Information

[JeanellePaige]

I was sitting on the couch with our new puppy (3 months) on my lap. He was sleeping. I haven't made a proper intro about him yet so please don't judge him from this post, he really is usually a wonderful doggy.

Here he is: His name is Andy, but we call him Bubby and he is a Toy Rat Terrier and I got him for Brielle's birthday in January. He was free because we rescued him from an animal hoarder.



So, Bubby was on my lap and I had a plate of carrots with ranch dressing in one hand and a carrot with dressing on it in the other and my youngest DD comes in and leans down to kiss him and he starts to growl. He has done this before and I held his mouth closed and told DD to keep trying to kiss him and everytime that he growled I would smack his nose so he knew that he was NOT allowed to do that! He did stop and let her kiss him and was even wagging his tail. Well tonight though, since my hands were full and my mouth was full too, I TRIED to stop both DD and Bubby but couldn't. It all happened SO fast and I feel like such a BAD mommy because my DD got bit!! She has 3 little scratches under her nose and 2 on top of it. She was bleeding pretty good. I KNEW the dog was going to do it because I heard him start to growl but I couldn't react fast enough. I should have done something! I still feel like this was ALL my fault! I tried to train him but obviously did not do it well enough. I read all about little dog syndrome and we also have Cody our 2 year old Golden Retriever who does NOT ever bite the kids and he never plays too rough with the puppy either.
I guess I need some suggestions about the dog. I talked with DD about getting too close to his face, especially while he is sleeping, and on MY lap cuz I'm his "mommy". I told her that she HAS to start smacking him on the nose too. She just won't though. He will grab a hold of the bottom of her dress while she is walking and she won't even yell at him. She just doesn't want to be mean to animals, which is good, but I don't know how to tell her that it's not being mean, it is needed. I still am kicking myself for not being able to stop what happened. I feel awful. Please, any advice on what to say to DD or what to do with Bubby? Oh, I put him in his cage RIGHT away after he bit her and he is STILL in there now. He got yelled at pretty good! When should I let him out?
TIA.

[grirosa]

I have a dog, but he's been really friendly since we got him from the shelter. Though, comes to mind, that maybe you could get one of those training things that give a noise only heard by dogs, I have heard they are harmless, maybe your DD would be more comfortable with this kind of training? Just and idea. I hope it helps.

[CherryTat]

Oh, so sorry to hear that!!!!! It's hard training a dog sometimes, and you never know what a rescue dog has been through. The suggestion that grirosa made sounds like a good idea. What about calling the vet or animal shelter to see what they suggest? Is he usually jealous over you? How does your daughter feel about what happened? He is an adorable little thing!!

[JeanellePaige]

Oh, so sorry to hear that!!!!! It's hard training a dog sometimes, and you never know what a rescue dog has been through. The suggestion that grirosa made sounds like a good idea. What about calling the vet or animal shelter to see what they suggest? Is he usually jealous over you? How does your daughter feel about what happened? He is an adorable little thing!!

My poor daughter kept saying she was sorry!! I told her it is not her fault at ALL! He is usually not jealous over me, but if he is sleeping on my lap he does that. He is super loving to my girls and doesn't even bark at strangers. He even sleeps with them most nights and cuddles rather than sleeping with me! So, I have trained him to be ALL of ours, and he was still nursing when we got him, so we got him as a teeny tiny little thing. I will post a new thread with pics in a sec.
I will try that harmless dog noise thing grirosa suggested. DD will deff be better with that then the idea of having to smack him on the nose.

[letumom]

Awww - he looks so sweet.

It's been forever since I've had a puppy in my life. So no help from me. Hope your dd is ok soon.

[pawprints]

Jeanelle, not trying to overstep my bounds here but I heard smacking a doggie on the nose is not a good idea. From what I understand every time a doggie's nose gets whacked it damages some of smell sensors in his nose.

My advice is this: Your dd does not want to hit him, and it is a good idea to teach her how to teach him without having to whack his nose. Putting him in his crate for a time out is a very good idea. I think you should be able to teach him when he has done something wrong by speaking to him in a stern voice by saying "no biting" to show your displeasure and then immediately put him in the time out. I don't even think he has to stay in there for real long, just long enough for him to understand that his behavior was unacceptable. Some say that you shouldn't use their crate as a time out area, but I always found it to be the best way to show them you mean business. Once the whole ordeal is over and he is released from the crate, keep everything normal again. If you remain mad at him he won't understand why you are mad. The stern "no" and the time out have to come immediately after the bad behavior, so when he repeats the offense do the same thing again. Don't let him get away with it, consistency is important. After a while when he looks like he is going to nip, look at him sternly and say "no" or "don't even think about it" and he may start to think twice about it. When that happens and he doesn't nip get all excited and praise him for being a "very good boy". One thing we did with Cider and Boomer was teach them to give kisses. Then when they would get so playful and start to nip, as puppies will (that is how they play with their litter mates), we would tell them "no biting, give kisses" and after a while they would start to lick like mad instead of nip. When they started giving kisses we would get all excited and say "good boy" "good kisses".


