ok so we've run into our first "problem" with our new pup Midas
Aside from all the good stuff to report about our new pup, we've officially run into our first problem with him and I'm not quite sure how to handle it?
The problem is he's nipping my kids a lot, most of the time it's no big deal with the two older ones (12 & 7 years old), but I've also got a 16 month old baby girl who is now getting rather anxious and hiding her toes and fingers when the pup is around her, he's never broken her skin at all or even scratched her skin but his teeth are needle sharp at this stage and it is fairly painful sometimes when he nips.
Also today my 7 year old boy was trying to take him out to go pee and the pup didn't want to go, (it's cold out and the pup hates going out) so the pup was running away and hiding behind furniture and stuff, my son finally caught him by the hips from the back to keep him from scurrying away and the pup turned around and nipped him real good on the hand, he made a small puncture wound on my son's hand that started to bleed, and my son did shed a few tears cause it hurt him quite a bit.
Now I know that Midas is still very young (9 weeks), but I'm feeling somewhat concerned about what to do here? I've taught him not to nip me, by telling him "no biting" loudly when ever he nips hard enough to cause pain, and after two warnings pushing his lip into his tooth a bit on the third warning to teach him it hurts, so now he does not nip me, he will often mouth my hand very gently and look at me like is this ok?
So he hasn't nipped me at all for more then a week, and we've had him just over two weeks now.
It's the same thing with my wife too, he rarely nips her, but the kids are getting nipped, and painfully sometimes, I can't watch him 24 hours a day to say "no biting" whenever he nips one of them, plus I get the feeling that even if I did manage to do that he would quickly learn not to nip them when I'm watching.. he's pretty smart.
Hopefully it's just a phase that he grows out of and we have nothing to worry about, but if that's not the case I'm trying to figure out how to rid him of this tendency to nip the kids before it comes to a head, because if he draws blood from the baby's (16 month old) hand one day my wife ain't going to be a happy camper that's for sure, plus I really don't want the baby to be afraid of him or anxious when the pup is around because he's hurt her.
I get the feeling that Midas sees me and my wife as the "leaders" of "the pack" and the kids as his new "litter mates" so they are "fair game" for nipping, he had quite a few brothers in his litter and they were constantly playing rough so maybe that behavior is carrying over into our family situation?
I don't know, it's like I have two dogs rolled into one, sometimes he's so, so, calm and docile and would never even muster enough energy to nip anyone, but then sometimes he gets worked up playing with the yorkie (my wife's dog) or with a squeaky toy or something and it's a free for all, keep your fingers and toes away or they will get nipped.
Is this normal? will he grow out of it? Should I just try and keep my kids away from him for now? Have any of you run into this problem with CCs? How did you deal with it? He's such a great, great pup otherwise so I really want to correct this behavior before it becomes a real problem.
thanks in advance for any suggestions..
Aside from all the good stuff to report about our new pup, we've officially run into our first problem with him and I'm not quite sure how to handle it?
The problem is he's nipping my kids a lot, most of the time it's no big deal with the two older ones (12 & 7 years old), but I've also got a 16 month old baby girl who is now getting rather anxious and hiding her toes and fingers when the pup is around her, he's never broken her skin at all or even scratched her skin but his teeth are needle sharp at this stage and it is fairly painful sometimes when he nips.
Also today my 7 year old boy was trying to take him out to go pee and the pup didn't want to go, (it's cold out and the pup hates going out) so the pup was running away and hiding behind furniture and stuff, my son finally caught him by the hips from the back to keep him from scurrying away and the pup turned around and nipped him real good on the hand, he made a small puncture wound on my son's hand that started to bleed, and my son did shed a few tears cause it hurt him quite a bit.
Now I know that Midas is still very young (9 weeks), but I'm feeling somewhat concerned about what to do here? I've taught him not to nip me, by telling him "no biting" loudly when ever he nips hard enough to cause pain, and after two warnings pushing his lip into his tooth a bit on the third warning to teach him it hurts, so now he does not nip me, he will often mouth my hand very gently and look at me like is this ok?
So he hasn't nipped me at all for more then a week, and we've had him just over two weeks now.
It's the same thing with my wife too, he rarely nips her, but the kids are getting nipped, and painfully sometimes, I can't watch him 24 hours a day to say "no biting" whenever he nips one of them, plus I get the feeling that even if I did manage to do that he would quickly learn not to nip them when I'm watching.. he's pretty smart.
Hopefully it's just a phase that he grows out of and we have nothing to worry about, but if that's not the case I'm trying to figure out how to rid him of this tendency to nip the kids before it comes to a head, because if he draws blood from the baby's (16 month old) hand one day my wife ain't going to be a happy camper that's for sure, plus I really don't want the baby to be afraid of him or anxious when the pup is around because he's hurt her.
I get the feeling that Midas sees me and my wife as the "leaders" of "the pack" and the kids as his new "litter mates" so they are "fair game" for nipping, he had quite a few brothers in his litter and they were constantly playing rough so maybe that behavior is carrying over into our family situation?
I don't know, it's like I have two dogs rolled into one, sometimes he's so, so, calm and docile and would never even muster enough energy to nip anyone, but then sometimes he gets worked up playing with the yorkie (my wife's dog) or with a squeaky toy or something and it's a free for all, keep your fingers and toes away or they will get nipped.
Is this normal? will he grow out of it? Should I just try and keep my kids away from him for now? Have any of you run into this problem with CCs? How did you deal with it? He's such a great, great pup otherwise so I really want to correct this behavior before it becomes a real problem.
thanks in advance for any suggestions..
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