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Preventing Dog Bites How to Avoid Dog Bites in Children Read
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Other article on Preventing dog bites on Children: Introducing Dogs to New Born Babies Emails From People Whose Dogs Have Attacked Children How to Avoid Dog Bites in Children According to a 1994 study by Mathews and Lattal approximately one million dog bites occur every year in the United States – according to the study 60-70% of those involve children, boys are bitten more often than girls and a third of the dogs that attack children are owned by the family. A study by Beck done in 1975 indicated that 87% of biting dogs are intact males and most dogs bites occur in or near the victims home. Another study by Sacks in 1989 indicated that 70% of the children that were killed by dogs were under the age of 10 and 22 % were under the age of one year with 7% being sleeping infants. Advice for PARENTS to TEACH YOUR CHILD Concerning Dogs
If you own any dog, but especially a dog that has had the smallest amount of aggression or protection training it is your moral and legal obligation to make sure that you do everything possible to insure that your dog is never in a situation where it could bite a child. The Humane Society estimates that there are 800,000 dog bites that require medical attention every year. Dog bites rank second behind sexually transmitted diseases as the most costly health problem in the country. Over 60% of those bitten are children and 80% of the fatalities are children. I am not going to go into the reasons people train dogs to bite. But if you want to have your eyes opened I suggest that you buy the book titled " FATAL DOG ATTACKS - The Stories Behind the Statistics," This book will shock you. When you start to read it you cannot put it down. The STUPIDITY of how people handle their dogs will shock you I am the first to admit that problems exist when inexperienced people attempt to protection train a dog with inappropriate temperament. Many often follow this training with inadequate and irresponsible handling or housing. The fact is that most dog bites occur from dogs that have had little to no training, they simply have poor temperament. They are either sharp, dominant or territorial animals. A perfect example occurred in Kansas a few years ago when Sabine Davidson allowed her Rotts to kill an 11 year old neighbor boy. This case was an example of one mistake compounded upon another.
I am proud of the fact that I testified (free of charge) for 1 1/2 hours at the Davidson trial and helped put her in prison for 12 years. The DA sent me a letter that he would not have gotten a conviction without my testimony. I would do it again in a similar case. This article deals with things that can be done to help eliminate child bites in dogs. It's too late for the young boy in the Davidson case (and I am not sure that the things I am about to talk about would have saved his life, we will never know). But there are things that other children can do to lessen their chances of getting bit by strange dogs or even their own dogs. Dogs and Babies - Preventing Dogs Attacking Babies: I get a lot of emails from people who own dogs and are about to have a baby. These people want to make sure they don't have an issue with their dog attacking a baby. There is a protocol for dealing with dogs and newborn babies. It starts with NEVER allowing ANY dog to be unattended around your baby. Not even for 5 seconds. In addition the dog is NEVER allowed in the babies room. NOT EVER!. If you don't own a dog crate it's time to buy one. When parents bring a new born baby home from the hospital they should NOT ALLOW the dog to come and smell the baby or lick the baby. In fact the dog needs to be trained to stay away from the baby. Your goal is to teach the dog that the baby is YOUR BABY and has NOTHING to do with the dog. The baby should not to be smelled or touched. The dog needs to learn that the baby is a higher ranking member of the family pack and that you (as the pack leader) enforce the babies rank. This is no different than a mother wolf who does not allow other pack members near her newborn pups. The way to set this training up is to take items that have the babies smell on them; baby cloths, baby sheets, dirty diapers etc. Lay them in your living area where the dog is allowed to be. The dog is NEVER be allowed to go near these items. They can't play with them, or even go over and smell them, they can't go near them. The dog needs to learn that their is a bubble around the smell of a baby that they are not allowed to enter. If they do go to smell them they are corrected. Don't kid yourself that the dog can't smell these items from a across the room and that's as close as they are allowed. When you set up this training the dog should already be on a long line - one of our 20 foot cotton lines that is cut down will work or you can make one. We also sell very nice leather drag lines that are meant for this work. They are 5 feet long.
If the dog walks over to smell the diaper he gets a verbal NO. If he does not turn and immediately (instantly) leave he gets a serious level 5 correction. If he ignores that correction you immediately correct to level 8 or 9. The goal is to teach the dog that the smell of the baby if OUT OF BOUNDS!! To learn and understand corrections read the article I wrote titled THE THEORY OF CORRECTIONS IN DOG TRAINING. NEVER leave these baby items laying around when you are out of the room. Treat them just like you treat your baby. The dog and these items are never together - not for a long, long time. Look at it like this. If you can't control the dog staying away from these articles of clothing then you can't control the dog staying away from your baby.
Some DANGEROUS INSANE PHOTOS The following series of photos demonstrate as dangerous of a situation as I could imagine. The owners have allowed this Mastiff to be off leash near this baby.
This dog is showing his dominance over this child. If the slightest thing went wrong here the dog could or would attack the child.
Again this dog is showing his dominance over this child. The parents are very lucky if this dog does not attack the baby.
Walking the dog and baby at the same time You have a second opportunity to demonstrate PACK STRUCTURE when the time comes for you to take the baby and the dog for a walk. The dog must be on leash with a training collar. There are only 4 kinds of training collars: a flat collar, a prong collar, a dominant dog collar and a remote collar - which one you use depends on the dogs temperament and training level. Frankly for this I would be using a prong or a remote collar. My two DVDs teach you how to do the foundation training.
When you walk the dog it is NEVER allowed to walk in front of the baby stroller. It must ALWAYS stay behind it. This is a huge thing for a dog. It genetically understands that higher ranking pack members go through doors first, go through gates first, go down stairs first and LEAD ON WALKS. If you take your dog for a walk (without the baby) and it pulls you down the street you need to solve that problem before you take the baby with you. The golden rule of dog training is ONLY TRAIN ONE THING AT A TIME. So if you already have issues with a pulling dog you and your dog need training. You should get my 4 hour DVD titled Basic Dog Obedience and/or my 3 1/2 hr DVD titled Remote Collar Training for the Pet Owner.
