My situation is complicated. My lab/border collie puppy is 12 weeks old and very sweet and loves all people. Alone I could train Sasha easily, but with 3 kids all wrestling and playing with her and my toddler and her are best buds that litterally play like littermates I feel like it's me against the rest of the house to help this puppy be a wonderful dog. I talk until I'm blue in the face to get the kids to use the right training techniques and they just won't. My biggest concern at this moment is if I make the kids completely ignore her or stay away from her, and scold her and my toddler every time they play too rough, will she turn aggressive towards kids or not like them anymore? Or will she look at me as a threat because she gets into trouble when she plays with the kids? I don't want the kids to be a negative thing. Shasha's biting and rough play is just getting too bad. She shows some signs of aggression. She has growled while eating or chewing on a bone (which we are working through with "leave it" and "sit, stay") She also will bark excessively right at us when we scold with "NO". She is very defiant and wants to be dominant. She minds very well for yummy treats. I have had a few dogs in my life who I trained very well and successfully. This girl is just so smart and I need help. I know all of the common sense training techniques (like swap skin for toy, yell "ouch" or "no") but she is very challenging and I want to get control of this before it's too late. I've caught myself already "hitting" her out of frustration. I do NOT want to make her aggressive. I would like to seek profesional help but cannot afford it. Thank you for anyone who can tell me what will work. I need her to be a family dog.

shazamataz

How old are your kids if you don't mind me asking?

It's hard to teach very young children how to behave around dogs as they do tend to find it so exciting and fun to have a little pup to play with.

The technique you are using to stop her biting is pretty much what I do... only difference is that when I say "OUCH!" I also stand up and completely ignore the pup until it calms down, then you can go back to playing.

My suggestion would be to actively get the kids involved in her training and make it fun...
You can make up a schedule where every day you do a training session with a different child.. one day it's child A's turn to help with the dog, then the next day child B and so on... or you can break it up into one child gets the morning shift, another lunch and the other after dinner...
Make up a little table on paper and put each childs name on it and get some stickers... when they do the right thing with the puppy they get a sticker on the table next to their name... after say 5 stickers, the child gets a reward.

It will be much easier if you can get them interested in training the puppy and not only that... these sessions are one-on-one and you can teach the kids how to behave around the pup easier.