9 mo Puggle attacking my kids...

I have a 9 month old Puggle (Pug + Beagle Mix). When my three year old son sits on the couch to watch TV, the dog attacks him and bites him. Mostly on the arms and hands, sometimes on the face. The dog knows he shouldn't be on the couch, he gets down when I come in. He also tackles my son when he is standing while holding food or stuffed animals. He does this to my 11 year old daughter... but not to me, my 12 year old daughter or my husband. It seems to be a dominance issue. It's pretty aggressive and it's getting crazy! It seems to be more than rough play. Is this behavior known for either breed? What should I do?

Thanks in advance!

My husband and I adopted a puggle 5 months ago, he is 15 months old. We did not go out to adopted a puggle just feel in love with the face. My husband named him Wacko, does that tell you anything? Puggles are very energetic, fast runners, jumpers, and constantly want food. If you notice on many of the postings for puggles on perfinder.com they do not recommend puggles for homes with small children. They also say if you adopt a puggle prepare to get a playmate dog for them. My husband and I work out of our house and are home all day, our children are grown and gone. Puggles require a lot of attention and exercise, especially a puppy like yours. Wacko likes to play with his toys (not stuffed they pull the stuffing out) but not by himself, he brings them to us to play with him. I have a 3 year old granddaughter, when she comes over Wacko will jump on her to play and wants to be with her. She weights 32 lbs and Wacko weights 25 lbs so it can be a problem. There are lots of "NOS" and "GET DOWNS" , she will get on him too. If puggles don't get the attention they want they will start the biting, they don't bit to hurt but would hurt a small child. Puggles are very smart, sensitive and loving pets. They want to be with someone all the time. I suggest getting another dog of equally size and energy. If that is totally out of the question than take him to obedience classes, they love agility, go figure. If you have a nice clean safe dog park that separates large and small dogs take him there. Make sure he has a Kennel Cough shot before you go. Wacko will get on our tread mill and ask us to turn it on. They are like a hyper active child if they don't have something to drain energy they will get into trouble. Your puppy will get better with age and training. Your puggle is worth the time it takes to train him. We are looking for another puggle to adopte. Good luck ................ Linda in Texas

Yes, you definitely need some obedience training to work out these dominance issues. Probably it would be good for your son the victim to participate so he understands what's going on (personally I think obedience training is training for people, not for puppies! ). If you can't take him to classes you can try Barkbusters. They're kind of pricey but they'll come to your home & in my experience their methods are very effective. They worked miracles for my dominant pug and me.

Good luck!

I will agree with the other comments - you need to enroll the whole family in training your puggle. Training session is actually to train the people that your puggle interacts with, so the language is consistent. Your kids will need to show who the boss, as well. Good luck and don't give up. When I adopted my puggle, he did not understand the word NO. After a few months of trainings, he knows and will stop do whichever you don't like.

My puggle, Reece, did that at first for about a year. I have four children and after much patience and training, he finally realized that he wasn't going to be the dominant one. One thing that I would recommend you and your family doing is when he jumps up on people or bites them, turn around with your back to him and ignore him. That seemed to work for me.
Good luck! :)

Christy
www.pugglehugs.com