OLDER CHILDREN NEED TRAINING TOO Children should be taught to never approach a strange dog without asking permission from the owner, even if the dog looks like it's friendly. This is something the parents of children need to be aware of. It absolutely amazes me how often I have people visit my kennel with children who are allowed to run up to a new dog when I bring it out (many times after being told not to). Children should be told to report seeing any loose dogs roaming in their neighborhood. This can give the parents the opportunity to contact the owners and warn them of the potential for danger (which many pet owners deny even exist ). "Old Spot would never consider biting a child!” WRONG ANSWER!!! The first approach with these people needs to be reverse psychology. It eliminates initial hostility. You go to them and act concerned for the dog. You do not want to see their dog get run over. You realize that they were out cutting the grass in the back yard and the dog was only out of their sight for 20 seconds but it crossed the road into your yard and it could easily have been hit by a car. If they had an in-ground wire fence (like the Innotek Fences that we sell) the dog would never leave their yard. The second time it happens it should be explained that you are concerned for your children. Tell them they either contain their dog 100% of the time or you will contact animal control. The third time, if it were possible, I would spray the dog with pepper gas and call the animal control. Chasing the dog out of your yard is an excellent way to let the dog know that your yard is not part of his territory. Dogs inherently understand this. Just explain to the animal control officer that you feared for the safety of your children. Continue to call the police every time the dog was seen running loose. I would also start a file on the dog. Insist on knowing the police incident number every time you call. Keep these on file. As terrible as this may sound, you may need this as evidence some day. If the officer will not give you the incident number, call his supervisor and explain your concerns. If it does not work, go over his head too. Sooner or later you are going to get someone's attention. The street cop may not want to write a report so he will not record an incident. This means that as far as the police are concerned this never happened. Here is an email I got from a women that demonstrates the need for parental control of their kids:
MY ANSWER:
WHAT DO DO AROUND AN AGGRESSIVE DOG If a dog growls or acts aggressive towards you or your children. Do not scream or turn and run. This can trigger the dogs "PREY DRIVE." When that happens the dog is going to chase you down and often bite. This very same dog may have ignored the person or child had they stood still. Many times the most the dog would have done was sniff the child and leave. The best advice is to slowly turn sideways to the dog and divert your eyes from his (DO NOT STARE AT THE DOG). Stand quietly and keep the arms down by your side. Dogs do not naturally give direct eye contact for any length of time. The only time they get or give eye contact is just before they attack, or just before they flee. So if you have a dominant dog getting direct eye contact from a child, the dog interprets the eye contact as prey that is about to run. That may be enough to trigger an attack. Children may instinctively want to quickly raise their arms so they will not get bit. Quickly raising the arms can also trigger prey drive. It also exposes the chest area to a bite. A chest or upper back bite can be much more serious than an arm bite. Many people think that you need to turn and run to trigger prey. This is not so. Any quick movement (no matter how small) can trigger a dog’s prey drive. If a dog has only been partially trained in protection work, a quick move of the arms will trigger prey. If the dog does just sniffs the child and walk away, the child should remain stationary for a few seconds and then gradually back away from the dog. They should not turn their back and walk (or run) away.
WHAT TO DO IN A DOG ATTACK In the worst case scenario the dog will charge in for a bite. If this happens, the child should fall to the ground and curl up in a fetal position with their arms over their head. The dog is going to read this as a submissive posture. He may not even bite at that point. He may accept the submission and after standing over the child for a few seconds walk away. Now here is the really difficult part for parents. Should you look outside when the kids are screaming and see a strange dog standing over the top of a child on the ground. You do not want to run out screaming your head off. This may also trigger an attack. This has been proven again and again when 2 strange dogs are checking each other out and the owner over reacts and charges the scene screaming. The owners actions actually trigger the attack. As long as the dog is not biting the child, remain calm. Get a weapon or something (pepper gas, a garbage can or a garbage can lid) to keep between you and the dog. In my opinion the best scenario would be to shoot the dog. That's not really an option because the child is so close. Probably the safest is to take pepper gas and the lid of a garbage can (to use as a shield) and slowly walk up to the dog. Without saying anything, spray him in the nose and eyes. When the dog leaves, you will need to take the child into the shower and wash the gas out of his or her eyes and nose (it's going to hurt). God forbid that dog should attack a child on the ground. The best defense is still to remain tucked up in a ball. Many times a dog will take one nip and leave. As alarming as this sounds, and as horrible as it may seem, this action is going to cause less damage than being dragged down as the child tries to run away. In addition, the dog's prey drive will be elevated to a higher level by a fleeing child than one who drops to the ground and acts submissive. Dropping to the ground and acting submissive may be enough to satisfy a dominant dog that just wants to show his superiority over this child. If you want to learn more about dominant dogs, read my article titled DEALING WITH THE DOMINANT DOG.
It's a misconception that parents only need to worry about the big Rottweiler or German Shepherd next door. I have seen some very, very nasty small dogs. I have been doing helper work and training dogs in protection work for 20 years and my worst dog bite came from my mother's toy poodle. It only bit me once. Eliminating Dog Bites Through Training Eliminating dog bites begins with responsible pet ownership. It's the owner’s responsibility to make sure that his dog is properly obedience trained and properly contained. Obedience training is the first step at reducing dominance levels in all dogs. Obedience training is not the only solution to eliminating aggression but it is an integral part. I always recommend people get my 4 hour DVD titled Basic Dog Obedience along with a training collar. That means a prong collar, a dominant dog collar or a remote collar.
Dogs must be submissive to a human when they are obedience trained. So obedience training is vital. If you see your dog giving direct eye contact as it aggressively growls when you or your children try and take a toy away, it's time to become proactive. You need to deal with this dominance issue or get rid of the dog. I produced a DVD titled Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive dogs. If your dog is aggressive you need this DVD. If you have no interest in personal protection or breeding you should neuter your dog at a young age (before it's a year old). Statistics show that un-neutered dogs are 3 times more likely to bite than neutered dogs. Although this is not something that is set in stone. If a dog is neutered at a young age (6 to 10 months) it will often reduce aggression. But if a dog is neutered after 2 years of age it often has little effect on aggression. In fact neutering an adult female can often increase aggression. If a dog is a sharp dog by nature, the owner must take additional precautions on this dog's containment system. It needs to be in a very secure and escape proof living environment (i.e. a dog kennel or crate that he can not get out of). If you see your dog charging up and down the fence line in your back yard barking aggressively at the kids across the street or next door, then you have a potential problem. Do not look at this situation as a case of the kids teasing the dog. In most cases it's the dog becoming territorial and challenging the kids. On the same note, there is a difference between an aggressive bark and a dog that barks because it wants to get out and play. If you do not know the difference between the two scenarios, I recommend that you talk to your vet or possibly get my video titled, THE FIRST STEPS OF DEFENSE. I will say it one more time, lack of handler education is the root of all these problems. Some people think chaining a dog is the solution; after all, how can a dog get off a chain? They are 100% wrong. While it's OK to chain a dog out for an hour or so (we do this here at our kennel), it is not OK to make a dog live on the end of a chain. Chaining a dog makes matters worse. Dogs that live their lives on a chain become almost schizophrenics. It's a cruel way to keep a dog and it usually makes them more aggressive. Even though I sell training videos to teach people how to train police service dogs, personal protection dogs, and sport dogs, I would not hesitate to testify against someone who blatantly ignores sound, safe dog handling. I am proud of the fact that Sabine Davidson is spending the next 12 years of her life in a Kansas prison. My personal feeling is that it should have been a longer sentence. This woman displayed no remorse. She blamed the child for the attack. There is no excuse for stupidity.
