I have a four month old Yorkie and 4 children aged between 1 and 7.
One of the most useful commands we taught our dog was "off". We taught it him by showing him a treat in my hand, saying "Hedley, OFF" when he paws or tries to nibble my hand to get it. When he backs off and lays down, I open my hand to reveal the treat and say "take it". We had to do this a lot, but now when he starts to chase one of the kids and grab their pyjama or sock, we shout "Hedley, OFF" and he stops, then we praise him. If he grabs their toys we say "OFF" he drops it and we give him one of his toys. The children also give him treats and use the "OFF" command, but the younger ones just give him pieces of treat. The older ones like throwing a ball for him too, but they all like playing tug with his rope toy. It is useful to let the children feed him too as it gives him the message that they are more important than him. He likes to sit in their little Ikea armchairs, and I encourage them to say "down" to him if they want to use one of the chairs, but not just for the sake of it.
Another command we are teaching him is "Down" by putting a treat in front of his face, lowering it to the floor and saying "Down" and only releasing the treat when he lowers himself to the floor. We do this many times a day. Most of his food is given to him as training treats. Then if he is jumping up one of the children, we can shout "down".
He isnt perfect and sometimes gets it wrong, he has nipped them, but we expected this. We are teaching them all lots of dog rules too, like dont disturb a sleeping dog or dont disturb a dog who is eating or chewing a bone. If you keep at it they will be fine and end up adoring each other. |