First, I will say that I have been pouring over this site for months and I want to thank the moderators and members alike for the wealth of knowledge you provide. I am a huge fan of the videos and own several, so I kinda have a base of head knowledge. (Just enough to know that I know how much I don't know )

Now to my question...Can anyone post a link for any threads relating to toddlers and new puppy interaction? I've seen posts about newborns and older dogs, but I haven't found any for pups with toddlers. My daughter is almost two years old and I will be getting my new pup in about a week or two.

My daughter, Jordan, is pretty high strung as toddlers go and I want to know how much interaction the two should have. If anyone who has done this could suggest some supervised activities for Jordan and pup to interact safely and establish Jordan as either higher in the pack structure (if possible) or a person to be respected (ie. no biting, chasing, herding or jumping). I realize that a good portion of this is controling Jordan but I am hopeing they could have some controlled/closely supervised interaction.

I apologize if I repeat myself or ramble, I tend to do both. If anyone could post a thread or pitch in their $0.02 I would be eternally greatful. (I'm a pretty good sponge for info. so I'll take a whole $1 if ya'll will give it )

I will start by saying there is no way to expect any dog to see a two year old as higher than them in the pack. Heck my dogs don’t see our seven and ten year old that way. What you need to establish is that she is off limits when it comes to playing and chewing, just like you said!

The easiest way to do this is to start from the top and keep the puppy back away from her or on a leash. That way you can control the situation. At two, Jordan is probably just learning how to leave things alone, but having impulse control. Remember this, ‘cause if she keeps trying to play with the pup, the pup will keep trying to play with her! She needs to start to learn that she needs to leave the puppy alone, and the pup needs to learn to leave her alone.

Austin’s (just turned three) was more annoyed with my pup Hav than anything else. “HABIK, NO!!” was heard all the time. Puppies want to put everything in their mouths and toddlers generally don’t share well. You need to use redirection a lot and show the pup what is OK to play with. Austin was pretty much over the whole puppy thing pretty quick and ignored Hav most of the time until the pup had something of his.

Now is a great time to teach Jordan how to pet a dog the right way. Not on the head, but nicely on the back. On the head can work a pup up into a playful state (all those fingers around the mouth and the sudden movements). If that hyper state does happen, I would always stick a chew toy, or if none were available, my hand, into the puppies mouth to prevent those sharp teeth from causing damage inadvertently. She can also learn how to settle down around the puppy. Her high pitched voice and quick movements will make the puppy react and play the way it would play with a littermate.

The best way to do all of this is to keep the puppy on a leash and near you to prevent issues.

Hope some of this is a good start. I am sure others will chime in as well. Your parental instincts will kick in and help you (it is not quite as strict as with a new born and WAY easier than with an adult dog being introduced to a toddler), just err on the side of caution.

Thanks, that goes with what I thought. I didn't really think that pup would take her as higher in the pack, guess that was wishful thinking. I have already started Jordan with my parents Lab teaching her to "be nice" to the dog or slowly pet her back. And I was already planning to tether most of the time when pup is not crated. However, my wife is insistent that Jordan will play with the pup, but I can't get across to her that they should be seperated till both are a little older. I was hoping to find some safe/fun activity that my wife can do with them that would also reinforce the no nipping, chasing, jumping concept.

Welcome to Leerburg! What type of pup are you getting?

Puppies and young children can be a stressful combination, although there are numerous folks here who have little ones both furry and "bald" who should be able to give you some suggestions as to what they do to keep life bearable while raising multiple babies.

As you are doing, I think it is really important to try and set the situation up for success rather than lots and lots of corrections to the pup. A young puppy's natural inclination will be to climb all over a two year old, and with razor sharp teeth, they mouth EVERYTHING at this stage. No more than you would have corrected your daughter for putting things in her mouth when she was teething, someone getting annoyed at a pup for unintentionally hurting a child while teething is equally unfair. Maybe you could compromise with your wife that for the first several months the pup and 2 year old only interact when both of you are present. This way,one of you can focus on the pup and one can focus on the baby. If the pup starts to get wired up and acting a bit loco (they ALL do - even the perfect ones!) you could calmly redirect the dog without having to also deal with a crying, upset child.

You didn't mention planning on using a crate, but it is probably safe to assume you are - if not, give that serious consideration. My dog is now almost 11 months old and I do remember that the times when he was the worst behaved and frantic turned out to be times he was overly tired and needed some "down time" - so keep an eye out for that.

I hope this is a bit helpful. Best of luck with your new family member.

Definately crating, its just makes sense. I like the idea of both parents being involved in any interaction. I didn't think of that. I could use that time to pass on some of the knowledge I'm sponging from the site since my wife is not into watching Ed's videos and definately not into reading up on dog training and behavior.

