PUPPY DOMINANCE W/ CHILDREN

Question
I have an 11 week old boxer puppy that has been with us since she was 6 weeks old.  I am very concerned about her biting habits though.  She thinks my 9 year old is a chew toy.  When she bites at me, I immediately turn her on her back and wait until she stops trying to bite and relaxes before releasing her. And she seems to attempt to bite me less and less each day. My daughter however is afraid to try that.  Our puppy has jumped up and bite her in the face twice now and I am being to get very worried.  Please help!

Answer
Hi Christy,

At 11 weeks, it is highly unlikely that this is dominance; this is very typical Boxer puppy behavior.  Rolling her on her back might works somewhat when she's a puppy, but it won't work when she's an adult and it is a very very good way to get bitten (it also destroys the dog's trust in you as a reasonable leader who will protect her).  Rather than punishing her for doing what is natural for her to do, teach her that her behavior is not acceptable for living with humans, and teach her what you want her to do instead.

She needs to learn to inhibit her bite, first, on the road to not biting at all - there are times when a dog may feel it has not choice but to bite, and they can do far more damage if they have not learned inhibition.  There's a good article on teaching bite inhibition here:
http://www.jersey.net/~mountaindog/berner1/bitestop.htm

Also, some articles about general puppy training/socialization:
http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2001/deadlines.htm
http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2001/puptrain.htm
http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2001c/puppyparent.htm
http://www.clickertraining.com/node/737
http://www.clickertraining.com/node/314

Good luck!