new puppy with lots of issues

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graciedoo	new puppy with lots of issues		Lead	[-]
Posts: 1 12/30/2008 6:47 AM	Tags : None hello, our family has a beautiful female blue merle dane puppy (8 weeks now) in our home for two weeks. we searched long and hard before deciding on getting a dane and just knew it was the right choice. we have a four year old son who is a rough and tough little man. he has been playing very rough with gracie doo since we brought her home. the first week we noticed the mouthing and biting, then she began growling. this has now turned into growling the moment he gets close to her. when she wants to play she is playful, still rough mind you with the biting and pawing. i am very cautious when they are together for fear of one or both of them getting hurt. we find ourselves scolding our son every time he plays with her. we have sat him done and tried to explain that she is a puppy and she has to be treated gently, but remember he is four. we have even spanked him for hurting her and then he cries and says he is sorry but low and behold does the same thing again. yes he is a bit defiant. we have even threatened to give her away and of course the crying and pleading insues with promises of not hurting her again. when he is being gentle she will be the agressive one which of course provokes him to return the rough play. this is our first puppy and grated opting for a dane stills seems right. we love her and want her in our family for many years, but need some guidance in settling her and if there are suggestions for our four year old....well i'm open to that as well!!! also on our first visit to the vet we were told that she has a defective heart and was instructed to return her to the owner..but we are now her owners and will do our best to care for her and love her as long as we can. i'm hopeful that someone can be a support for me and guide me into becoming a happy dane mama!
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fotodanes		#1	[url]	[-]
Posts: 97 12/30/2008 10:27 AM	It sounds like your puppy now thinks your son is a littermate. My best advice is to get a trainer to work with you guys ASAP. The bigger she gets, the bigger the problem will become, so don't delay. Proper training and positive socialization is critical during a puppy's development. See if you can find a good puppy kindergarten class. Do not let your son rough house with the dog at all. Find some appropriate ways to allow puppy and child to interact - maybe some fetch, feeding her some small treats, tug, or even have your son watch her around the house on a leash. >>on our first visit to the vet we were told that she has a defective heart Do you mean she had a heart murmur? Does your vet have a lot of experience with cardiac issues and/or giant breeds? Some murmurs are grown out of, others are more serious. Call your breeder and discuss with them. If there is truly a cardiac issue, they need to know so their breeding program can be modified. You would also be well served to see a cardiac specialist when the puppy is older, so you know how/if you can address any potential issue. Bev
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bnopp		#2	[url]	[-]
Posts: 157 12/30/2008 10:28 AM	Welcome to the forum! You will find lots of terrific information here, so please do continue to visit! Sounds like you have your hands full. Do you use a crate for your new pup? If so this will help with providing a "safe" place for your new baby where she can unwind and rest. With a child as young as your son I would suggest that the pup and he always be supervized when the pup is loose. This may seem difficult but that is where the crate can be very helpful. Try and establish a schedule for "pup play times" specifically for your son and graciedoo several times a day where the focus can be learning how to play with each other and perhaps some training with your son and the pup with "sit" "stay" etc. I would suggest these times be short ( 10-15 minutes) several times a day and if either party becomes too rough the session stops. Both 4 yo's and puppies are easily excited as I am sure you know! As play is going well I