Peterbilt has been doing very well with basic obedience. He is very solid on sit and down stays, including outside of dog-park fences (never inside), and outside shopping centers as people and shopping carts walk by. He does not pull on leash and will stay at my side on walks until i let him get in front to relieve himself or sniff around. He is solid with heeling and will come when called 100% of the time. I have the power of food DVD and he is very focused on me in almost all situations..

I take him to parks and on bicycle trails where he is also very solid.

The problem is when my five year old son joins me he goes nuts, and I mean nuts, he will hold a down stay but it he whines like it is killing him. If my son is on a bike or scooter he is starting to pull or run left and right at the end of the leash. Once my son gets within leash range he gets sniffed and then ignored but the dog is still super excited. As soon as my son starts riding again the same thing happens.
He is fine with my son inside and just pretty much ignores him.
This is probably my fault, actually not probably I am sure it is, because when Peterbilt was a bit younger we used to play hide and seek with my son where my son would go hide with a treat and I would restrain the dog, then let him go and tell him to find him and when he did he got the treat. Peterbilt got pretty good at this and could find him in big playgrounds by smell. I stopped when I noticed that while I was restraining him he was getting overly worked up (like I said, my fault).

Obviously I want to be able to take the dog and kid out without it being overly stressful on the dog and us, so I am wanting to start to desensitize him to my son.

I was thinking of tying him off with a big bone and letting my son just play around and out of reach until the dog just does not pay attention but I wanted to get see if anyone here had another suggestion or thought that was a bad idea.

Peterbilt is 7.5 months now. I have not tied him off and let him sit out of reach of me before. Should I get him used to it with me first or just let him start with my son and me out of reach.

Thanks in advance.

 Quote: Sean Thorp

I was thinking of tying him off with a big bone and letting my son just play around and out of reach until the dog just does not pay attention but I wanted to get see if anyone here had another suggestion or thought that was a bad idea.

Please don't do this. What you're most likely seeing imo is prey drive. When your son gets within leash distance I imagine he's at a stop, thereby making himself less interesting.

If you tie up your dog and let your kid basically taunt him on a tether it's as good as kids running by the fence line dragging sticks along the links. Its a fast way to get a kid bit.

If it were me I'd try having your kid walk behind you, keep your dog walking at a normal pace, and try to keep his attention on you. Then walking ahead of you only if he is able to handle that. If he does ok with that add the scooter, again behind you, normal pace. Then find a willing adult (like an S.O.)to match pace with you (I don't suggest this with kids). Then finally start letting the biker blow by you circle around, and blow by you again.

Work on your heel, work on your heel, work on your heel. You want his focus on you. Don't let your kid touch the dog on walks for now.

These are just suggestions, I don't have kids and I've never quite had this problem before. Maybe someone else has had something similar as an issue?

Hi Sean,
What worked for me was to work on obedience in the front yard with my 7 year old playing on the periphery, doing a variety of things. Riding his bike or scooter or bouncing a basketball, etc...

Once she was maintaining good focus with this, I had neighborhood kids join in playing with my son. My dog is fairly oblivious to kids now, as long as they are not too close.

One caveat, of course, is to keep your pup on a long line at all times, to ensure the kids' safety.

I generally don't walk w/ the dog and my son and expect to get much accomplished; I find I'm not able to focus well on either the dog or the 7 year old. That's just me, however. I'm sure there are folks here who are able to walk their dog and child successfully.

Ok will start with those. I may be wrong so I won't chance it but it does not seem like prey drive, any more than if a friend held my dogs leash and I walked away, I don't know what drive it is that would make the dog want to get to me but that is the drive I am seeing I think. Will start with walks and front yard obedience though as these seem very logical.