Pouncing is harming my 2yo.

[luvanewf]

Hi all, I'm Katie and have a 14wk. Newfounland named Solomon.  I'm hoping some of you might have advice on getting him to stop pouncing on my 2yo.  For some reason he pounces and nips her more than the older children.  This is what happens, he will run up and knock her down then stand over the top of her and nip at her head.  I yell "no" then run over and pull him off and give him a time out in his crate.  Today he knocked her down and she hit her head on a cement edger in my garden.  I really want this behavior stopped because he could really hurt her.  I only allow her around him while I'm there but like today it happened when I turned my back.  How do I get him to stop.  We clicker train and I have been trying to click good behavior and teach the word "easy."  Any ideas would be fantastic.  Thanks!  Katie

[raygoza6n510]

I am so sorry about your little one.
Yes, Soloman will keep picking on your 2yr old! This is because of pack behavior! Your 2 yr old is the smallest and least dominant of the family and Soloman has in his several weeks with you and your family figured it out. We are going through this right now and have several different times over the last 12 years when we got a new pup or my family has gotten a new pup. Can you believe my 3 yr old is being chased by my brother-in-laws 4 pound Chihuahua!!! She has done some damage to my son. Plus Copa our 10 week old Newfie is doing the exact same thing as Soloman! I have been working with the pups and my son and have had some great results!

 Find a good treat that will stop Soloman in his tracks when he smells it. I prefer Freeze Dried Beef Liver treats by Pro-Treat ( other brands do not have the same reaction to them). Now put a 6foot leash/lead on Soloman. Have Soloman in sitting position and you on the end of the line. Tell your 2 yr old to run right past him when he bolts say LEAVE IT in a deep voice and pull him back, once in a sit position let him lick the treat. Repeat until he does not move and when he does not move give him the whole piece.

Now here is another situation and I know some people have a different opinion about this but I believe that in young pups a dominant roll is effective! Before our Newfie we have had Rotties and the same problem! The youngest child of the house is slammed to the ground and the pup standing over them chewing on their head! I help my kids roll the offending pup on its back I  tell them to say no in a deep long voice and stare them in the eyes until the pup looks away and relaxes. Now I only recommend this if you your self can successfully and comfortably do a roll.

Lastly this was takes a while and your son may be scared so only if he is ready because Soloman will read his fear and this will backfire. Use the treats and have your son train him to sit and do a down. You must help by using your hand first over your sons hand and only start with sit. Reward good sits and once your son pushes your hand away  Soloman will also respect Your sons authority because that pushing away of your hand has shown a dominant gesture towards you, the Alpha of the pack.

These are a few things I have done with my kids and may work for you. Every pup is unique and genetics play a big part in behavior so these may not work. I hope with all of these wonderful BPO members you find the right key to lock the bad puppy away!  I wish you  luck and keep me posted!
Monica   

[Leah-n-boy-os]

Well, Solomon is definately feels his oats. I'd say that he thinks he's higher on the food-chain than your little one.

Have you enrolled in Obed. Class yet? If not, I'd seriously think about it. Solomon's going to grow fast, better to train him when he's small enough to handle. You do NOT want a 125lbs steamroller on your hands later. (trust me!!) In the intrum, I would start the NILFF with him. (Nothing In Life For Free) Basically what this boils down to is, he gets nothing, be it food, attention, leaving rooms, ect. without performing some command. (Sit, stay, that sort of thing.) You can punch that in google and it'll being up all sorts of resources, also we've all spoken about it on this site, you can probably do a search and find info here.

Solomon seems a little young to be doing a dominance roll on, that can be a tad risky if you don't know what you're doing, you can end up hurting him, and that can leave you worse off than when you started.

I'm sure some others who've had similar issues will chime in as well. Best of luck to you, and don't worry, it'll get better!!!!

[ZooCrew]

To me, rather than a dominance issue, it sounds more like a rough play issue.  Yes, he does think your 2 yr old his equal and therefore is treating her as he would another puppy from the litter.  Puppies need to be taught the difference b/t appropriate play and inappropriate play.  They don't know instinctively to play with humans different than they would any other dog.

Trying to teach him easy is a great thing to learn.  I do agree that if you need to keep a closer eye on him to have him leashed to you at all times.  That way you can correct his behavior before he gets a chance to complete it.  If her running past him excites him, also see if you can teach your toddler to not run around the dog.  Is that going to be hard?  Most definitely, but if possible, it might help curb his behavior.

Another thing you can do is if you see him start to run towards her, distract him with some other toy for him to play with.  You could also try squirting him with water, although you might hit your daughter in the process.    Telling him "no" and then giving a time out is perfectly fine as well.  Provided he knows what he did wrong.  I'm not saying you do this, but in my experience I've noticed that alot of dogs out there don't know what the word "no" means.  They have to know what it means in order for them to know that when you say "no", they are doing something wrong and should stop.

You can even see if you can get your daughter to tell him "no" (I know alot of toddlers love to say "no".....lol).  I'm not sure how or if he would respond to that, but it's worth a try.

I think he just needs to learn that she is not a playmate for him to be playing like that.  It may take awhile to get him to understand, and you probably will have the occasional re-occurance, but overall it should be something you can work thru.  Good luck.

[luvanewf]

Thanks for the replies everyone, you've given me some great ideas.  I think one major problem is that my 2yo. is hard to understand.  The older girls will tell Sollie to sit and he does but she just is a little hard to understand yet.  I need to start using hand signals and I think that will help a lot.

     He also immediately rolls over onto his back if he sees me coming but I have never thought to have my daughter stare him down.  Might give that one a try.  And I do agree that I need to take a lot of time to teach him to not go after her and what is an appropriate way to play with her.

     Anyway thanks again to everyone for the ideas, I'll keep you posted on the progress, hopefully

Katie