppy. These two games teach a puppy to become the pack leader and teaches aggression. You do not want your puppy to learn to over power you or your children to win the game. If you are playing with your puppy and it growls, stop playing, talk softly to him and calm him down. If this does not work then lock the puppy in his crate for a few minutes to calm him down.
The best way to teach puppies not to bite you is to place a puppy chew toy in their mouth every time they try to bite you. This helps to distract them and forget about chewing on your fingers or ears. Try to calm them down and gently pet them. If this doesn't work then lock them in their crate until they calm down. Puppies can get so carried away with playing "Bite the hand before it taps me on the nose," that they can almost seem vicious at trying to bite you. They are not. They are just puppies testing you. Don't do a power play here. Just lock them up for a few minutes and let them calm down. I NEVER recommend trying to tap them on the nose or hitting them for biting or for any reason. This just teaches them to learn to bite your hand before it hits them.
Go to the library and get books on puppies and obedience training. A great book is called, "Dogs For Dummies." Don't be offended by the title. It is a good book that takes you step by step through dog training. NEVER hit your puppy especially on the back or hindquarters. This could cause hip problems plus if you think you have to hit your puppy then YOU are doing something wrong not the puppy.
The first couple of months with your puppy is the most important. You can train your puppy right and have a wonderful dog that your friends will be jealous of or do everything wrong and have an obnoxious dog that no one likes. You decide.
