Age-appropriate behavior for puppy?

[Anonymous]

My parents got a puppy a few months ago, a lab. I think he is 5 or 6 months old by now. Going over to visit them has become extremely stressful now. The puppy now outweighs two of my three kids, and he will soon outweigh the third. He is still jumping on everyone and nipping and scratching. The last time we were there, the dog tackled our 3 year old and had to be dragged off of her.

I am not a big animal person, so I am not very knowledgeable about what is age appropriate behavior, and I am wondering if this is normal and how quickly he is likely to grow out of it. I am also a little anxious about dogs because, unfortunately, my first experience with a pet ended up being a dog that was a biter, so I am wondering if my skittishness here is appropriate or if my perceptions are warped by past experience (although I'll say that my husband is also pretty stressed about the dog).

[Anonymous]

It's hard to say. Even some of the best behaved puppies get excited with visitors, especially if your kids act excited back. Teaching a puppy not to jump up is hard and needs to be consistently enforced. Our puppy no longer jumps up on us, but he'll do it to new people he meets if they don't tell him to sit. With the kids, the adults present need to enforce good behavior. Maybe ask your parents to exercise the puppy before you come over. Do you know if they have had training done?

[Anonymous]

This is exactly how our lab puppy acted at this age. This is the beginning of puppy adolescence. We had a 3 year old at the time, and we kept them separated as much as possible because the puppy required constant vigilance. The good news is, nearly all labs outgrow this behavior, the bad news is, its going to be a while. The nipping should die down once the dog has all their adult teeth-5-6 months is prime puppy teething age. The jumping might take a bit longer depending on how well your parents are doing with training.

Our puppy is almost 2 and now spayed, and is now to the point where she doesn't jump on our child at all--in fact she loves our 4 year old the most (we do still supervise closely because they can wind each other up, but there is no more jumping, nipping, etc.)

[Anonymous]

He needs serious training, and your parents need to hire a trainer specialized in large dogs, and do their homework with him. Make it a condition of your visits, period.

My own large dog was the same, and we had to train him. He’s still unpredictable when he’s excited, so I’m very careful with kids, strollers, wheelchairs, the elderly and basically all strangers, because I don’t know who has a hidden vulnerability! He is never unleashed outside, and is not allowed to rush to the door by himself to greet people. When he’s calm, he’d allow any human to perform surgery on him, practically! But get him excited and it’s another story. I don’t hesitate in crating him if there are too many people in the house.

You’ll notice that great leeway is offered to small dogs, who are allowed such behaviors because they don’t hurt anyone. But having a large dog means being stricter, just because injury potential is so much greater. Your parents need to understand that.

[Anonymous]

OP, either you need a better scale or you need to feed your kids better.

Even the worst field bred lab is fine. Energetic, not dangerous. Your children will be fine

[Anonymous]

Labs don’t settle down until they are about 2. Love my Lab but as a puppy he was a handful. Have them put him in the crate when the kids are around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, either you need a better scale or you need to feed your kids better.

Even the worst field bred lab is fine. Energetic, not dangerous. Your children will be fine

What are you talking about? Labs are dense and heavy, and they throw their weight around. A 6 month old lab puppy can easily weigh 40-50 lbs, which is about the weight of a healthy 7 year old kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, either you need a better scale or you need to feed your kids better.

Even the worst field bred lab is fine. Energetic, not dangerous. Your children will be fine

The dog already weighs 50 lbs, or so I am told. Not sure how much you think my kids are supposed to weigh…And the thing is, the dog I mentioned in my original post, that bit multiple kids, was a purebred lab (or supposedly was anyway). So it’s hard for me to take the labs-are-always-good-with-kids stance, even though I know that particular one was an outlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's hard to say. Even some of the best behaved puppies get excited with visitors, especially if your kids act excited back. Teaching a puppy not to jump up is hard and needs to be consistently enforced. Our puppy no longer jumps up on us, but he'll do it to new people he meets if they don't tell him to sit. With the kids, the adults present need to enforce good behavior. Maybe ask your parents to exercise the puppy before you come over. Do you know if they have had training done?

They are working on training in some sort of group class. They don’t really have the energy themselves to exercise him before we come over.

[Anonymous]

Oh geez. If your parents don’t really have the energy to exercise a dog, why on earth did they get a lab puppy?!?!?