[Bernie.B]

Little Aldo is now 14 weeks old and doing pretty well for the most part. His biting on things has eased up when around me or my wife, but is relentless for some reason when around our 13 year old son. I think initially he was not giving the dog enough positive attention and now the dog has learned to get it by any means necessary. We talked with our son about making sure that he is enthusiastic when dealing with the dog, and shows in his body language that he is not afraid of getting bit, but Aldo is not giving in. He has tried putting the dog on his back and holding him down until he is calm, but then as soon as he lets him up, he is right back into attack mode. Any suggestions on how to deal with this would be appreciated - this dog was supposed to be the son's buddy and he is not bonding positively for some reason...he is getting frustrated because the dog just wants to attack him.

 

[Crazy Kian]

how often do they interact? does your sone walk him, feed him, take care of him?
perhaps he needs to just hang out with him more, supervised of course.

just a thought.

 

[Bernie.B]

Well, he hasn't been paying "enough" attention to him and now that this pattern has developed, it seems like it is going to be even harder to get him to bare with it and try to turn the dog around. I think the dog is seeing him as an easy mark now and I don't know whether to just stick with the boy trying to be nice to him and engage him with playing and tolerate the biting hoping it will wear off, or have him show the dog "who the boss is" in some way...I'm hoping that maybe the two of them going to obedience training will perhaps bond them and maybe the trainers there will have some insight on the issue. It is just very disheartening having this problem because I feel like I cannot leave them alone together without a conflict taking place! Ugh!

 

[madaboutvizslas]

Their was a UK TV series by a woman dog trainer called Victoria Stillwell; she drives a little reconvertable and wears black leather! Anyway I digress. However one of the episodes was about a family with exactly your problem. Maybe you should try and find this. It may be online. I can't remember exactly what they did but it worked.

My wife thinks the show was called "Its me or the dog".

Good luck.

 

[bounce]

Well, he hasn't been paying "enough" attention to him and now that this pattern has developed, it seems like it is going to be even harder to get him to bare with it and try to turn the dog around. I think the dog is seeing him as an easy mark now and I don't know whether to just stick with the boy trying to be nice to him and engage him with playing and tolerate the biting hoping it will wear off, or have him show the dog "who the boss is" in some way...I'm hoping that maybe the two of them going to obedience training will perhaps bond them and maybe the trainers there will have some insight on the issue. It is just very disheartening having this problem because I feel like I cannot leave them alone together without a conflict taking place! Ugh!

I view this as a pack order issue. Your pup is trying to move up in the pack, and the child "playing" with the pup is giving opportunity for this rather than setting the child's stature as an alpha character who controls resources. I would suggest starting making it the child's responsibility to feed the dog and not to do so until the dog has calmed down.

 

[Lillasar]

I agree that it sounds like a pack issue. At Dog Obedience, the trainer recommended not only that I feed our dog but do so, biscuit by biscuit, by hand, for two weeks. Her rationale was that he learns that I control the food absolutely. I also practised the 'leave' command during this and only fed dinner as breakfast was left out on our way to work.
It isn't a complete cure but Graeme understood that I am before him in 'the pack' and most of the jumping/biting behaviour towards me (when on walks and I lead him away from other dogs which was when it was happening - as if he was acting out because I wouldn't let him get his own way) has stopped.
I also got my 6 and 4 year old niece and nephew to feed him by hand too so to try and preempt his dominant behaviour towards them.
It helps if you're feeding dry food in reasonable pieces of course. In saying that, it does take 10-15 minutes.