Too playful with kids?

[Kim Starbuck]

Hi all,

I have a 16 month labradoodle named Cisco who is such a great dog - very loving and sweet. I have three nephews and a niece, who, for the most part, he is great with. Although, this past weekend he was in the backyard and the kids were running around, and he started getting rough with one of my nephews - nippy and climbing up on his back where he ended up scratching him. It was definitely too rough and he was too overly excited.

Any thoughts on how to handle this moving forward? Should he not be allowed to run off leash while the kids are running around? (they play a lot of soccer, baseball in the backyard, so there is always a lot of running around)... or is there something else I should do - like watch the play closely and if he starts to escalate with excitement, make him sit and calm him down? Thoughts?

Thank you! Kim

[Kurt Gustafson]

I think the second option corrects the issue whereas  not allowing him off leash is just avoidance of the problem. We recall our Griff and tell her 'be nice". She now knows that when we say 'be nice' that she needs to settle down and we no longer have to recall her.

[Barbara B., Sasha & Oliver]

My doodles are 4 & 4.5 years old and when they would get "crazy" I would give a time out for sure, they learned real quick :)

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

It seems that all the "bad behaviors" come out when they're overly excited.  If you have time to watch him closely and remove him from "the action" when you notice signs that he's overly excited, that's great.  Otherwise I would not allow him to be out there when the kids are running around and getting crazy.

[Trevor]

I have no answer but will be following this as we have the same issue, not with all kids, but with some that are a bit "hyperactive". Because these kids tend to be scared of Sepp and don't know that he's friendly, we have to keep him away from them and on leash, so that only adds to his excitement.

[Moe]

I had the same problem with my dog when she was a pup. She used to nip at the back of their arms when they were running around. I talked to a trainer and she said that is just too much stimulation for a young pup. I kept a leash on her when the kids were running around in the yard. We also worked a lot on teaching the dog to be calm and wait for everything. Teaching a dog patience, self control and to settle takes a lot of work. We worked on things like sitting before meals, waiting, leave it and other behaviors that just encourage self control. I think a lot of the time it is all related. Also exhausting the dog before the kids come over may help.

[Kim Starbuck]

thank you everyone! very helpful!!