5 Rules for Kids and New Puppies

If you're getting a new puppy and you have small children in your house there are 5 rules your children should follow. If you let your kids act the way they want to around a new puppy, the results will likely be negative.

1. For example children love to have puppies jump up on them. This is cute and fun when the puppy is small; however when the puppy becomes a dog the jumping up will become a real problem.

The dog won't know it's wrong, and will jump up on everyone. This is not only annoying, but can be dangerous. Think of a full grown dog jumping up on your 7 year old. Most likely the dog will knock your child over and the kid will be terrified. This fear will be present whenever the child sees the dog. This isn't a healthy relationship between a human and a dog.

2. Another tendency children have is to chase the dog around the house. This is terrible for the dog. This teaches the puppy that getting chased is fun and acceptable. Once they get this in their head teaching the dog to come to you when you call will be next to impossible.

If the puppy gets something you don't want them to have, like your favorite shoe, the puppy will run away when you try to get it back. If you chase after the pup, he'll think this is all fun and games. Then when you get mad at the puppy he'll become confused, after all when the kids chased him, it was fun and acceptable.

3. On the flip side, kids also love to be chased by puppies. At first this is great fun, but what normally happens when the dog catches the kids, is they'll jump up and maybe even nip the child.

The puppy sees the child's running away as an affirmation that the puppy is in charge of the kids. In affect he is herding the children. The puppy will think they are the alpha pack leader and may try to herd them all the time. Trying to break the dog of this can be difficult and challenging and will involve the child having to be very firm with the puppy.

4. Another thing kids love to do with puppies is get underneath blankets and have the puppy crawl over them. This will also lead the puppy to think they are alpha over the kids; after all they are dominating the cowering kids. This behavior may even lead the puppy to bite or nip the kids once he does finally get through the blankets.

5. One of the worst things kids can do with puppies is get into tug of war games with them. Puppies love this game and will play with abandon, however, the person on the other end will lose interest much quicker than the dog and will eventually let the dog have whatever they were pulling on. This makes the puppy the winner of the game. Once again this makes the pup believe they are dominant in the relationship.

Tug of war is especially taboo if you have a hunting dog. Can you imagine trying to get a duck or pheasant out of a dog's mouth that is used to playing tug of war? By the time you got it, the bird would be torn to shreds.

If you allow your kids to play these 5 games with your new puppy you will have a much harder time training your dog. Before you can start training you'll have to break these bad habits. Kids love puppies and vice versa but you should lay down these 5 rules for your children to follow or you may end up with an untrainable dog.