[Diesel and Lace]

Diesel has been progressing daily with everything. He has been around kids with a muzzle and without at this point but never unattended. He is drawn to kids and wants to lick them to death. He gets so excited that he starts to get mouthy with them. While it has not *yet* left a mark or hurt them I am concerned that as his excitement escalates he will lose that control and accidently hurt them. He is so happy to be around them his tail and butt are going so crazy! He starts with licking (which we do not permit him to do to anyone normally but adults can firmly tell him no which stops him but it makes the kids giggle which makes him more excited!) He clearly has no intention of hurting, being dominate over them, or trying to hurt them but a childs pain tolerance for a mouthy dog is a lot lower than that of an adult. Any suggestions on what to do other than just make him stay away from kids... It is possible to keep him away from kids but the kids not only love him he loves them too! (Kids ages he has been around: 8mos, 3yrs, 5yrs, 7yrs, 12yrs) All get the same reaction

 

[Mary Beth]

I would teach Diesel how to shake his paw (there are threads on this). So once he learns that. He can sit - each child comes up - gets a kiss (a lick) and then can shake Diesel's paw. Diesel gets a treat. Then for another activity, Diesel can fetch the ball. After that, Diesel needs to take a nap in his crate. The idea here is to teach Diesel other activities to do with children and also to make sure that he doesn't get overexcited.