# rough play



## jaimebpa1 (Nov 8, 2011)

I'm kind of upset right now so i hope this all comes out clearly! Olive bit my daughter's face and it left a mark. I know it wasn't an aggressive bite and i didn't yell at Olive (but it did make me angry). I'm having a hard time getting my daughter to understand that she can not try to kiss Olive when she is in "play mode". Olive is really, really rough with my kids. She only has one mode with them and it's rough play. I've tried to get them to stop playing with her when she gets rough, but it's not working. Is it ok to put Olive in her crate when she is chasing, growling, biting at my kids? She loves her crate and i don't want it to become a bad place for her. I've been having my kids start ro give Olive her meals hoping that it might change the way she views them. right now she has no respect for them and as far as she is concerned they are her personal play things!


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## jaimebpa1 (Nov 8, 2011)

Just want to say again that i know this doesn't mean she is an aggressive dog. I also know that my daughter caused the bite to happen. She needs to learn to respecct the dog as well. It just upsets me to see my baby hurt like that!


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## lady amanda (Nov 26, 2010)

Hi!
Don't worry...if you continuously train her she will be just fine, you do have to disipline her biting, yes it is just because she got over excited, but she can't think it is ok to nip the kids. Let's call it nipping...sounds less agressive.

There are things that you and the kids can do to stop her....we had a rough rough time getting lady to stop....but we did it! and you sure can to.

One thing you and the kids can do when she nips is to let out a high pitched yelp....to let her know that she hurt, you can do this whenever her teeth connect....this works for alot of dogs.

other dogs respond to you completely ignoring them when they nip. Stop the play imidiately, stand, and cross your arms infront of you and do not respond to her jumping or anything.

Other dogs respond to the time out, to let her know it is chill time. now don't yell, or disipline, but pop her in her crate for 5 minutes....very important not to yell at her if this is the method that you are going to use...you don't want her to think her crate is punsihment zone, it is chill out and calm down zone.


all dogs are different and some rewspond to different techniques....let me know how you get on with little Olive.

oh also...she probably views your kids as litter mates, or other puppies since they are so playful too...which is why she is rougher with them


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## wellerfeller (Jul 12, 2011)

Yes don't panic, the training here is probably more directed to the kids than the dog. If Olive is getting too much, end the play, don't wait for her to bite or do something she shouldn't. The trick is to stop the play just before it gets to this point. You may have to put kids and puppy in time out

If the kids won't listen then just remove Olive and tell the kids if they don't start listenng to what you say then there will be NO play time with puppy.

They will both learn though, eventually, Olive is not being overly aggressive just doing what puppies do.


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## Scarlett (Dec 15, 2011)

It sounds like this is quite normal, and we have had the same issue with Scarlett. 

I got it in the nose one day last week! It was my own fault for getting down too low, but I want her to know that she can't just bite when she gets too excited. 

We have tried yelping, and that doesn't work for us. Sometimes it will stop her in her tracks, but she will go right back. 

Putting her in her crate for a short time probably works the best for us when dealing with this. She just gets too excited, and this allows her to calm down a little. After a minute or two, as long as she is quiet, I let her back out and she is usually fine. 

Good luck!


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## MillieDog (Jun 1, 2011)

Olive see your kids as other 'puppy playmates'. Sounds like she's just getting over excited. Can you try getting your kids to play some calm quiet games with Olive, just so they can see its not all about rough and tumble.

I notice when my nephews come to visit they promptly wind Millie up. Even when they stroke her, its high energy stroking !! Whereas we stroke Millie with gentle strokes they rub their hands vigorously backwards and forwards.

Mo's given you some good advice.

Hang in there. It will pass.


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## tessybear (May 1, 2011)

Dexter was a terrible biter I didn't know what to do. Saying no made him worse. Excluding him worked a bit but when his adult teeth came through he completely stopped. Dont worry it will stop as he matures. Bonnie has never done it to us as she does it to Dexter instead!


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## Soo (Dec 16, 2011)

While two pups on one level is more difficult them playbiting the kids is one thing I havent really had becasue they play with each other. When the kids are playing with them its usually with tuggy toys etc so the dogs again arent biting the kids. Most of the time the boys and dogs spend together is snuggling. It may also be a lot to do with the nature of the pups we got. Both were the last of their litters to get homes so were the quieter less forward going pups. Makes them a lot softer and easier to train although I was expecting problems with the kids and pups getting too wound up it hasnt happened (big yet in there I think). 

