Hey all. We got a, now 10 week old male boxer, about two weeks ago. Dynamics of the home: me and my husband, a 5 year old boxer (f) and two kids 4y 2y.

We’ve noticed typical puppy behavior, poor boundaries etc.

But we’ve also noticed some more aggressive seeming behavior: very rambunctious with the other dog, some aggression around bones and food. He seems fine with the 4 yo kid but the 2 yo he’s often biting on pants/shirt/diaper. We redirect, separate, pull him off.

With our other dog we would mess with the food a bit while she was a puppy to avoid food aggression later (idk if this is right but it’s what we were taught with our dogs growing up) nothing major, put our hand in the bowl, tug it away etc. Our 5 y boxer is an angel. We got her before kids and she just lets them crawl all over her.

(Also, the kids are never left unsupervised with either dog.)

But so tonight my husband was doing the same food thing with the puppy, he held the kids hands and had them do it too. It went fine with just him, fine with the oldest but when the 2yo did it the puppy growled and needed up biting my husband twice and drew blood.

Puppy was told “no!” And put in the crate. Everyone is fine.

But obviously we are concerned. There aren’t really any dog training places near by (rural America) and I just don’t want to be the parent whose kids face gets bit by a dog because we ignored something.

We plan to call the vet on Monday for any resources.

Any suggestions, tips etc would be so greatly appreciated. Thank you.