QUESTION on DOG BITES:
Ed's Comment:
Response:
Question:
ANSWER on DOG BITES:
Dog bite punctures Vigo toddler’s left eye New Goshen boy taken by helicopter to Indy hospital TERRE HAUTE — A 2 1/2-year-old
boy was hospitalized Tuesday after a dog bite punctured his left eye. Onalaska WI boy mauled by dogs
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QUESTION on DOG BITES:
I have been looking through your site for info. My problem is this, my 9 yr old son is aggressive toward our 9 month old shepherd-bull terrier mix. The dog is not aggressive but I am afraid that he will become aggressive if my son doesn't quit wrestling the dog to the ground every chance he gets. Other than his color, our dog looks shepherd in body, face, eyes, hair, build and size. We are even waiting for his left ear to come up. He is neutered and seems to have a beautiful temperament. Our dog barks but is easily stopped with a strong, not loud, "no". He shares his food bowl with the cats, he even lets them stand under his head and chest and eat at the same time. He doesn't make a lot of eye contact (unless he wants something) and was successfully taught that he can't nip the kids during play. When disciplined for something like getting into trash etc. he does take a submissive posture and will inch toward us looking for forgiveness and is easily perked up with a pat and affectionate words. In my opinion he is a good, eager to please dog but we have noticed that the dog has begun to growl and nip (without actual tooth to skin contact) at our son when wrestled with (to be honest, I would do more than that if I were the dog). My son has the mind set that a dog is for "playing" with in the way boys like to play. I have shown him the bite pics you have on your site and hope that I can control his behavior with the dog. I have explained to the boy how the dog is beginning to see him as a threat..or possibly something that needs to be dominated and put in place. All five of us (me, hubby, two teen girls and the 9 yr old boy) are involved in his care and crate training. The boy is the only person in our home that the dog has deemed necessary to warn. We use vocal command and we socialize the dog every chance we get. We love our dog, we love our son. What do we do?
Is there something we can do to teach the boy..or are we asking for a bite. I am reluctantly willing to find a new home for the dog. What is your opinion?
Heather in Denver
ANSWER ON DOG BITES:
From the sound of everything that you say, you have a very nice dog, but a child that needs training. I question if showing him photos of dog bites will change the way he treats his dog. I doubt it.
Parents have a responsibility to control their children around animals. Some children need to learn better manners. This should come from the parent and too often it comes from an abused animal and when that happens the animal usually loses (it ends up being put to sleep or put in a different home). If this were my son I would sit down and explain the reasons for how I expect the boy to act around his dog. I would also explain the consequences of breaking the rules. The very first time I saw him getting too rough with the dog would result in lost privileges. If the penalty is severe enough he will listen. It may be that your son simply has not learned any other way to play with his dog. Teach him to play with a Frisbee. Teach him to play "2 ball" (you can read about this on my web site). Maybe your son just needs to have his energy redirected into a more positive direction.
RESPONSE ON DOG BITES:
Thank you..It never occurred to me that the boy needed to be taught specific games...we always just tell him to "play nice." We do intervene when the boy gets rowdy and a lot of times we separate the two. Maybe this will work for how he plays with his sisters too. Ha Ha :-) I will look for "2 ball" on your site.
We have had the discussion twice... and punishments have been outlined. I hope this works.
QUESTION on DOG BITES:
We have a 18 month old mixed breed dog that we "saved" at about 6-8 weeks of age. We believe he has some Australian Shepherd in him and Brittany Spaniel. He was a very happy and friendly puppy and didn't show any signs of aggression until around 6 months of age, when he started barking at everything. He has bitten my mother in-law on the back of her leg when she walked past his food. He did not break the skin just bruised it pretty bad. He was about one year old then. We tried to keep everyone away from his food. Three months later after my son and his friend took him for a bike ride (he runs along side of my sons bike with his lease on the handle bar). They came in the house and my son was taking too much time to get him some water. He was standing there wagging his tail and when the neighbor moved closer to my son the dog grabbed the boy's arm with his mouth. When the boy naturally reacted and pulled his arm away he was left with a scratch. The next day it was bruised. No blood was shed. We took him to training and he listens much better to my husband and myself. And when on the leash with the pinch (prong) collar he does pretty good. But he still barks at anything when he is in the back yard or if someone approaches the house while he is in his crate. When they come in he usually barks and then calms down. We take him out on the leash and when we know that he understands there is nothing to fear we let him off the leash, if it is an adult. With children I leave him in the crate. The other day my husband told my son to take the dog for a walk A little girl who the dog knows approached on her bike. My son told her to not come near the dog. She didn't listen and the dog got her on the back of the leg and pulled off her sock and shoe. My son didn't realize he had bitten her until she told him at school the next day. He said she had a small bruise on her leg, again no blood. We know the best thing to do is probably to put him to sleep. But that is very hard for us and he is fine with our own family and most visitors as long as we wait until he calms down etc. Our children love him very much and we are afraid putting him to sleep will have a negative effect on them maybe permanently. The vet gave us medication after the incident with the boy. But when we took him to training the trainer thought he didn't need it. So, now we have started to give him the medication and my husband also understands he has to be tough. But I am still afraid that putting him down would be best and get a well breed dog later on. I would really appreciate any insight you may have on our situation.
Sincerely,
Cheryl
ANSWER DOG BITES :
There are several issues here:
1- Neuter this dog.
2- Get a good muzzle and make the dog wear it until he is 110% trained. You can find this on our web site in the list of training equipment.
3- It is not trained. Listening sometimes does not constitute a trained dog. If you would like to learn something about the principles of obedience training a dog, read the description for my Basic Dog Obedience video. You will probably find that you have not had the full picture on the steps of training a dog must go through before it can be considered fully trained. You can also read why I am not a fan of taking an untrained dog to obedience classes.
4- You do not fit the category of a responsible pet owner. You may not like to hear this but it happens to be true. You have a dog that has already proven that it will bite and you allow your son to walk this dog. You don't properly train the dog. You allow strange children to be around the dog (when you know it bites)
5- It is not an excuse for you to say that you did not know what was going on when your son had the dog - you are the parent here. If you expected a sympathetic response from me you came to the wrong place. Children get bit because owners of dogs (like the one you have) do not take the appropriate steps to train and care for their animals.
The answer to the question of putting the dog to sleep is not one I can to answer. With proper training and care the dog should be able to be safe around people. You and your family have not demonstrated the ability to do that yet - so that option still needs to be considered.
Ok, I'll try to make this as short as possible but I have to explain my situation. I need help and have been searching sites on dogs and aggressive behavior. I have a 5 year old German Shepherd (Rex) that weighs approximately 130 - 140 pounds. He is a good dog, very protective and very territorial. I have never had problems with taking Rex outside of his fenced area and into my open yard with me. He occasionally has run onto the road with curiosity to check out people walking by, we live in a very small country town in PA. Within the last year, he attacked a neighbors dog that has more than once broken loose and entered my property, tormenting my dog who lives inside a fenced area. I was in the yard with Rex and this dog was once again loose and entering my property. Rex ran and grabbed this other dog, he had the other dog by the hind quarters and obviously wanted to hurt him. My boyfriend grabbed him by the collar and was able to pull him loose and return him to the safety of his fence. Amazingly, the other dog did not appear injured, so we took him home and secured him to the harness that he had slipped out of. His owners were not home at the time and I later found out had left him for the weekend.
