Help my 6 week old puppy bit my 2 year old

[selzer]

"Help, my 6 week old puppy bit my 2 year old."

Does anyone else think that this statment speaks volumes?

When my sister's little girls came over to meet Babs' litter, the girls were 1.5 and not quite 2. They had been adopted at 10 months and 1 year old. The puppies were nearly eight weeks old, and already they were too frightening for the elder girl to go in the pen with. But I had a stuffed toy for them and it was still an ok experience all around.

The next year when they met Jenna's litter, they were two. I put them on a blanket in the pen and then dropped the three week old puppies into the pen on the grass away from the girls one by one. This helped an awful lot.

Because the puppy has teeth and claws, we have a tendency to believe the dog is at fault if the child/puppy encounter is not positive. But you can reason with a two year old, you can tell them, and you can expect them to do what you say. A six week old puppy is actually more of a baby than a two year old is.

The good news is that the puppy will mature a whole lot faster than the child. Try to keep the encounters as positive as possible. The child should not be pulling the puppies hair and the older child should not be picking it up when it is sleeping.

I worry that with children and other dogs the puppy may be a bit much for your family. Sending the puppy back to the breeder at this point will not be terribly hard on anyone involved, canine or human. Waiting for the puppy to eight or ten months old is another story.

If you do choose to keep the puppy, I would train the older child right away, and limit the younger child's contact with the puppy until the puppy can learn Gentle. I use the words "Gentle with the Baby" and if I trained them to take treats gently from my hand using the Gentle command, it does help. If that doesn't work, placing the pup in its play yard (safe from the child) and in effect stopping the game helps. Pretty soon, the pup should be able to use your Gentle warning to be careful. But right now he is such a baby. I like a play yard wtih puppies more than a crate for this. Your two year old had a play pen probably at one point, think of it as a play pen for your puppy. The crate is a good tool for when you are not home, and for sleeping at night. But a play yard or x-pen is a little larger and more open.

Good luck juggling kids and dogs and a puppy.

ETA: keep the puppies nails trimmed and dremmeled as puppy nails can draw blood too and can make the encounter scarey and unpleasant for the child too.

Also, most dogs give a puppy a license to do just about anything for 4-5 months old. I would be a little leary of any adult dog correcting a puppy so young.