How Do You Deal With This Senestive Nature

[labgirl]

I would never hit my dogs. I am against physical punishment completely.

[sclevenger]

I don't believe in hitting them, but I'm not against a bop on the nose if nothing else is working. Though with Luna we are trying different approaches to things to avoid physically touching.

However, I know with the jumping and nipping at my daughter, we tried, stern no, removal, treats, and nothing worked, completely ignored us, after my mom swatted her nose, when she gets rough with our daughter all we say is easy now and she walks away. Now I'm not going to use nose bopping for everything just because it seemed to work in this case, but it didn't hurt her, she still loves my mom, and the behavior had settled some.

[seashel]

Please still be very cautious about trying it again though. A 'bop on the nose' might seem less severe than a smack on the rump but the nose is one of the most sensitive parts of a dog as well as being near the vulnerable eyes. It is probably the worst place to direct a physical 'caution' particuarly in a breed that is inclined to be head shy anyway.

There is a fine line to tread between teaching boundaries and teaching fear. You especially do not want Luna to associate being near your daughter with pain. Remember Luna is as much (if not more) of a baby as your daughter. It sounds as if she is simply wanting to play. Puppies do not realise that their human family is not like their dog family and our skin is not as tough as their coats. They have to learn this and it does take time. Personally I would not allow it to get to the point of being rough. Take things steady, let Luna gradually come up, have a sniff and reward her. Perhaps have a little gentle game while she is near your daughter, then take her a bit further away again, feed her or something else positive but try not to get to a point where the interaction becomes in any way negative. You also do not want your daughter to be put off the puppy because she is getting scratched! Speaking from personal experience of kids and puppies, both have limited tolerance thresholds so interaction between them is better on a "less is more" basis. They are also both prone to getting over excited very quickly and that is when accidents can happen. Preventing things getting to a stage when you need any kind of correction is probably the best course of action.

[sclevenger]

Oh yes. I agree. We don't plan on using that method again on her, we didn't use it in the first place. I was just saying how after it happened its made a difference, not that I want to do it again.

We have now started working with our daughter instead to say no when Luna jumps up at her, still with supervision. I've found the hardest thing is catching it in the moment, you almost have to treat the child like an object to the puppy for them to understand, so by having Hailey tell her no seems to be helping a lot in reinforcing Luna to be gentle.

But yes, we don't plan on having that happen again, I will admit though it gets hard sometimes, when she leaps up and grabs you, my first reaction is to reach out, lol. Her little teeth are like razors. lol.

[SheepOfBlue]

I think razors are duller

[Tagg]

I'm not advocating slapping and hitting but having watched countless bitches chastise their pups by giving them a growl and a nip hard enough to cause the pup to squeal, I don't think that a quick flick is going to cause all trust to crumble. Just remember that there are definate fear imprint times in a puppy's life, one being between 8 - 12 weeks and the other being between 8 and 10 months.
Tinsel snapped at the groomer and received a quick two finger flick under the chin from me. He hasn't done it since and he still thinks I walk on water. He thought about it at the vet's during his bad ear being examined and the vet growled "cut it out" at him. End of idea. I don't use this for rough puppy play, all pups are prone to it and I use a variation of "I am not going to play, look or talk to you until you cease", but I won't tolerate an adult snapping for any reason.
It's hard with children as they are prone to laugh or squeal which excites the pup more.