Next story happened this past week. We were in the yard doing yard work and I saw Rex take a pose as if to spot movement on the road, I saw it too through the hedges. Rex started to run for the road and I gave the command to stop, he did not stop. It was a neighbor that often jogs the road pushing a 3 wheeled stroller. Rex went around the woman and to the front of the stroller, inside was her 2 year old daughter. I saw the mother bend down to shove the dog away, I was already steps behind the dog at this point. Rex was not growling, barking or showing an aggressive attack. When I got to him, I slammed into his back end with my knees and told him to move. He went around the far side of the stroller, my boyfriend grabbed him and put him back inside the fence.
At this point, the little girl was screaming and the mother was panicked. The little girl had approximately a 1/2 inch laceration in her hair line on the left side behind her temple. She was taken to the hospital, received a few stitches and also 2 stitches in the crease of her left eyelid. The eyelid was not punctured, more like grazed but they put stitches there anyhow (not sure why). The little girl is fine, thank God. These people are wonderful people and I have known the father all of my life, we were all sick about the whole situation. He told me that he will not sue me, he has known my whole family too long and knows that we are good people and he won't do that. ( I am lucky) The Dog Warden came and Rex has been quarantined to the garage for 10 days. He has all of his shots but this precaution has to be taken and I understand that. The quarantine is over this Monday, June 14th. I was just advised by the Warden that they are pressing the Dangerous Dog Act on Rex. I haven't received the paperwork yet but from my understanding and the reading that I have been doing, this means that anytime the dog is out, he must be muzzled and on a leash. He also must be maintained in a safe, secure area. My question is, what are the guidelines on a safe secure area? We were planning to put up a new, stronger fence (although the one that he has lived in for his 5 years of life, he has not and does not escape from). Anything that I've read so far says that it has to have a roof and cement 1 to 2 feet into the ground. I have not read anything that specifies the size of the containment. This is a large dog that needs to run for exercise, he cannot spend his life in a small cage and cannot get the exercise that he needs on a leash. I am thrilled that he is able to live, I love this dog with all of my heart. He was given to me by my father 6 months before he passed away. He is not a vicious dog and I cannot for the life of me figure out what provoked this incident. There was at one a boy on a bicycle that I found out was teasing him occasionally, could this have triggered something when he saw the child inside the stroller with wheels? I'm not trying to defend what he did, it was wrong but if it had been a vicious attack and he had wanted this child, he would have had her and / or he would have gone after the mother when she tried to shove him away (in my opinion). The mother said that the little girl had her arms up and was saying: doggie doggie doggie. Maybe she tried to grab and hug him the way small children do and it startled him. I also have a theory that when the mother shoved at him, she forced his head down and his tooth then cut the girls head.
This dog would defend my family with his life, I owe it to him to fight for his. Is there anything that I can do to deter this behavior at his age? I realize the risk I take to keep him alive but he does not deserve to die. Is there someone or an organization out there that can help with the training of this dog? Is there someone out there that would take him if I could no longer keep him in order to save his life?I also have the issue of insurance to deal with now. The insurance companies are silently eliminating any and all liability risks from insurance policies and / or dropping insurance. They want all of our money but the don't want to have to pay it back for any reason.
He is extremely smart, his father was the same size and I was informed that his grand-father lives in Germany. I am assuming that his bloodline is German but I have no way of knowing as I don't have papers for him and don't know how to reach the people that he came from. He was a gift to my father to give to me.
Any advice or suggestions you could offer would be appreciated.Too bad we don't have all these crooked attorneys out there fighting for the animals best interest like they fight for people and their ridiculous lawsuits !!
Thank you for your time and I'm looking forward to hearing from you,Judy
Pittsburgh, PA
ANSWER DOG BITES Kid:
No one wants to be told they are a poor pet owner and have caused the problems that their dog has – but the fact is this is the case. It may be hard to swallow but it’s the truth.
I need to point out a few things here:
1- This warden did the right thing. You own a dangerous, untrained dog with a faulty temperament.
2- This dog is not trained. If it were you would have been able to call him back when he took off. You could not do that – this is an owner mistake and not a dog mistake.
3- The dog has poor temperament. The fact that the little girl had her arms up or possibly even grabbed the dog is by no means an excuse for a dog to bite a child. This has absolutely nothing to do with a dog protecting himself – its an example of a dog with bad temperament.
4- Insurance companies expect responsible dog ownership – allowing a dog like this to be loose in the yard does not reflect responsibility – under certain conditions you knew the dog would take off (i.e. a stray dog). You should not have had the dog loose unless it was 110% trained to a recall under every condition. This means it should have been on a long line, tied up or with an electric collar to reinforce a command.
5- You need to direct your question on a secure enclosure to your animal warden – he is the person that will enforce the ordinance. I would assume this means a fenced area that the dog cannot get out of. If you train this dog – it requires an electric collar so it is under your control 110% you can exercise it in the country. If you cannot do these things then find a new home for the dog or put it to sleep.
6- Frankly the fact that this dog went around the mother and bit the child indicates a serious head problem with this dog. I would put it to sleep. In my opinion this dog is beyond the skill level of you as a trainer and owner.
I am very concerned that I did not do everything that I could to avoid the situation that occurred the other night with our two year old daughter.
Maybe you can give us your point of view. We have had Snowball for 4 ½ years. I took him to obedience training when he was one year old just to make sure we were keeping him in check to be a house dog living with my husband and our two children 2 and 4 years old. The first sign of aggression came when he bit me in the face when he was about 4 mos. old for just picking him up to take him in from outside. Then he bit our two year old son on the hand for messing with his food when eating, which we thought we corrected by feeding him alone away from everyone. The vet said that this would probably correct the situation.
When he turned 4 years old we noticed that he become more aggressive now towards our 2 year old daughter. It was like he was two different dogs. Playing with her a lot then growling when she would approach him. Night and day. He acted like he loved her but would growl if she got close to his face. He also bit my husband during Thanksgiving when he pulled him by the collar away from the table after he growled at our daughter.
The bottom line is he eventually bit her in the face when she hugged him and she had to undergo facial surgery. I feel like I have failed my daughter and Snowball for we tried to put him in an Animal Rescue which refused him and the vet said it was time for Euthanasia. I am a non-working parent and always have had close supervision with him and the kids. I was less than a foot away when the bite occurred. Bad breeding? We tried to keep the upper hand not let him rule the household? But I think that since he bit more than one of us he was aggressive?
ANSWER on DOG BITES Children:
As hard as I try I cannot stop from getting mad when I read this email. In fact I read it several hours ago and walked away before answering.
Emails like this make me think that people should have to pass a test before they are allowed to own a dog. Hell, people have to take classes to hunt and there are a lot more dog bites than there are people getting accidentally shot.
This dog gave you so many heads-up signals that it was dominant. But you either missed them and/or ignored them and/or took inappropriate actions to correct the problem. The fact is this incident was 100% an owner problem.