I'm getting a Boxer pup, from talking to the breeder he seems like he's got alot of prey drive. And like I mentioned earlier Jordan runs and screams like no other child in the world. Boxers seem to be known for their energy and jumping. I guess that is what triggered my concern in the first place. It seems like it will be a good combination if a few years, but in the meantime I don't want any problems to develop that I will have to 'Unteach' later.

I think I have the plan now:
1 Only calm interaction
2 Both parents present
3 Crate and tether
4 Pup gets too hectic or excited refer to 1 and 2

Any additions corrections etc let me know. Thanks for the guidance!

I'll add my recent experience and note that it may or may not be optimal (probably not). I have an Australian Shepherd, which is a medium sized dog. At 5 months, she's probably only about 25 pounds. I also have a 2.5 year old daughter (and three older kids).

I keep Suzzie (the puppy) on a leash pretty much all the time. When in the house, she's always on a leash. I make sure that she doesn't jump on the kids. It happens still, but she gets a correction and I make her sit for the kids to pet on her. It's pretty high energy because all the kids want to crowd around to pet. I also crate for quite a bit of time, so Suzzie's interactions are limited with the kids.

However, in the back yard I sometimes let her off lead (mainly because she gets tangled up when she drags it around). She gets free roaming time in the back yard while I'm out there. The kids also play in the back yard as well. Games they do is mainly running and chasing and also some soccer and such. The kids also enjoy swinging on the swing set. We've always had a dog (this is the first time to have two), and we've always worked with the kids to be gentle and respectful of dogs.

The point of this post is that Suzzie has learned not to jump on my toddler more than on the older kids. My daughter loves to be around Suzzie in the yard and Suzzie really enjoys being around her as well. However, when Suzzie would jump on her she would give a pretty loud scream "NO" and cry and I would come over and pull Suzzie off and make her down. I've kept Suzzie's nails fairly short to minimize scratching damage as well.

This natural reaction by my daughter has taught Suzzie pretty well that jumping on her is a bad idea. My wife was out walking Suzzie last night and stopped by a neighbor's house to talk. They had several kids out in the yard who wanted to pet on Suzzie. My wife said that Suzzie was excited to greet the kids but stayed mostly sitting. She tried to jump on one of the kids once, but Carla corrected and Suzzie sat to be petted. The interesting thing is that Suzzie was especially careful not to jump on the youngest of the kids (who was about 3). In fact, she went into a down for the toddler without being prompted. Carla said she was very proud of how well mannered Suzzie was and I'm proud too.

Yes, if you read some of my older posts you'll see that I was frustrated with Suzzie for a while jumping on my younger girls. However, in hind sight, it didn't last that long. Suzzie's about 5 months now and (knock on wood) we've mostly broken the jumping thing. So that's only about a 2 or 3 month window that you have to be really diligent.

Your boxer will be a bigger dog faster. You'll definitely have to take that into account for how you let your kids and puppy interact. However, everything I've heard about boxers is that they are often gentle with kids when socialized properly.

Thanks Doug,
I did read your previous thread and its nice to hear the progress you've had. I guess I kinda should expect a few months of scratches and skinned knees. We get alot of those anyway. Plus Jordan's a pretty tuff kid and rarely cries when she gets hurt. With all this good advice I am thinking that my biggest problem might be teaching Jordan to be calm and gentle calm the puppy! (Jordan is my little monster)

 Quote: Josh Twigg

since my wife is not into watching Ed's videos and definately not into reading up on dog training and behavior.

Josh, with the fact that your wife doesn't want to be involved with learning about dog training and doesn't seem to see the potential problems with a young child and rambunctious dog, I can't help but wonder if this is the best time to be adding a dog to the mix?

I know that adding Falcon to our family, with no kids and both my husband and I making the commitment together, has still be a huge change in our lifestyle. The amount of time (training & playing), energy (training and playing) and finances (training, playing, vets, etc...) which have been devoted to the dog certainly have impacted the time and energy focused on other things going on in our lives...

Just a thought. I do know that would be a hard decision to make...

I agree that husband and wife need to be on the same page with the way the dog is raised. You will most certainly run into problems if the training and handling is not consistent.

My husband and I had our issues for a while about our differing opinions on how to raise a dog. After we started experiencing behavior problems with one of our dogs, he was much more open to my way of doing things.

OK, so I dont know kids from neucular (sp?) physics, but what comes to my mind is if you can teach the kid to ignore the dog when it gets uncomfortable for her, turn her back on it and cross her arms on her chest (the standard "im not paying you any attention til you calm down" thing) Or would this not work b/c she so close to pups size?

I also thought it was a bit strange that wify doesn't seem to want to "know" about the dog. Little concering in my book, puppy=infant.