All the advice given above is good. Its a case of watching that kids and dogs dont get overexcited to the point she bites and time out for both sets if she does.


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## Mogdog (Feb 6, 2011)

I haven't read through everyone's replies, so apologies if I'm repeating. Olive sees the children as playful littermates. How old are the children? Maybe you could get them to give Olive toys to bite/chew when she is like this. Maybe they could do a little calm play or simple training (treat for paw or sit) so Olive respects them as leaders instead of littermates .... this depends how old the children are of course.

The phase will pass anyway, so don't worry.


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## Rileypoo (Dec 1, 2011)

Oh Jaime, I feel for you because I remember feeling just the same a few weeks ago. I have three children 12, 9 and 5 and my 5 year old daughter found it really hard in the first few weeks (as did i!) It is really hard to tell yourself 'he's just a puppy' when your child is crying because they have been nipped. Sometimes the children didn't help, mine kept lying on the floor which made me cross as obviously the puppy just sees them a one huge toy! I did however start correcting Riley early on with either the 'yelp' (which didn't really work) a firm 'No Biting' which I still use now when he gets excited mainly with the children and what worked best for me was to hold his mouth closed while saying 'No' and on occasion I have also put his own foot in his mouth (I know probably not the best idea) but when he was having a "piranah 5 minutes" it definitely calmed him down and made him realise it hurts.
Always get the children to have a toy when playing with Olive so that they can substitite any biting on them for the toy and while it seems like an eternity while you are going through it, it does pass quite quickly.
Good Luck!!


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## MillieDog (Jun 1, 2011)

Ah just thought of something else, reading Traceys comment above reminded me.

We taught Millie to be gentle with her mouthing. When she was gently chewing on our fingers (a bit like a baby who feels everything with their mouth), we'd say Gentle, Good Girl. 

If she nipped too hard, we'd say Ouch, remove the hand. We also had a soft toy to hand at all times so that if she really was playing excitedly, we'd put the toy in her mouth and just stroke her.

Now when she occasionally gets over excited and tries to use her mouth too much, we just say Millie Gentle and she reverts to mouthing rather than trying to bit.

I'm sure once her adult teeth come in the nipping will calm down. But I can fully understand why you want to stop the behaviour in case it becomes the norm. 
:


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## jaimebpa1 (Nov 8, 2011)

Thanks for the advice everyone. I got busy yesterday and couldn't reply back. We've been trying the yelping and it really only works when I do it. Sometimes! When the kids do it it just gets her even more crazy! My daughter is drving me nuts though because she keeps putting her face up to Olive!!! My daughter is only 3 so it's not like she's doing this to disobey me. She's just really young. Twice last night I put a stop to play time and that seemed to help. By the time I let Olive back out of her crate she was calmer and the kids were calmer too. I'm going to try to remember to have them always have a toy in their hands when they play with her. I am always telling them to give her a toy, but if one isn't near then that doesn't help. It's all very urgent when you have a 3and 5 year old crying hysterically because they are being nipped at! 

I know we'll get through this and I just need to be consistent and calm. I knew adding a puppy to the mix would make things a bit crazy at first, but I know it will be worth it!


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## DONNA (Jan 7, 2011)

Im afraid its the children who have to be taught how to play with the puppy,my daughter is consently getting scracthed but she is playing with Buddy as if he's a doll .

I think because she is only 3 i would def suppervise play for now especially while the puppy is so young ,once their adult teeth come through the play biting tends to carm down.Prehaps you could teach her the correct types of games to play ,like teaching the puppy to sit with a treat,lie down ,roll over,sit and stay ,another game i would get mine to play would be for each of them to take it in turns calling Buddy get him to sit then treat ,or play fetch with a soft ball or toy.I would only play for 5 mins then have a break this way the puppy wont get over excited.


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## jaimebpa1 (Nov 8, 2011)

Thank you for all of the advice. I didn't mean to just abandon this thread, but my daughter and I have been sick for a week. Yuck.

We've been trying some of the suggestions and so far the only thing that seems to work is to firmly say no bite and get in between her and the kids. When this doesn't work i put her in her crate for a bit and that helps.

Now I just have to work on training my 3 year old. Not as easy as training the dog!


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