Any time a dog growls at a child that dog should NEVER be allowed around a child again. Every time a dog growls at a child it needs to have EXTREME corrections within 2 seconds of growling. These corrections need to be so severe that the dog NEVER FORGETS them.
It is truly beyond me how you could allow your child near this dog after it had done the things it did.
If you want to learn how badly your screwed up you can read the article I wrote titled DEALING WITH A DOMINANT DOG, the article on PREVENTING DOG BITES IN CHILDREN.
But with that said – my advice is that you should never own a dog again.
QUESTION ON DOG BITES Kid:
I am hoping you can help us. We have a 2 year old Lab/Pit mix that we adopted at 9 weeks. For the most part he is a good dog but he has some strange aggression that makes me fearful for our son. Our dog does not like our 3 year old son. Sometimes, he'll lick our son's face or what ever but most times, if the dog is sleeping and our son even walks by him, he'll growl and get up and move. It used to be he'd growl at just our son but now he's getting like that with us. If he's sleeping or laying by us, if we even touch his back to pet him, he'll growl, get up and move away from us.
Our dog also hides under things, like beds and the couch if he knows he's been bad, but if you try and get him to come out from under there, it is an all out war. He will lay under there are growl and bare his teeth and bark at you. It's hard because you can't pull him out easily to discipline him and he knows it! He's a very smart dog and very trainable when it comes to sit, stay, fetch.... But when he is bad, and he knows it, he gets mean. My husband and our dog had it out the other day because he had been bad and immediately ran under our sons bed. My husband tried to get him to come out and when he reached under there to yank him out, our dog turned on him and bit him. He bit him hard enough to draw blood.
Then the other day, my son was standing by our dog who was standing in the living room and my son put his arms over the dogs back and the dog turned around and bit him in the hand.
I am fearful that our dog is not getting enough exercise because we live in an apartment and so he's getting aggressive out of boredom. Could this be the case?? He has a ton of energy and even though we try to get him to a dog park to run, it doesn't seem to help that much and I feel bad that we can't always go as much as he needs.
I personally want to give him to someone that has room for him to run, but my husband refuses to talk about giving him up. He keeps thinking the dog will change if he works with him more, but I'm afraid that we will be good and aggressive at the training for a few weeks and then slack like we did when we first got him. I don't want this dog to hurt my son worse than he already has and frankly I'm scared of the dog. Every time I see him growl at me and bear his teeth, I am so afraid that he's just going to lunge at me one day.
We wanted a calm, friendly, family dog who our son could play with, and it hasn't turned out like that.
What should we do????Thanks~
AmberANSWER TO DOG BITE QUESTION:
You should read the article I wrote title DEALING WITH A DOMINANT DOG.Your dog is reaching maturity that’s why he is showing these dominant signs.
Your child is in real danger RIGHT NOW!!. Read the article I wrote titled PREVENTING DOG BITES IN CHILDREN. This is a no fool around situation. Any dog that has this behavior should never be allowed near a child. It’s not a matter of IF THIS DOG WILL BITE YOUR CHILD – it’s only a MATTER OF WHEN IT’S GOING TO HAPPEN.
If your husband wants to make this work – then get a dog crate and/or an outside dog kennel and the dog should NEVER be allowed near this child unless your husband has his eyes on the dog. Remember it takes about 1 second to bite a child in the face hard enough to lose an eye. So that’s why you don’t even go to the bathroom and leave the dog and child in the same room.
Then your husband needs to get a prong collar and train this dog. The dog IS NOT TRAINED if he cannot call it out from under the bed – which he can't. Unless he does this training he will find out for himself how UNTRAINED the dog is when he gets bit – each BITE WILL BE WORSE THAN THE LAST. You can read about it on my web site.
If you want to learn how to train, get my 4 hour DVD on Basic Dog Obedience. If you are not prepared to separate this dog from the child with a crate or kennel- don’t waste your money because no amount of training is going to cover up those mistakes.
eBook |
QUESTION ON DOG BITES with Children:
Hello. One month ago we adopted our first family dog - a Shep/Boxer or Pit bull? mix from a shelter. Estimated age - under 2 - un-spayed female. She went into season Nov. 1st, so we are waiting another month for spaying. We live in a house in the city. The dog has been fairly
mellow so far - listens very well to me and we are working on training every day. However, in the last week, she has barked a little bit and snapped the air around my children - who are 12 and 15. They are getting scared of her. They do not mob her or act inappropriately as far as I can tell. The dog sleeps in my son's room (age 12) and last night refused to give up her spot on the bed so that my son could lie down. I had to intervene, which went very easily, but she does listen to me. I am concerned that we have a problem in the making. Any thoughts? Thanks for your time.Maggie
ANSWER ON DOG BITES with Children:
You are screwing up big time. For the sake of your children's safety you need to make changes in how you live with this dog.
I will not train you through emails but I will tell you where to go on my web site to learn how dangerous the mistakes you are making are.
Here are some articles I have written you should find and read:
DEALING WITH DOMINANT DOGS
PREVENTING DOG BITES IN CHILDREN
GROUND WORK TO BECOMING A PACK LEADERWhen you have a dog like this it needs to be trained - I will guarantee you that this dog is not fully trained. If it were, it would not be doing the things it's doing. Get a prong collar and train this dog. My 4 hour BASIC OBEDIENCE DVD will teach you how to train this dog.
Ground Work to Becoming a Pack Leader
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Questions on Dogs that Bites Kids:
Mr. Frawley,
I am emailing you to seek your professional opinion, on my dog’s behavior with my baby.
The dog gets hyper whenever you try and pick the baby up or play with him. It appears that he is extremely jealous! He has nipped at the baby on more than one occasion. If the baby is lying down and no one is touching him, the dog is fine. Mr. Frawley, I do not want to get rid of my dog. He is a good pet. I am running out of options and need some advice on what to do. I trust your opinion. What can I do to stop this behavior? I do not want to keep putting him away in his crate every time that I play with the baby. Please advise. Thanks in advance. My dog is a Shepherd from Czech. He is 2 ½ years old.
Regards,
Troy
ANSWER ON DOG BITES kids:
Put your dog away when your child is out. Your email makes ZERO sense !!!
Read the article I wrote on PREVENTING DOG BITES IN CHILDREN – parents with your attitude have dog attacks on their kids. It’s a damn dog – who cares if its in a crate compared to a dog bite. When dogs bite kids they bite them in the face!! I will guarantee you that most people who have dog attacks on their kids have warning signs like this.
It sounds to me like you have a dog that needs some very serious obedience training – with a prong collar. If you want to learn – get a prong collar and my 4 hour DVD on Basic Dog Obedience.
QUESTION ON DOG BITES and Kids:
I have come across your web site and found it very interesting. My husband and I own a dog named Bear. He is 6 years old. Bear is a mix of a Rottweiler and Chow. I have a very serious question for you, and hope you can help me.
Our dog is not good around children. Kids up to 13, he barks at, at occasionally nips at. Most recently he nipped at a young girls face, causing enough damage for stitches.
