Puppy and toddler, biting, jumping

I have an almost 2 yr old person and a 9 wk old puppy. Gets kind of chaotic sometimes. Doing pretty good, my issue is jumping and biting. He has gotten better and not biting and jumping, and of course its expected, but he'ss a pretty big puppy. Any tips on training puppy not to bite an excited toddler? They play lots of fun games together, Kodiak only bites when they've been playing for awhile and are getting overly excited. I've been doing alot of mouth play with him trying to teach him good biting habits, but he bites hard when my son runs probably because he's moving so quickly. He does bite me hard sometimes too but he has gotten much better. It would be nice to be able to include Koen in the training, I heard of one technique the invisible puppy, pretending with child that puppy is invisible until he lies down, then give him lots of praise when he lies down and invisible again if he gets up. Seems kind of odd to me though, i dont need to teach him to lie down all the time, just not to jump and bite the little one....Any tips appreciated, thanks.

That's a tough age combination. I'd keep them separated until they're both a little older and calmer. Use playpens, xpens, leashes, whatever works for you to prevent physical contact.

Meanwhile keep working on the bite inhibition training and basic obedience.

....They get along great most off the time. There is no reason to keep them seperated, I watch them when they play. Koen is understanding of puppy, and the two of them are forming a really good bond. I see no good in seperating them, if it came to that I'd just have Kodiak attatched to my belt loop with a leash 24/7.

Puppy gets ignored until puppy sits. Praise, praise, praise, puppy jumps, puppy gets ignored. And yah, you are going to have to seperate the baby and the puppy until puppy knows manners. What breed of dog?

This tells me that the play sessions are probably too long. Puppies are easily overstimulated and don't know how to regulate themselves to take a mental break when they need to. So you can help the puppy learn this by keeping play sessions short, and breaking them up with a quick walk outside, a kong or bone or something to chew on by himself, a relaxing puppy massage (don't expect your toddler to be able to do this!), etc.

MAKE SURE that you're ALWAYS supervising the interractions between your puppy and your child. It's not such a big deal when the puppy is this young, but when he turns 5-7 months old he'll be different and it won't always be pretty. I know that a lot of people say that a puppy raised with a child will always be great with kids, but IMO this isn't always the case. You can't be too cautious.

This is a baby puppy. They don't have much inhibition at this age and are easily overstimulated. I would not allow play that involved your toddler running around..way too easy for a very young puppy to get far too excited. I would encourage calm activities and also do as everyone else suggested and reward for sitting/down/calm behavior from the pup.

great thanks people. he is a rottie staffy mix, something else too but i dont know what else. mom is rottie staffie, dad is rottie mixed something. (this was an accidental litter of my brother). i do notice kodi making concious choices not to jump and bite, he is learning quicker than i expected, i suppose when things get too exciting for him i could crate him. its where he can see all the action so hes not alone when hes in there except when were out. hes very good with his crate.

eta: I see this is a rather old thread, but I'll leave it just in case. I hope all is going well.

Children can NOT be chew toys to dogs, especially big, drivey working dogs such as yours is going to be. I agree that the ONLY interactions your toddler and puppy should have are totally 100% supervised by you and kept completely low key...no running, chasing, nipping or other rough play. The second the rules are broken, (regardless if it's the puppy or child breaking them,) playtime must be OVER immediately... and puppy is ignored for a minute. You can then try again. Repitition with the same consequences will teach them both appropriate ways to interact. Letting him continue to practice these predatory motor patterns, even in play is dangerous and contraindicated when interacting with humans, especially children.

Hey, yeah this was quite awhile ago. Kodiak is 5 months old now, getting neutered in a couple days, and gets along wonderfully with my son. They do fight sometimes, well my son will fight and argue while kodiak sits there with the same look in his eye his mother's got. Now that Kodi is older I see that he acts towards kids just like his mom does - and that gets more and more prominent every day. Which is what I was hoping for, sadie is an amazing dog with children - even seems to know the difference between younger and older children, even though she didnt grow up with them. They play and cuddle, and I'm impressed by how well he even listens to Koen. Koen can have his food bowl and say "Kodi sit!" and kodi will sit and wait patiently till koen says "good job kodi!" and puts his food on the floor. Does the same with treats. It is something else having a puppy and a toddler, worth every minute though. They get into trouble together, teach each other, learn from each other. What a terrffic doggy he is for our family

Thanks for the update! I have a 2.5 yo human and a 10 week old pup, and this thread was rather helpful! : )


Cheers! :>