[Maddiedalsing]

Okay so me and my family just got our first dog, she’s a 9 week old husky/heeler mix. She has all that puppy excitement and energy and the puppy biting and jumping I keep hearing about, and right now she’s little so it doesn’t hurt me, but I have a toddler. I’m wondering what the best way is to train her to be gentle with my toddler, with the biting and jumping, before the puppy gets bigger and actually will be able to really hurt my daughter. It kinda scares me, I don’t know what I’ll do when our puppy is bigger but won’t stop jumping and biting and hurting my kid, I have to figure out a way to teach her now because I don’t think we’ll be able to deal with my daughter getting hurt all the time. Now my puppy seems pretty smart so far, she is pretty much crate trained for now and will only cry when she needs to pee, but it’s probably because I made her crate/bed SUPER comfy, I have treats and training clickers, just need to know what to do. I do the toy distraction every time she’s biting, like EVERY time, but she still tries to get my daughter and me still, of course. I also keep hearing the biting is something they just grow out of, but the jumping I’m not so sure. Another thing I’m going to have to figure out is the leash pulling she does when I take her out. Any advice on training her not to do that too?

 

[parus]

You can mitigate the biting and jumping somewhat by making sure she gets enough mental and physical exercise, rewarding polite behavior, and putting her to bed when she's overtired. But any puppy is going to nip and jump, and both huskies and heelers play rough. The way little kids shriek and run also triggers a dog's instinct to chase. Honestly, you are probably going to have to just keep them separated most of the time.

 

[pandora]

You might also start training your daughter.. Not to squeal, not to fling her arms in the air or run if the puppy gets playful.. These are things that really excite dogs and puppys in particular .. As I said in another thread my dogs have been trained not to react to the parrot but a visiting child who squeal and ran every time the dog sniffed in his direction almost caused a riot as the dogs reacted as if they had spotted a rabbit..The dogs were told to go to bed and the child was firmly told to sit down be quiet and leave the dogs alone...

 

[pandora]

You might also start training your daughter.. Not to squeal, not to fling her arms in the air or run if the puppy gets playful.. These are things that really excite dogs and puppys in particular .. As I said in another thread my dogs have been trained not to react to the parrot but a visiting child who squealed and ran every time the dog sniffed in his direction almost caused a riot as the dogs reacted as if they had spotted a rabbit..The dogs were told to go to bed and the child was firmly told to sit down be quiet and leave the dogs alone...

 

[3GSD4IPO]

The first thing you should have done was to research both Husky and Australian cattle dogs BEFORE bringing one home to live with a toddler. ACD's (or Heelers) herd and bite to make herding happen while Huskies are dogs that have been bred to be independent and pull a sled.

Puppy is doing what puppies do. Toddler is doing what toddlers do. Keep them separated with gate, crate, fences.. train them separately. This is going to be a LOT OF WORK on your part as both the toddler and the dog require a LOT of time and they need that time with YOU and not with the other present.

 

[Knute]

Yes, both the dog and the child need training.

The dog training can begin with you. Don't allow the dog to jump or greet anyone without being calm. There are many techniques to accomplish this goal. My dog is always excited to see me, even after a short outing to take the garbage to the curb. I ignore him and give the blocking hand signal, when he calms a bit, then the SIT command. When he sits and stays on his bottom, then he gets pets and greeting.

The child needs to be protected with you intervening. The child needs to learn the steps to lead the dog to calmness and greeting. Above all, as Pandora said. Teach the child not to squeal, run or flail about. These actions will only excite the dog more by tapping the prey drive. When you intervene this will send a message to the dog about the "pack order" of the home.

Before each training session, be sure to take the dog for some exercise. Burn off some of the dog's energy. Then the dog can more easily focus on training.