Bear is a very loving dog. Around my husband and I, he is very affectionate and really hates to be without us. Our problem is that we work all day and do not get to spend enough time with him. We generally blame ourselves for this behavior. Bear is trained. He listens more to my husband than I. However, he still is a very smart dog. Why is he lashing out at children? I am very scared, and feel I want to keep him...but I don't want a child to get hurt in my presence.
What can we do to help him. We plan on having children of our own, and I am petrified of his behavior.
Please help us.
Thank you
ANSWER ON DOG BITES and Children:
This is 100% a people problem not a dog problem. You are not going to like what I have to say – but the fact is I am more concerned with the safety of children than I am with pussy footing around with people who are clueless about their dog's temperament.
1- Your dog is not trained – you say as much in your email. “It minds most of the time.” A dog is either trained or its not trained. Saying its mostly trained is like saying you are partially pregnant. When you say he listens MOST OF THE TIME – this means he DOES NOT MIND UNDER DISTRACTION (if you don’t know what this means you need to read my web site).
2- You have your head in the clouds on this dog. A “NIP” to a child's face that causes stitches is a “DOG BITE” or a “DOG ATTACK.” Please – I don’t have patience for people with your attitude. I can assure you that had your dog bit one of my friends kids in the face it would be a dead dog. You either need to step to the line and come to terms with the fact that you own a dangerous dog or law enforcement will deal with you when this dog seriously hurts a child. Every time a dog bites a child it empowers the dog if it does not get seriously corrected.
3- Because this dog has not had adequate training it has issues with rank and pack drive. This is one of the reasons it looks at small children the way it does. It thinks it’s a higher rank than the child.
Your choice is to change the way you live with this dog or put the dog down.
If you choose to learn how to change your ways here are some articles to read:
1 - Preventing dog bites in children (which is where I am going to post this email)
2 - Dealing with Dominant Dogs
3 - Ground Work to establish yourself as a pack leader.
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Police Release Details On Week-Old Baby's Death
COVENTRY, R.I. - Police have explained how a family dog in Coventry killed
a baby girl.
Police said sometime after 8 a.m. Wednesday the infant's mother left the baby girl in the living room in a portable crib. The family's 5-year-old husky was also in the room.
Shortly afterward the mother went into the kitchen to get some juice. While in the kitchen she heard the baby cry and rushed back into the living room.
There, she found the child on the floor with a small amount of blood on her head and the dog sitting nearby. Police said the woman called her husband home from work as well as her own mother.
The family decided to take the child to the hospital to be checked out.
On the way to the hospital, they realized the baby wasn't breathing. They pulled into the nearest fire station in West Warwick.
"At that point they pulled into Station 2, and met with rescue personnel who began conducting CPR on the child in an attempt to resuscitate it," said Capt. Bryan Volpe of the Coventry Police Department.
Police said the infant's mother is too distraught to speak about what happened, but they have talked with the father.
"He's strong, he's strong for the family. He spoke to us very straightforward. He wants to give us the information as soon as he can. His wife physically can't. She's not in a good state right now," said Volpe.
An autopsy report said the infant had multiple dog bites and died of internal bleeding and injuries.
Police said no decision has been made as yet concerning the fate of the dog.
The animal will remain at the Coventry dog pound until further notice.
Question on Dog Bites Child:
Mr. Frawley,
I have a 60 lb, mixed breed, 7 year old dog with hip problems and a 3 year old son. My son thinks the dog hangs the moon and the dog has been disinterested in my son until about 4 months ago. The dog is very gentle and sweet and so is my little boy.Two months ago, my dog was chased down by a rabid woodchuck (NOT bitten). Only when my son and myself were in danger, did my dog turn and snap the woodchuck's neck. The vet said there wasn't even a mark on the animal.
Since that day, my dog has been very loving to my son (laying behind him as he is playing/watching tv, wanting to sleep in his room, etc.). Then yesterday, my son leaned back on the dog when she was behind him and accidentally hurt her hip. The dog bit him on cheek, bowing her head immediately following. I was right there, yet it happened so fast and I attended to my son, not to her. I have kept them separated since. The vet's office is being flippant about this because the bite barely broke the skin. What is your advice and what are my options? Previous to this, there have been no growling, barks, meanness, etc.
Thank you,
Heather
Ed's Answer to Dog Bites Child
You have failed your dog here. The dog basically has arthritic painful hips. You either have to control where and how the child and dog interact or find a new home for the dog. Bottom line is that children need to learn manners too. They need to learn limitations on how and when they interact with the dog.
Email on Getting Sued over Dog Bite:
We have owned a Boxer for four years and within the last year in a half we noticed a huge change in him since we moved to a new house and kids next door to us were constantly teasing him and he hated it. a year ago our dog bit a child entering our home unannounced. the child wasn't seriously injured, it was a bite on the arm. we have three children ourselves that are in and out of the house with friends all the time so my parents took the dog to stay at their home. they would bring the dog over when they would come to visit cause he was still our family pet. a few weeks ago my parents were visiting and brought the dog and another child entered our home unannounced with my 5 year old daughter and the dog was startled and went for her and bit her in the chest. she had 4 stitches and is recovering well. we put the dog to sleep the next day. was that the right thing to do, or should we have sought him help? the parents of the child sued my insurance company and got with the other little boys parents that he bit last year and now their also suing. are we going to face legal consequences too?
Answer on Getting Sued over Dog Bite:
You made mistakes here in how you raised this dog. It gave you plenty of warnings that it was a dominant dog with the growling and nipping (before the dog bites). A dog only has to growl at a child one time and that should have been enough to:
1- Get help
2- Get the dog into serious training
3- Got a dog crate, and keep the dog away from all children
4- Or found another home for the dogYou can read the article I wrote titled Preventing Dog Bites in Children.
Odds are your insurance company will pay off these bites and drop your insurance – so I recommend that you start to look for new insurance now. Then you are prepared.
Can you ever truly say that a dog with dominance aggression is cured? I have a male springer spaniel that I have been working with for years. We haven't had a problem in about 1 1/2. I think we are very consistent with our way of handling him but not sure what people on the outside looking in would say. He is not allowed in our bedroom, he has to sit and stay prior to eating and also before going thru a door and then wait for the come command. We also separate him when we have visitors to the house. There are several other things we do to try and help but mainly he gets nothing from us unless he does something for us. We are planning on having children and I can only assume that you can never say that our dog is cured. And I know that we would have to keep the dog away from any child but I know how curious children are and I fear the worse. It's easy with just the two of us but to add children to the mix!!!
Beth
ANSWER:
You are in the minority – the things you are doing are the right things. You are also correct – most people cannot cure dominance – they can often control it if they do everything right but they cannot cure it.
I wrote an article on how to prevent dog bites in children – you need to read it. Fact is you also need to train your children. Training dogs is a lot like training children. A child needs to know to stay away from a dog crate – this is not an option with a dominant dog so if it means a swat on the butt then so be it. They learn very quickly – people don’t give babies enough credit for being intelligent.
