QUESTION:

I am going to be having a baby in August and I am concerned that my husband needs to find a new home for his dog. He has a 2 year old Bull Dog mix which doesn't like children and some adults. The dog will lunge at them while they are petting him. I was sitting with my niece, who was on the floor in front of him petting him when after about a minute of it he lunged at her. What I need help with is after we have him neutered will he still react to children in this way or mine?

ANSWER:

Make your husband an offer.

Either find a new home for the dog or find a new wife.

Question:

Dear Sir;

I have read you site and learned an enormous amount, thank you so much for sharing your wealth of knowledge.

I have a question that I hope you can provide me with some advise.

I purchased a GSD that has a SH breeding background. The dog was 2 yrs old when I got her and in my opinion the dog had been physically abused and had absolutely no socialization during that time. The previous owners described her as a kennel dog. She can be aggressive with other dogs and people. We have worked very hard with her and she has come a long way, however we are now expecting a baby and I worry about how the dog will react and if I can continue to alter her behavior. When she is put in new situations she will normally react by growling and showing aggressive tenancies. This happened this past weekend with 2 young children who were visiting our home for the weekend. I fear that I might have made the situation worse by correcting that behavior. As the weekend went on she seemed to became more stressed, I tried to provide positive reinforcement for her by having the children hand feed her and giving her positive reinforcement when she was showing proper behavior, but any sudden movements or "typical" kid stuff she would show teeth or growl. It was a very frustrating experience and after a day she simply just ended up spending most of her time in her crate.

It was very frustrating and as a result I just feel that I could never trust this dog to be around a child or any child for that matter. Yes I know that we should and will always supervise, as we do have a lab who I don't have the same worry about as he is a very gentle and composed and confident dog.

My question is, in your opinion can this dog ever be trusted? or would she be better off in an adult home?

Thanks,
Curt

Response:

Hi Curt,

It sounds from your description that your dog has weak nerves and may be a fear biter.  I would not trust this dog with children, period.  I actually don't trust any dog with children as there are too many things that can happen, even with a balanced dog. 

If you do not want to re-home the dog, then I would recommend reading this article, Introducing Dogs and Babies.

Cindy Rhodes

Curt's Reply:

Thanks Cindy for your response .....I had read the link you provided and when I answered yes to all three questions I guess that should have provided me with an obvious answer. I know its hard to judge a dog based on a few paragraphs but she has never shown that she has any intention of biting someone, she will mostly growl and has occasionally shown teeth. Maybe I'm just too emotional about this ...I hate giving up on her, especially knowing that she has had a miserable first couple years.

Is there a way to tell if a dog has weak nerves? With this dog she can sense someone who has confidence and will act accordingly, if the person is the least bit nervous she will show aggression and nervousness. She will follow me around the house and I find this a bit strange as our other dog and any dog I have had in the past is more independent, I'm not sure what to make of this.

I'm really struggling with this decision as I do think this dog has a lot of potential.

Thanks,
Curt

Last Response:

A growl and showing of teeth are a warning, a warning that precedes a bite.

You don’t need to give up on the dog, if you are prepared to keep the dog completely separate from the baby.  I have raised and worked with many dogs in the last 14 years (my son is 14) that have never had physical contact with my own son. 

The fact that your dog follows you around means that she is bonded to you, and possibly looking to you for her confidence.   Dogs with weak nerves need a strong, confident pack leader.

You can use the search our site function to learn more about nerves.  Here’s a bit from one of Ed’s articles.

"If a dog lacks good nerves, it will never be able to handle the stress of serious protection work. Not only that, weak nerves lead to temperament and personality problems. The extreme example of poor nerves is a fear biter. The normal picture of a dog with weak nerves is either a shy dog, or one that easily gets his hair up when he feels threatened.

Dogs with weak nerves are often what I call 'sharp dogs.' These are dogs that are quick to bark at people and can be a little dangerous for strangers to be around. Many people who don't understand canine temperament think that dogs that try to eat chain link when a stranger walks near their kennel is a really tough dog. The fact is that this dog is a little nervy (it lacks strong nerves). This display of kennel aggression is not strength, but rather an aggressive display of avoidance. It's close to the fight or flight syndrome."

http://leerburg.com/terms.htm  here are some of the terms that include weak nerves, strong nerves, etc…

Cindy

Question:

I am having a baby in December.  I have two very sweet but large dogs.  I am not concerned about them being aggressive, they have both been well socialized and have never shown the slightest hint of any sort of aggression towards man, beast, or child.  (I have a Golden Retriever and a Pyrenees mix we think might be part butterfly.)

However, when you get on the floor, my GR goes NUTS.  He takes it as an invitation to play and his tail waggles and knocks things over and he jumps around and tries to engage you in play.  My husband and I have tried very hard to curb this in him (he is about 15 months old), usually by making him down-stay several feet away while someone gets on the floor.  The problem is he gets so excited he can only control himself for a few seconds.  He'll down-stay, then get up a few seconds later, then I'll correct him and put him back, and that'll only last a few seconds.  It's almost like he's trying, he'll "down" and then just get wiggly and get up and then "down" and get wiggly...this can easily go on for 10 or 15 minutes before he just calms down.  (He is neutered.)

He does get a lot of exercise, and is otherwise great, just when someone gets on the floor...and with a new baby, that's likely to be a common scenario!!  Do you have any suggestions?

Thank you,
Amber

Answer:

I think it’s pretty clear that the dog can’t be around the baby, especially when the baby is of the age that he or she is on the floor.  Why take a chance? An injury to a baby is not worth it, whether it’s just over exuberance on the dog’s part or aggression the danger is still there.