would reinforce both pup and 4 yo positively. You can even add a few small treats intermittently for each! As far as mouthing is concerned this is very normal for a pup that age, however NOW is the time to let graciedoo know it is NOT acceptable. When she mouths ANYONE a stern "NO" along with immediately removing your hand/arm etc. If she tries again try "NO" as well as turning away from her or standing up and tucking your arms into each other so she cannot get ahold of them then turning away from her. If she persists I would go through the process a third time then place her in the crate or if you do not have a crate place her in a seperate area where she cannot acess you directly but you can see her. Kind of like a time out. Under no circumstances would I allow the growl. Immediately interupt this and seperate her from your son. She could perhaps be trying to assert dominance already as far as your son is concerned. Also consider offering graciedoo a chew toy to show her that is what you chew on, not people! Consistency is important so try and use the same process for anytime graciedoo mouths anyone including yoursewlf and your husband. This will benefit graciedoo but also your son as he sees that all three of you are handling the situation in the same way. Also consider puppy training classes for your pup. You can find these at the local PetSmart or with a trainer. I am sorry this is long but perhaps it may help. There is alot of information here on the site re: behavior and puppies. Just look at the topics at the beginning of each category and click on those that are helpful to you!What you are experiencing is very normal and it is good that you are looking for solutions. Good luck! and keep us informed. : )
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2GR8DANES		#3	[url]	[-]
Posts: 303 12/30/2008 10:41 AM	Kids and Dogs - Rules, Boundaries, and Limitations! IMHO, I believe the issue is not your pup. Just like your pup, though, your 4yr old needs a ton of repetition and reinforcement. If he continues to play rough with your pup, your pup will not like him...your pup will associate him with rough play, and bullying all the time and be aggressive with him. You have to give your puppy much more leeway than your 4yr old, after all your pup is still just a pup and 8 weeks is awfully young to expect anything from him except poop and pee. I cannot offer any advice for dealing with the 4yr old (that's why we have Danes) except for what I do with the kids I coach football for...run 'em until they can't run anymore...LOL. I would definitely make sure all encounters with your pup and your 4yr old are highly supervised. Let him "earn" puppy time by showing how gentle he can be. Each time he does a good job being gentle he gets some more puppy time next time. The important thing is that you get the 4yr old trained soon since the Dane will quickly be twice his size and will not stand for the aggressive play passively. Also, a puppy that learns children play aggressively will be an adult dane that views children as aggressive players, and that won't be good. The thing you can work on with your pup is the biting. Right now, and for the next several weeks, your pups only way to test his world is with his mouth. You can show him what is appropriate and what is not. There are a bunch of posts out here at AAGD about "puppy biting" and "mouthing". I would make sure YOU are disciplining the mouthing behavior and not lettying your 4yr old copycat your discipling the dog...he will not understand the boundaries of what you are doing. You might try a neoprene muzzle for when your pup and 4yr old play...just an idea. Bottom line is that this is probably more about the 4yr old than it is the puppy. The puppy is just being a puppy and needs that chance to develop. Yes, the 4 yr old is just being a 4yr old, but as soon as you bring a dog into the mix, now you have to teach your 4yr old how to be a 4yr old with a dog/puppy. The puppy gets to be a puppy. You might also check out www.leerburg.com for an interesting article on kids, dogs, and biting/mouthing: http://leerburg.com/dogtrainingebooks.htm Shawn Last Edited By: 2GR8DANES 12/30/2008 10:45 AM. Edited 1 time.