If you do the things in the article you will be fine.
Chow snaps at baby, what should I do?
Hi my name is Wendy. I have a four year old chow and a 20 month old baby. My chow is very loving and kisses the baby all the time. However if my son falls down she runs to him and snaps at him. I don't understand why she is doing this. It scares me that she may bite my baby. also if he has food she will stand by him and watch him eating so that he will give her food. I have given the dog to my parents because I am afraid that she will hurt my son. I would like to be able to keep her. Is there anything I could do? Also she hates company of any kind. She barks and runs backwards when people come over. she will not take food from strangers. She is territorial of the home and doesn't like people other than my parents to come over. Does she sound aggressive to you? She is a big baby. When we sleep she lays outside the bedroom door whining. She won't even go off the porch to use the bathroom unless you go out with her or stand at the door and demand it until she goes. if you do think she is aggressive, do you know any breeds that you would recommend with young children. Appreciate your time.
Answer on Chow snapping at baby:
This dog is dominant. It should NEVER be allowed near children.
Read the article I wrote on preventing dog bites in children.
The only way you should own a dog is if you get a grip on how to live with and train dogs. Any breed of dog can bite a child if pack behavior is not addresses. I would recommend two or three of my training DVD’s if you get another dog:
Your
Puppy
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CHAMP BITES KIDS AND FRIENDS:
Hello,
My name is kim. I have a boxer/beagle mix, male dog. "Champ" is 7 years old.
I have learned a lot this past few weeks talking to behavior dog experts.My stories are similar to the ones I read on your web sites. Champ at the age of two has become aggressive, it started with him getting loose by accident and the neighborhood kids tried to get him, he bit a little girl, she had stitches, her parents were rather good saying our dog must have smelled their dog on the girl because they have a female chow in heat. I accepted the reason. I was a mother at the time of two kids, I treat our dog good, always a fence in yard, never kennel bound, no kids being mean to him, truly a good environment.
Champ has nipped a few times, always seemed to be dark somehow, nipped at my friend in the front yard, dark hallway nipped at another friend, a boyfriend opened my sliding glass door held out his hand in a open hand, and champ bit him pretty good.
I am not making excuses, I always thought champ was protecting me and the two boys, because when he nipped or bit, he didn't know these people. now I have had two episodes where my 11 year old has brought two friends into the house and champ has actually lounged at them.
My now husband is somewhat fearful for our 1 year old. My husband has a male mutt, pitbull-chow-lab-rottweiller, yes his dog is very good, friendly around everyone, our dogs get along, except when we comes to food they cannot eat around each other because than its on, severely. Is it true that once a dog taste blood, they will always bite.
Like with everyone else champ is good around the older two, 11 & 7 year of age, listens to them. I realize now my mistakes from everything I read and know within the last two weeks. my gut says put him to sleep. Can I put a dog to sleep knowing it was my mistake on i should have been more strict, should I just be more cautious, get a shock collar, do i give up on him.
How do you know it is the right thing to do to put down your dog. Do you give up on him .
Please help me if you can
Kim
HOW TO STOP CHAMP FROM BITING KIDS:
Kim,
You asked the question “ Once a dog tastes blood will they always bite?” The answer is NO this is a STUPID OLD WIVES TALE.
With this said you own a dominant dog and these problems have developed because of the mistakes you have made in how you choose to live with your dog. As hard as you have tried you have still made mistakes.
Certainly killing this dog is a sure solution. But it does not have to be like this if you are prepared to educate yourself and your family. Then make the necessary changes so you can safely live with the dog.
I wrote an article on PREVENTING DOG BITES IN KIDS – this email will be posted there.
I can almost guarantee you that this dog is not obedience trained. At least not trained to distractions. My Basic Dog Obedience DVD will show you how to do this.
With this said obedience training is only a part of the problem, a necessary part but its not the entire solution for a dog like this.
I recommend that you get the DVD I recently finished (it was a 5 year project) titled DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS.
This DVD is 3 ½ hours long and does not cost not a lot of money. If you go to the web page you can read the outline of what I included.
You said you had been talking to a lot of experts. Let me offer a word of advice - You are always going to be exposed to people who offer advice on how to fix your dog's behavioral issues.
The problem is that most of these people don’t have the experience to offer sound advice. This results in a lot of bad information being passed out on how to deal with behavioral problems.
Pet owners like yourself need to figure out who has the experience to warrant being listened to.
Dog training is not my hobby, it’s a way of life. I have been training dogs for over 45 years. I have bred over 350 litters of working bloodline German Shepherds, I was a police K9 handler on a drug task force for 10 years and I have produced over 120 videos on dog training. Many of them directed towards professional dog trainers.
If my web site were printed out it would be over 10,000 pages. It is the largest dog training web site on the Internet. I have written 300 training article which are included on my site, I also have a dog training web discussion board which has 97,000 posts and growing every day. The board has 8,400 plus registered members and there are always over 100 people on the board at any time of the day.
Learn to use my web site search function.
Is this Rot a danger to myself and my baby?
Hi and thank you for a great site!!
My name is Dísa and me and my husband have a little over 3 year old rottweiler, male.
When I met my husband, he had two great dogs, Rottweilers, a male and female (sister & brother).
I love rottweilers and immediately fell in love with those dogs. He got them from britain and moved them here to Iceland, (where we live). they had to stay in quarantine for 6 months before he could take them home. They must have been about 9-10 months then.
When We started to live together the dogs were about 1 & half year old, they are very big, even for rottweilers, and the male, who we have now (he sold the female) is about 140pounds and looks more like a bear then a dog, beautiful dog as you can see from the photo.
What worries me, is that my husband is working all day at his pet-shop, and is never home until very late at night. The dog has his spot under the stairs behind a fence, and has a small space outside where he drinks, eats and poops of course :/
well, I tried once to take him out for a walk because I am a home working mom, it didn't go well at all because I am only 110pounds and the dog is much bigger and stronger then I am, even my husband who is pretty strong and a big guy, has to use all his strength to walk him, which he almost never does!! So the dog dragged me his ways and we couldn't go home until he wanted to.
He always barks loudly at people who knock or come visit and we have to tell him to stop barking many times before he does. He has once killed a rabbit, by playing, throwing it around until there wasn't a bone unbroken in the rabbits body. He doesn't get any exercise and stay's mostly behind his fence under the stairs and is let out to his little space few times a day. Then he barks if he see's a bird or hears the children play next door. He doesn't get along with other dogs accept females.
3 months ago, we had a baby girl, my husband had little time to stay home for that either:o/
When my husband talks to the baby, the dog barks and acts moody, also all of a sudden, sometimes when I pass the dog with the baby in my arms he sometimes growls. Not all the time though.
What scares me, is that no matter how i talk to my husband about taking better care of the dog by giving him time, and take him outside, let him run and breath fresh air while playing at a big area where he can move properly, I have asked him what the point is having such a big dog with such needs and don't having the time to give him what he needs, he doesn't listen and only reacts when I get angry, takes him out for a big run out, maybe once a month or even every other two months.
