Hi
Our almost 6 month boxer pup, has been very mouthy from the beginning. We are a family of 2 adults, 3 Boys 11, 13 and 16. Whenever he mouthed somebody, I would redirect him onto his chew toys, or play tug of war with him, to show him what he can bite. I also told him "No biting" or yell "Au" when it got to much and he bit to hard. All this worked very well for me, he now will still mouth me very much, but he knows not to bite to hard on me. For my kids it's a different story, when they sit on the carpet and he is in a play mood, he will jump at them, doing this boxer thing with his paws and gnaw and nip them. I showed the kids how to correct him, and to say in a very strict deep voice, no biting. Or to yelp. And if he doesn't stop to remove themselves or put him in the crate for a while. This approach has made it more tolerable to my two older ones, and even reduced the biting quite a bit, but the youngest has become the other play puppy to our Boxer. Our dog will play with him, just the way he would play with another puppy, which includes jumping, lunging and nipping. Part of it is that my youngest sons body movements encourage it to some extent, he will have upward arm movements,
run backward away from the dog. I'm working with him on that. I also showed the boy how to redirect his playing to some permited item. Also he is a very small 11 year old with such a soft voice and so when he snarls at the dog "no biting" it just doesn't impress the dog very much. Aside of keeping them completely seperate, which really isn't an option there the dog is an indoor dog only, and I can't ban the poor kid from parts of the house, he also loves the to play with the dog. Does anybody have any ideas what else to do. When I see it happen I will tell the dog to mind, but I can't be around 24/7 and the kids are in the house all day because of our homeschooling.
I don't want it to get worse and have the dog bite the kid, or do you think he will grow out of it? He does sometimes pinch pretty hard, no blood yet.
Any ideas??????

I have an 11 year old stepson who is small for his age and a German Shepherd who will be 1 year tomorrow. My stepson is neither large enough nor strong enough to physically control Krieger. We handle the situation in a couple ways. The dog is always supervised with any child. If I am not nearby then my dog either comes with me or goes in the kennel. The other thing is that Goeffrey is never allowed to do a certain type of goofing around with the dog. This includes things like arms flailing in the air or running away from Krieger. In other words things that will engage Krieger's prey drive. Lastly Goeffrey works on simple commands like sit and lay with Krieger. While Goeffrey does not have the strength to force Krieger to do these things, Krieger works willingly for treats. If my dog does start to get rowdy he is corrected and then put in a down position to calm down. I hope this helps. My dog now outweighs my stepson but is very gentle with Goeffrey.