We are taking orders for a new DVD that extensively covers the way Ed and I live with dogs in our home. I think it may give you some additional ideas on how to handle your dog with your family. It is called Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Pet.

Question:

Ed,

I am expecting a baby in September and I have read a lot of your articles. I understand what you're saying about introducing dogs and babies but in 99% of the cases, you're only talking to people with 1 or 2 dogs.

We have 6 dogs. 3 GSDs, 2 Rottweilers, and 1 Husky.

A little about our dogs:

Echo - GSD, is a former police dog. He has been properly trained (including biting, though with us it has NEVER been used). He is 11 and is achy and will sometimes attack our other dogs if they jump on him or crowd him. He never actually hurts them, it's mostly just noise and him pinning them down. If my step-mom is around him he won't do that, he'll completely listen to her, as she was who he bonded to when we first got him at age 7. My mom, on the other hand cannot control him other than basic commands (sitz, platz, bleib, fooey, and aus). When she tells him to aus, he MIGHT do it, might not. I've seen him be more aggressive towards the other dogs as he gets older (his spine is fused together), and honestly it scares the crap out of me the further along I get. It happens about once a month, and there are no injuries, just noise. He has never shown aggression towards people. (While he's lived with us, obviously he is an ex-K9 so he may have bitten people in the past upon direction.) He is the 'alpha' dog.

Sabre - GSD, former search and rescue dog. He is 10 years old. He is whiney, but obedient. Normally we have to tell him twice before he actually listens though. He has NEVER shown aggression expect one time when Echo was attacking him, and even then it was only him trying to get Echo off him. After mom pulled Echo off him, Sabre immediately went and sat down.

Ziva - GSD, newest rescue, was starved when we got her. Ziva is VERY sensitive to corrections. Raise your voice even a little and she hits the deck. She will sit, and lay down, though she isn't very good with stay yet. She is about 15 months old. She is VERY clumsy. She doesn't have very good control of her body and she likes to jump and will usually miss her mark. If someone's sitting on the couch she may put both legs up to 'kiss' someone, but she'll wind up doing it too hard and knocking the wind out of you or hitting you in the face with a paw, or a number of other things. She is very gentle and has not shown aggression, other than when eating. (She IS crated during meals and only growls because one of our other dogs will do drive-bys and see if she's eaten her chicken yet.) She is very gentle when she's laying down and sitting down, but normally she'll want to give you a kiss and she'll raise on her back legs to do so.

Diefenbaker - Husky, 2 years old, got her when she was 8 weeks. Dief is temperamental. She's very sweet, but she has times where she LOVE LOVE LOVES you and then times where she couldn't be bothered with you and doesn't want to be pet. She's not aggressive. She is very vocal and will sing if you tell her to do something, but she usually obeys on first command if she is inside. She spends most of her day outside (her choice, we have a good 2 acres for her to run on, all enclosed with a 6 ft brand new privacy fence) and sometimes thinks it's a game when we tell her to come inside. She usually spends her time playing with the others outside or crated inside because she likes to dig in the red clay and then wash her paws in the water dish. She is the female alpha.

Dozer - Rotty, 9 months, got him from a rescue at 8 weeks. Dozer is the most hard-headed dog known to man. He is very laid back and very, very sweet but he does not come when called, he does not sit when told, he does not lay down when told. He knows all the commands he just chooses not to listen to them. He has an atrophied right tendon (the dog equivalent of Achilles tendon) from his hind dew claws being removed BEFORE we got him. As a result my mom babies him because when he gets up or lays down he will cry out in pain, but not all of the time. As a result I think my mom doesn't want to enforce the sitting or laying down because she feels bad that she can't help him other than dog massage and laser treatment of the area. He's never shown aggression.

Reece - Rotty, 9 months, brother of Dozer. Reece is MY personal dog. I had to move in with my mom due to security issues and he was an only dog at my house prior to me moving in. I have worked with Reece since he was a puppy on socialization and training. He always used to come when called, sit when told, lay down when told. Now that he's been introduced into a pack, he's starting to pick up on their bad habits, most notably Dozer's bad habits. Not coming when he's called, chewing on things. He's shown aggression towards one person his entire life, and that was to protect me. I had someone break into my crawl space that had been stalking me. He knew the person made me scared and the night he broke in Reece started growling at the area my crawl space is. Since then he has shown no aggression, towards humans or dogs.

I know this is a lot to read, and I'm very sorry about that, but I respect you and your articles and I don't know who else to ask for advice. We have 4 large crates that we cycle the dogs through during the day for naps or feeding or when they're acting up. I need to know what your advice on this matter would be.

Thank you,
Carmen

Answer:

Since you have so many dogs, your job is going to be a lot more difficult than someone who has only a dog or two.

I would recommend getting 2 more crates so each dog has one. I would follow all the advice given in our section on introducing dogs to babies.

These dogs need to have impeccable manners and groundwork. From your descriptions of the dogs, I think you have quite a bit of work to do. I would not tolerate ANY aggression between the dogs at all, and you should be prepared to separate them. Start with our groundwork program.

I'd also recommend Pack Structure for the Family Pet and Dealing with Dominant & Aggressive Dogs.

Whether you have one dog or 10, the advice is the same. The issue with the number of dogs you have is that dogs require a lot of time, attention, training and exercise. Owning 6 dogs and meeting all their needs is difficult enough but once you have the baby the amount of time you have to deal with them will be limited for a while. A baby takes a LOT of time.

I'd get a handle on all the dogs now and make sure you have really good control and make sure they are prepared.

It's a big task, but doable if you do your work now.

Cindy Rhodes