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graciedoo		#4	[url]	[-]
Posts: 2 12/30/2008 1:09 PM	hello and thanks for the suggestions. yes i suppose that this is alot about our son. we searched for a breed that we thought would help in his development as well. the idea of treats possibly for both when they behave well will begin today. i think i have read everything online about great danes before we got her and tried to become informed as possible. we had a kennel ready the day she came home and the first night was AWFUL she cried most of the night but i only responed every two hours to take her out to pee and no play. the second night much better. from that point forward it has been wonderful. she goes to it to nap on her on. she knows when its time to eat and pulls her cover out of the kennel so that i can put in her feeding bowls. its funny to watch. as soon as shes done eating out she goes. shawn you are right there is alot of peeing and pooping. some peeing in the house but our yard has now become a poo poo land field and we caution all who walk through! we live just outside birmingham al and will be looking into training this week. im not certain that i want to send her away to a school for weeks i would rather find a class that teaches us all how to handle her. we are just as guilty of allowing her to mouth as luke. it seemed innocent enough to begin with but all along knew it was wrong. shame shame on me. the vet took a look at her and commented that she was beautiful and as soon as she listened to her heart said "uh oh" she leaned back and said that she has a left side defect that could be treated with blood pressure meds and diuretics when symptons presented. but i asked if there was a chance that she would out grow it and she said possibly. i asked if there was somewhere i could take her and she told me that heart surgery on a six week old puppy was way to risky. as mentioned earlier we live near birmingham al so im sure that specialist are abundant, just have not serached one out yet. i keep hoping that either she was just nervous when the dr listened to her or that she will out grow the problem. im afraid of using a muzzle because that still not not teach luke not to be rough just prevents her from biting him. my hubby and i have warned him that she will bite him and when she does it will hurt really bad. the growling is a bit scary and there is certainly a differance between her play growl and this defensive sound she has with our son. since she kennel trained so well we hoping that more training will come easily to her as well. yes luke is going to be the tricky one. perhaps we should send him off to a school for a few weeks!!! LOL we found a breeder online that had two litters available but during our search a friend told us about her friend that had a litter. okay here goes perhaps my tale of woe. we called her and she sent us pictures of the mom and the dad along with puppy pics and we chose gracie doo. we went to meet her and her family. she owned the mother dane and breed her to a relative who owes the dad. both dogs were registered but the dad was sold and papers were not transfered so therefore the puppies are not registered. we did not care about that since we didn't plan on breeding and or showing. we just wanted a great dane to love....right.....hum. no thought ever entered my mind about health issues and or temperment. the breeder has a four year old son as well and the mother dane was incredible. we spent several hours on different occassions with the mom and the little. they were well cared for it seemed. we got a health certificate from her vet that showed no problems and when i called her to tell her what we were told about gracie she cried on the phone. i didn't want to return her just wanted her to know that there may be problems with the other puppies. we have not spoken to her and there really is no sense in bothering her she cant help us. like i said earlier she belongs to us know and we want to love and care for her. did i mention there is alot of poop!!!! OMG!!! thanks again and i will read up on the links provided above and will follow up with updates on our success!!! the manning family
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mfregosi		#5	[url]	[-]
Posts: 119 12/31/2008 12:51 AM	I don't have a lot of advice, but I am an owner of a 5 month old dane and a 4 year old boy. I ALWAYS supervise play with the dane! For the safety of both. They are allowed to play outside together, my son will throw or hit a ball for the dog to go get. My son plays chase with the dane, but other than that, not much. My son also - in the house - doesn't like to play with the dane unless she is nice and calm. So, when she is laying on my lap, he will pet her and give her kisses. I am very adament about him NOT rough housing with her! She does mouth everything and we try to prevent that with everyone. I will not preach to tell you how to handle your dog or your son, but there are things that sent huge red flags up for me. I don't want to see your puppy become aggressive with your son!! I also don't want your son to become afraid of dogs!! If he has a bad experience from your puppy it could scar him for life and that would be so sad! Danes are amazing dogs and now your puppy may seem sweet but she may become very overwhelming for your son! All I ask is that you watch them very closely!! I am sorry for the drawn out response, but dogs and kids can be a very scary combination if not suppervised and taught properly! Kiara 16 weeks
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mydanesRgreat		#6	[url]	[-]
Posts: 115 12/31/2008 8:42 AM	I have a large brood of kids myself OP, and we've owned danes for 11yrs now. Thankfully our kids have always respected the boundaries. The only thing we had issues with was my daughter wanting to pick our dog(he was a small pup then) up and carry him around like a doll. I never let them out of my sight. The good thing is that the pup is only 8weeks, and you have time to correct some mistakes. Can't add to the advice, but have your son be seen as a 'safe' person by your pup. Have him feed her, give her treats, and only allow him to play with her at very limited times for now, the minute he gets rough, he needs to be pulled back. Pups at that age will growl and test you, however, sometimes it will be a breeding temperment issue, and not just your ole run of the mill puppy testing it's limits. Best of luck to you. Once you go dane, you will never be the same!!
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new puppy with lots of issues

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