cailleask posted:

I’ve found a hole in puppy’s socialization - she’s nippy with kids that she thinks are too up in her business. I don’t mean it as a euphemism for snapping, at least... she just nips to back them up. Doesn’t actually make contact either, but obviously it’s alarming to them and me! She’s very good with my kids, and generally very chill. When she was a little puppy we socialized her with the kids in the neighborhood, which in retrospect maybe we shouldn’t have because they were pretty rough players?

I definitely don’t want to make the situation worse, and I especially don’t want to escalate her. It’s not a blatant fear thing... it just seems to be how she thinks she can ask kids to give her more room? Or express her nervousness? Or something? I just need to figure out how to train HER to walk away, or an alternate behavior, or something?

She hasn’t been around kids other than the ones she lives in (aside from passing them on the street during walks) since she was a couple month old puppy. She does go to the dog park, though, and I’m pretty sure she thinks that kids are actually puppies.