# Puppies and kids



## Lucygoosey (Jan 30, 2020)

We recently got our vizsla puppy, Lucy, and she’s a doll. We do love her dearly. However, her “shark attacks” are becoming difficult to manage. I gather from reading endless posts that this is “normal” but I need some help addressing it. We have three young kids under 6. My older two seem to be reasonably good with her, and follow instructions on how to manage her behavior well. Unfortunately, the 18 month old has become the target in her attacks for obvious reasons. How can I nip this in the bud ASAP so he doesn’t continue to be her target. Unfortunately he’s started to refer to the puppy as “ouch” which makes us so sad! Ignoring won’t work for this situation because he’s so small she overpowers him. I try to keep them separated as much as possible and always have my eye on her, but we want to live in harmony somehow! Keeping her on a leash in the house with me works but it doesn’t feel like a good long-term solution.

I’ve found that she usually goes into crazy shark mode when she’s tired and needs to be put in her crate to sleep. I worry this comes off as a punishment but she usually goes right to sleep so she obviously needs it. We have a small backyard but it’s fenced so she can at least go out and sniff around. Right now I wake up and attempt to walk her but it seems she’s afraid of the dark! So she’s constantly getting into trouble before sunrise. We don’t get out for some real running around off leash time until the afternoon. So she’s restless and bored. 

She is obviously best behaved when she’s mentally stimulated So my question is, how can I do something that stimulates her brain while at home? We work on some basic training and obedience but I feel like she needs more to “do”. She loves breakfast in her little sniffle mat for example. 

Thanks in advance for ANY advice you have!


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## rubicon (Dec 9, 2019)

I’m not sure about your exact situation, but I know exactly when you mean when the puppy is about to go to sleep. That’s when mine goes CRAZY. Super bitey. We’ve recently enforced a no biting rule. Not even a light or loving bite is tolerated. And he’s pretty good until that exact moment.

Personally when he starts acting crazy I find training him actually works. The pup LOVES being “employed”. It’s a good distraction for him. If I get him to sit, and do his obedience training and then play with him he will be too distracted by the “job” to bite. Not to mention challenges also tires him out mentally. 

It’s weird how little exercise he can get and still be exhausted right after obedience classes and just rolls over and sleeps after a little while. The challenge for us is actually making the training HARDER to keep him entertained. I think we’ll need to find him some specialty training classes down the line, he’s so smart.

One of the things our trainer is having us do is sit. Sounds basic, but the game is he’s not allowed to get up until we say “ok”. We started to slowly walk around him. He will want to follow. We reward him for being still. Then gradually we can throw his toys, drop all kinds of treats around him, dangle his tug o war toy in front of him, dance like a maniac, etc. yep. He’s not even allowed to “fetch” if we told him to sit first and didn’t explicitly give a fetch command. He loves this game though. Especially when I drop a lot of treats. Because if he wins, he gets to have ALL of them. 

If he gets up, he loses. It’s supposed to be pretty hard for a puppy. He’s dominating this game though. Next we’re wrapping meat in foil and putting it near him, and he has to remain sitting. Soon we’ll do it outside with distractions


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## gunnr (Aug 14, 2009)

The shark mode phase sucks!! Those teeth can be sharp. Our boy is just starting to put that phase behind him, but man did we have to get pretty stern about it.

As for the crate. No one likes their dog confined to the crate. We all want them out and about with us, but it takes time. Your puppy needs to sleep 14hours a day, so don't worry so much about it right now. Putting the puppy away, when you know she's over stimulated, or tired, is not discipline. It's management. I would rather see a dog spend a little more time in the crate, than be constantly yelled at, or physically over disciplined.

ASAP you should look at a soft muzzle for her when she's around the toddler. We all love our dogs, and I know that you do to, but the safety of the toddler has to be your first priority. A soft muzzle will stop the biting. They still have paws though, but that's a little more manageable. Don't believe for a second that a soft muzzle is cruel, it's not. It's just another tool to get you through this phase.


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## jlajcik (Feb 1, 2020)

Lucy Goosey! Such a cute name. Ours is Bruce... or Brucifer when he used to get into his biting mode! This one was super hard for us and we didn’t even have any kids to contend with. I had multiple bites that drew blood and ended in tears for everyone and fears about if he was normal or ever going to learn better. He’s seven months now and probably grew out of the biting phase by 6 months or so. He is a really lovely affectionate young dog, now. He’s also lost those sharp puppy teeth!

If you haven’t already, might be worth getting him into a puppy kindergarten class so you can learn some tricks from a trainer and get some support early. Some trainers do classes before 16 weeks which was really helpful for us. 💞

Things that did help us and most of which we learned in class were:

keeping his mouth busy with bully sticks, kongs, squeaky toys, ice cubes etc.
Lots of play time and socialization with other well socialized vaccinated dogs so that they start to learn bite inhibition from each other.
Time.
Crying ouch! When they bite you then getting up and ending all play (easier to do if they are tethered or in an xpen because if they can chase you, they will) .. I’ve read adults can do this for their younger kids. Ex: puppy bites child and mom cries ouch! And then separated the two immediately with a time out for puppy. We haven’t tried this so please ask a trainer if it’s a good idea for your puppy and family.
Crating them when they get over tired or overly mouthy and giving them a time out.
Trying to avoid wearing tempting flowy clothes.

Baby gates or an Xpen to keep the puppy separate from the kids might be helpful if you aren’t already using them.

Things that did not work for us and I don’t think are recommended[img= class=inlineimg]/images/smilies/frown.gif[/img]and which we did occasionally try in desperation)
-holding his mouth shut (he would bite us as soon as we let go)
-flipping him on the ground - he would again bite us as soon as we let go
-yelling at him or spankings (made him a little scared of the person but didn’t stop him from still biting them)
-squirt bottles (he thought this was a great game)

I imagine kids would be hard for puppies because they do all sorts of things that attract their attention. They are small, they move in quick jerky and interesting ways, and they make interesting often high pitch noises.

Little puppies that chase each other and then wrestle together will bite down often till they feel a hard surface or the puppy squeals and leaves. Often chewing on each other’s ears and faces. This is obviously extremely problematic with kids because they are likely to bite them hard in the face before they learn their own strength and bite inhibition. Might be worth while keeping them separate unless puppy is asleep and cuddly until he has grown out of this stage so as to avoid negative associations with your toddler.

Maybe someone out there has some more good suggestions specific to kids. a soft muzzle is an excellent idea if you muzzle train her.. We are still working on muzzle training with Bruce. He got his head stuck in a wine rack as a puppy and has been head shy since so we haven’t had much luck yet! 🙄 but I do wonder if that would have helped us too.

Good luck! You guys will get through it soon.


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