Hi everyone. We live in NYC and just got our new pup last week. He’s almost 13 weeks old and such a sweetie. While I’m loving it, my 6 yr old and 3 yr old are terrified of him because he jumps and has sharp nails and nips a bit. We are working on both - the nipping has gotten better, but my kids are still hiding from him. My husband is losing patience and I’m nervous that If I don’t get him trained up soon, I’ll have to give him back, which would break my heart. Any thoughts on young kids and pups?

Also, hes chewing EVERYTHING and while just starting to pee on command, pooping is taking longer to master.

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Rome wasn't built in a day, and training a Vizsla puppy won't happen overnight.
Depending on your training skills, and your pups drive to play rough, it can take awhile.
Your breeder should have explained to you, about the little red shark phase. Especially with you having young kids in the house. Lots of time, and consistency are the only I've found to work.
I'm sure you will get some good advice here. But also speak with your breeder. As they should know their puppies, better than anyone else.

How can something so cute and lovable be such a menace? <G>


This is a common problem with V's and there has been much discussion about it. If you use Advanced Search (upper right ) on "shark" or "puppy biting" in the title you'll get lots of advice.

Fully agree with above.
Btw, one of our friends recently got a Landseer puppy (in the US not separated from Newfoundland breed, in Europe
Separate). They have done a lot of research in terms of what breed would fit their needs of being able to have presence and scare away possible intruders as they live on a country side but yet gentle with kids. Guess what, puppy is going thru the same shark attack phase and jumping up as we have mostly gone with our velcro, so they keep reaching out to us for advices and how to teach kids to deal with it lol.
Reaching out to the breeder is a great way in my view. Also attending a training as a family. Teaches human and dog a lot, for everyone`s benefit.

Good luck with your cutie, hope to see feedback about improvement, just as we have seen in some of the recent 1 year old bday wishes ones, great stories to read and follow back from where those puppies started.

Thanks everyone! Feels good to have a community to turn too. So how long does this shark phase last for? I have a trainer coming over next week to work with me and my hubby and then my daughter and I will start taking him to puppy school to get her involved.

Does anyone else have a city dog? Looking for tips on hope to keep him active and happy as a city pup - my plan is to run with him as often as I can once he’s older, but in the meantime, it’s hard to just walk and walk and walk - doesn’t burn off enough energy.

Also any other runners out there? When can I start to run with him safely? Vet said 1 year but that feels like such a long time from now!