Nipping at faces

[GinsMomma]

Ginger our 5 month old Boxer, always nips at my kids faces, especially my sons. While we were on our mini vacation last week, we brought Ginger along. We were at my dads house & Ginger was sitting on the porch watching him closely, wagging her nub. My 4 year old son goes down beside her (did not touch her) and she quickly turned around & bit his ear. (the little thing in front of the ear whole, I can't think of the proper name right now) She sliced it from the inside out. I thought he was going to have to get a couple of stiches, since it was cut open (looked like the shape of a sliced orange) & would not stay together or completely stop bleeding then. We had to run to the pharmacy (thank God they were open on a Sunday & it being a Holiday weekend) We got some neosporin & some super glue stuff. DH keeps cleaning it out with peroxide & re-glueing it. It looks good now, never got red or irratated looking. Freaked me out though! I don't usually see anything that gory. My kids are never left with Ginger alone for mostly this reason, so she won't accidently or purposely bite them. Now I'm really nervous when my kids are playing with her b/c of her nipping at their faces. She just happened to get my sons ear just right this time, but has nipped at him many times before & I can't get her to stop. I don't want to get rid of her b/c I'm hoping/praying this nipping will get alot better as she gets older & calms down some?? She's so well behaved when she's tired. The thought of getting a muzzle for her while playing with the kids, has crossed my mind. She's not a vicious mean dog at all, just loves to nip. Would getting a muzzle not be a good thing for her, only while playing with the kids, not all the time. I'm thinking it would not teach her that biting is wrong, then again things I have done so far haven't worked. She wasn't even in a hyper mood when she bit my son. Things would've been much worse if she bit my 2 year olds ear.
Any other ideas I could try to get her to stop the nipping? She is certanly a boxer & is very stubborn! Thanks!

[ebaxter]

Your dog may be doing this just because she is a puppy, and your kids are getting her to excited. You may have your kids stay out of the puppys face as well. You have to also think about when puppies play with other puppies, they will bite and pull on each others faces and ears. That is just my 2 cents.

[Indy B's Mom]

When Ty is outside with my 3 year old and her friends, I always keep him on a leash or his 30 foot lead right near me. He likes to do the same thing as Ginger when he gets excited. I am trying to train the kids to ignore him when he acts like this and only pet him when he calms down. He had one day when he was nipping non-stop, so he was on the leash in the house, too. He also seems to get nippy when he's over-tired, so if I crate him when he keeps acting up, he usually crashes right out for a nap. He was signed up for puppy school, but I had to cancel because of him getting parvo, so I am looking forward to him completing his shots and going to obedience school-hopefully that will help, too. The leash seems to help some, at least I have full control of him and can keep him from jumping and nipping at the kids. Hope things work out with Ginger and please keep us posted!

[Maisie Lynn]

Your puppy may think that your children are beneath them, lower in the pack. You may need to show your puppy that your children are the boss. You can do this by letting the children be the one feeding the puppy. Our siamese cat use to bite my children alot. When she did this , my children were told to use a stronger voice, and say "NO". Then the cat was put in her bed and ignored for a while. It seemed to work. We are doing the same for our puppy who is 17wks now. Maisie seems to know the difference between a hard bite and a soft bite. She does have her moments when she is rough playing and she begins to bite hard and when she does we tell her to "be nice" and she will either try to bite soft or will bite hard. If she bites hard we tell her in a stern voice "no" and we get up and ignore her. So far it's working. Reminding your children not to have their face at the same level as the dogs, may be good. I'm looking into having Maisie attend obedience classes in August. I'll bet you'd get some valuable help from a trainer regarding the biting. Good Luck !