This is just my advice from reading I've done and my own experiences. Hope it was helpful and enjoy your new little member of the family!

[AlwaysHappy]

I'm sorry your dd got bit and hope she's better soon. You're not a bad mommy, it was an accident. I agree with Pawprints suggestion on how to train the puppy not to bite. I have a little rat terrier and she's a sweetie.

[zanettac]

Too cute!

[scrap-o-holic]

You're not a bad mommy at all! It's SO hard for kids not to get right in the face of an animal. I have a little doggy too and I have to watch him around little ones. Since we are empty nesters, he's not used to them. It's important to train your puppy but it's also important to "train" your little one. Puppies have boundaries too. What I do when Reece is not behaving the way I want him to, I will get up and put myself between him and whatever or whoever he's misbehaving to. It's all about letting him know who's the leader of the pack......all too often he likes to think he's the leader! LOL

[JeanellePaige]

Jeanelle, not trying to overstep my bounds here but I heard smacking a doggie on the nose is not a good idea. From what I understand every time a doggie's nose gets whacked it damages some of smell sensors in his nose.

Not overstepping your bounds at ALL!! I asked for advice, and I THANK YOU! I never knew that about their little noses. Now I feel bad about THAT! He gives kisses ALL the time, even tries sticking his little tongue up my nose, lol! He is my "baby" but I try my best not to let him think that he is, lol. We spoil him a LOT, but I'm going to try the idea of his cage. It's not a crate, I don't do crate training, he has full run of the house and even our beds, but he is not allowed to sleep above our heads or jump on the couch unless we tell him he can. His cage is a travel type thing for cats actually. He spend his first month sleeping in that right next to me on the couch. He hasn't used it in weeks though so that's where I stuck him in time out.

I just woke up and he is in sleeping in the arms of the DD that he bit. Although when I looked in, he looked up with a worried look on his face like I was going to yell at him. I just walked past and let them be.

[AnnOminous]

The problem is he did not get training at an early age, so you are playing catch up. Wacking on the nose is not right. You need to give him a little thump on the side of the mouth (like you would a watermellon to see if it is ripe) or you need to actual grab his jowls and give a little shake if he is big enough. You also need to learn how to do what is called the alpha stare down and the alpha roll over. Now these techniques can be overused and they are most effective on small puppies. The time to do it is now. For a verbal correction, the "ank" sound is actually better than no. The ank sound is basically an imitation of the "wrong answer" buzzer on game shows like Jepardy. Dogs go by tone of voice more than actual words. You can't do the ank sound in a sweet tone.


Your daughter is another problem. She is going to have to learn to discipline the dog and tell him no or she will always be getting treated badly by him. You need to do the alpha stare down on her and get her to do what mommy says!

[sugar_crystalz]

Aww.. sorry that happened!


I just try to teach my kids to stay away from our dog's face/ head. Even if OUR dog doesn't bite there are so many that do that I just want them to know to stay away from that area.

[pawprints]

Jeanelle, not trying to overstep my bounds here but I heard smacking a doggie on the nose is not a good idea. From what I understand every time a doggie's nose gets whacked it damages some of smell sensors in his nose.

Not overstepping your bounds at ALL!! I asked for advice, and I THANK YOU! I never knew that about their little noses. Now I feel bad about THAT!

Don't feel bad about any of it honey! You are not a bad mommy because your dd got bit, and you are not a bad doggie mommy because you didn't know about the nose. You are asking for advice on how to deal with the situation, and that shows how much you care.

[PezKat]

I know cat discipline but will let the dog people handle this one, lol! I'm guessing 2 of the main things that work for cats (spraying w/water or snapping fingers) might be more playful than punishing for dogs. As for your DD, though, have you tried explaining it's like when you discipline her? Obviously methods may differ but intent & result would be similar & maybe she could understand that.

[1momma]

I am sure it comes from his previous situation with the hoarder. Maybe he would have to fight for his food or attention?? It is so hard to tell what they have gone thru before we get them and so sad.




Your a good mommy it was just an accident.