7 Month Old German Shepherd Nipping at The Kids

mom23boys

I've read that a dog needs to "know it's place" in the family and know that she can't rule the kids. Is this true? I feel like it will be confusing to her to have 5 people in a house all training her. It seems my husband and I should be the leaders, but what is the kids job in the process of training a puppy?

I do think it's often confusing for any dog to have multiple people teaching them, especially a young dog like yours.  I generally advise people that most training should be done initially by one person.  No two people will have the exact same timing, phrasing, tone of voice and the consistency needed when teaching.  I always try and emphasize the difference between teaching and training.  Once a dog has been taught the basics, training should be an ongoing process for most of the dog's life.  Dogs are often corrected for things that haven't been thoroughly and correctly taught and in many situations, that sets the dog up for failure after failure. 

Dogs, like people, respect "leaders" who are fair and consistent.  Allowing a dog to do something sometimes and correcting it at other times is unfair and confusing. Dogs should be taught that the resources (food, toys, playtime,etc) they want and need come from the humans and this is the key to training dogs.  You (adults) control these resouces and use that control to teach the behavior you want.  Consistency in rewarding the desired behavior and not rewarding the behavior you don't want is vital.  This is where the NILIF concept can be so helpful.

The kids' job in training the dog depends on the age of the kids and your ability to closely supervise their interactions.  Your children need to understand that you are in the process of teaching the dog how to behave.  Their role in that process probably needs to be limited to understanding (if they're old enough to comprehend the concepts) that the dog is learning all the time and they can be teaching the dog bad habits without realizing it. 

 I think whether or not your kids can train her will depend on their ages. Like was already said, yes, the initial teaching should first be done by an adult. If the kids are old enough to do it, they can train under adult supervision. Of course, there are plenty of children who handle dogs in various sports, so children definitely can train and work with a dog. I took one of my dogs to class once where one dog was being handled by a child, probably between 10-12 years old. I believe one of the places I train at sometimes offers a class, and has offered a camp for children between 8-13, where the children are handling their own dogs. This isn't something for every dog, and not every child is capable of it. For camp, I think they only take dogs who have been there before for boarding or training, and they will have to see the child/dog pair first since the parents leave. If the child has the maturity to do so, and the dog can be trusted with the child, it can be very good for the child. Of course, you know your children better than anyone on the internet can know them, and you are going to be a better judge of whether any of them are capable of this.

Even if your kids are very young, they can be taught very basic skills to interact with a dog. My niece is 14 months old, and even at 14 months, we are teaching her how interact with the dogs. This means gentle petting, not on their faces (as like many babies, she will try to pet them by flailing her hands around in their faces). No touching the crates when the dogs are in them, never take things from the dogs, no walking around with food (they wouldn't pester an adult walking with food, and they probably would leave her alone, but I will not tempt my dogs by letting a small person run around squealing while carrying food), never ever follow the dogs if they walk away from you, or approach them if they are hiding. My dogs will go away from her if she is being annoying. They'll go to their crates, or they'll go somewhere else away from her, or anyone who is bugging them. I reinforce their good choice to go away from someone by making sure that person doesn't continue bugging them.