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Originally Posted by Cichowm1  Yes, So the trainer did have us do daily training sessions with him. Sit ,stay come, Fetch. They also said do not let him on furniture anymore. Also he was neutered a few months ago. The biggest thing is my 6. Year old and ten year old get nervous when he is nipping and that gets him going. We do walk him every day too , but my oldest will do it 2x a week and we do it the rest. The one thing I read was having a separate time out crate for him when he's bad. What do you think. Also how much time should we work with him a day on the sit stay , down and off commands?... He knows them and does them very good every time now as it is. |
OP you have gotten a lot of good advice. Of course your kids get nervous when he is nipping them, I would too!
A separate brief time out in a crate is good, and can be done effectively.
And what another OP said the kids also need to be trained. But first is separation, and 100% supervision when the kids and the dog are somewhat free together in the same room.
In house; let us say you want to cook dinner, I find that all dogs love to be in the kitchen with Mom when she is cooking, and btw so do the kids
Now tether the dog to you. That means your dog is leashed in the house, with the lead around your waist. Instruct the boys no running, no jumping, no squealing etc. They the kids can walk in and out of the kitchen or sit at the kitchen table and talk etc. Use a halter on the dog please. Now your job is to along with making the supper, keep watch on the dog. He will have to follow you as you move through the kitchen doing your making food tasks. Give the dog the command to SIT, treat him for obeying. Then ask one of your older children to just walk by you and the dog. Ignoring the dog and you. If your dog goes to interact with the child especially in an excited way, say a firm NO, give the command to SIT again. Treat the dog if he sits. Have your son walk back, and if the dog ignores the child treat again, and say GOOD SIT. It will take many many repetitions of this.
This is only one scenario. But it is a controlled one. Both the children and the dog need to learn how to inter-act with one another.
One of the greatest keys to training I have learnt from my mentor, is that reward and discipline for the dog need to be as quick as possible! That means almost as if you need to be prescient. Let me give you a for instance, and this is with a very large breed dog. He was still a young dog, about your dogs' age, and despite much socialization and walking around and such, he disliked bikes, anyone on bicycles zooming by. So he would lunge and bark and basically be a bad doggey citizen with any-one zooming by us on a bike. My trainer and I set up the situation, in an area we knew multiple bicyclists would be passing us by. A relatively narrow sidewalk trail, when I heard a bike coming up on us, we stepped off the trail, I quickly put Magic in sit, and as that cyclist zoomed by I immediately corrected with a quick leash correction Magic who was just Lifting off his sit. It took about two weeks, and bingo, no more unacceptable re-action to cyclists zooming on by.
All this to say it can be done! Just be patient and can I say stubborn too?
Your heart is in the exact right spot. You care for your children and your dog. That is why you are here asking for advice.
Trust in the process. Be dedicated to it. Rewards, discipline, training of all will give you and your family a wonderfull family pet.