Hello, we have an 8 month old border collie x staffie and 2 young children who we want to train together. the 8 year old is great with the dog and controls her really well, but unfortunatley she's too much for our 4 year old to handle. She jumps on him, and new visitors sometimes bowling them over! We cant leave our son with her for a second and I'm worried that she'll hurt him unintentionally, not to mention that it's unfair on him not to be able to play freely in the back yard; but I don't believe in tying the dog up all of the time either. She's very smart and responds really well in all ways to myself, my hubby and my older daughter; And i've started her very successfully on agility training; but she seems to know that our 4 year old can't defend himself and takes advantage of this. After having said this, We've all trained her on sitting for the bowl and she even does this for my son every time, but every other time she jumps on him!!! Any suggestions???
Hi Annama, I think you need to let your dog know where she ranks in your pack as at the moment I think she sees herself above your son. Practice the alpha techniques with your son. You could also try getting him to hand feed her. Please don't leave either of your children alone with the dog as children should never be left unsupervised, even with the most placid of dogs. As for the jumping a firm no and turning your back on the dog has worked with any jumpy puppies we have had in the past. Hope this helps and best of luck.
Thanks for the advice! We've tried turning the back but she just jumps on his back! There is no way I would leave her alone with him at the moment, even though she is still young. I didn't think of the Alpha training; I'll give it a go and hopefully get some better results!
No problem, I know how annoying it can be having a puppy that wants to jump on everyone and it can be quite embarrassing when visitors call :rolleyes: As a last resort, if all else fails, you could try giving the dog a short time out and she should soon associate the jumping with not being allowed with the family. She's a mix of two clever dogs, so it shouldn't take her long