I see this dog as a creature whose life is depressing and miserable, he's alone in a way and his needs are not provided!!
I am scared that he might just snap one day, with no warning, and then there will be nothing stopping him, and the one who might anger him the most, (the baby) might then just be the first priority target. I have told my husband that unless he starts taking better care of the dog, he will die or go crazy, my husband response, that I'm talking bullshit because the dog is such a good dog. Basically ignores me.
Am I right or is this fear of mine over react from my behalf? (I do hope I'm wrong, I really do!!) Can you read something from the info I gave you about the dog and his (poor) life. Is he likely to snap and go nuts? Is there a potential danger to the baby or us or something? I know the dog is not happy, the poor thing, he just cant be!! And this must come down on his health, right??
Please, I will be so thankful if you would take a few min and answer my questions. Thank you kindly.
Kind regards,
Dísa
Ed's Answer to Dominant Dog:
Yes, you have good reason to be concerned.
1- The dog should be in a dog crate, not have free run the way he does now. That only elevates his territorial drive.
2- The dog needs serious training. If he is growling at you he does not respect you.
3- In my opinion your husband should train this dog (get my Basic Dog Obedience DVD and my DVD on Training with remote collars) - then he should teach you to handle this dog
Pug Bites Baby;
Mr. Frawley,
I read through many of the emails that concerned parents have asked. They were all pretty lengthy and I am thinking that my question is short and should be fairly simple.Do circumstances really matter when considering to keep a dog that bites a child? Should it be a one strike and your out deal? I would have said yes to that until it happened to our family Wednesday night. My judgment feels clouded. I hoping for you expert opinion.
My 15 month old Pug that we have enjoyed and raised from a rescue group at 3 months old bit my 2 1/2 year old daughter on the face when she went to hug him (when I wasn't looking) while he was eating his dinner. My critical mistake was not drilling it into my kids to leave him alone when he is eating. I just never saw him show aggression towards them. He is playful, forgiving, loving, and adores them. However, I am ready to place him in a new home today if necessary. Should there be no second chances for a dog that bites a child? I am also willing to do anything... be it formal training, taking him to a behaviorist, what ever it takes to do the right thing.
Thanks for any advice you can offer.
Amy
Ed's Answer on dog biting baby
The answers to this email are found in this article. If you can find a way of controlling the living arrangements of this dog, train this dog and control your child then you can make this work.
The fact is this is more of an owner problem than a dog problem.
5 Year old picks up dog and gets bit in face:
Ed
I have a 14 mo old lhasa apso who is quite nippy. we have been working with him on the nipping for 4 weeks. Tonight my 5 yr old daughter came up behind him startled him as she picked him up he growled and bit her in the cheek. He did scrape her and bruised her, my husband is thinking we made a mistake in selecting this breed and wants to find a new home for him. Any suggestion ? My daughter is a very mild mannered young lady and she does handle him very gently. He has also shown some forms of dominance as he has been mounting some of his toys and tries to mount my daughters legs too. Any suggestions.
Missy
Ed's Answer
This is an owner problem more than a dog problem. A 5 year old should learn what IS and IS NOT allowed with a dog. Picking it up IS NOT ALLOWED.
The dominance issues are developing because you are not addressing pack behavior issues.
QUESTION:
I have a question. You have been a huge help in helping me to develop a very strong obedient GSD! I have both your videos, 8 weeks and basic obedience. Now here is the question. I have an almost two year old male GSD, who is very great. He is obedient and understands who comes first. He is a bit spoiled, (I know!!), and we are preparing for our first child, who will be a boy. I have socialized him greatly around children since he was a puppy, and he has never shown aggression towards kids. I'm no dog expert but I am certain that he will be very jealous of the new addition. Is there anything that I should do to start preparing him for this new arrival, like leave baby powder smelling blankets by his cage, or anything else that people tend to allegedly know so much about!!!!? I just don't want to take any chances with our child, and our dog feeling like there is a competition. Any help would be great! He's not a perfect dog, but he is so used to the attention being on him.
Thank so much!
Brent
Ed's Answer on Newborn Baby and Dog
You don't want to leave baby cloths near the cage - in fact you do the opposite - you train the dog to stay away from those smells. Do what I explained in this article.
My dog attacked two kids in my yard:
Hi Ed,
My 11 month old GSD was in the garden eating when 2 young girls came in to deliver something and he attacked them.
My garden is COMPLETELY fenced and this has never been a problem before as we have very few visitors, but I did know he could be aggressive as he was VERY defensive of the home when we had people over.
Of course I corrected him severely but it did nothing for his "rage". Turned out he had a "nip" and not a bite at one of the girls and no real harm was done (no broken skin).
This morning I was taking him to my mothers and he went nuts at the neighbor (again a fenced garden) jumping on the fence trying to get him etc.
I asked the neighbor to come closer to the fence slowly and I gave him some hotdog to throw for my dog, which he ignored, and continued to jump on the fence etc. At this time I went to correct the dog, as he was barking and he bit my arm.
Now granted the skin wasn't broken and it didn't hurt but is this a sign of things to come? I've had aggression problems with this dog before and I thought we were making progress but this is a step WAY backwards.
Also last night I saw him go into avoidance while barking at someone coming into my mums house for the first time. I had been told he was not a nervy dog by a previous evaluation I had done by a shepherd expert (he was pretty good) but the behavior last night blows that right out of the water in my mind.
Couple of questions:
1. Is this likely to continue regardless of how hard I train him (we've been working pretty hard on his training).
2. Can I do something to stop him becoming a nerve bag? Maybe he's already there!
3. Can I trust this dog? I'm not going to make excuses for any behavior.
4. If I can't trust this dog should I euthanize or re-home to a GSD rescue? I can't live with a dog I can't trust.
Some of these questions I'm asking myself but feel free to provide the answers you would give in the same situation.
This dog is well socialized and trained and is very good around kids/ other dogs etc. but seems to be becoming more and more nervous and I KNOW he's not had a bad experience as he is never off leash or out of sight.
Would I get the same behavior from a dog from working lines rather than show lines or are working class dogs less nervous in general?
I've been told that I would have been much better getting a dog from working lines as they are MUCH more stable and willing to work for you. Is this true?
Sorry for ranting for so long but I'm just annoyed right now.
Cheers,
John
Ed's Answer to dog that attacks kids
John, while this can be an age issue the dog obviously has a few screws loose in his head. I had a look at a couple of the web sites listed above. More wordy than effective in my opinion.
I recently read a web site that said the following on its first page “A true top dog is more likely to share a toy, a bone, or a sleeping place, than fight over one.” That’s just flat wrong.
Bottom line is the dog sounds more like it has weak nerves than a dominance problem. When a dog is at the level your dog is at you can clicker these dogs to death and socialize the snot out of them and you will still have a weak nerved sharp dog. Clickers and socializing will help dogs with less of a problem but your dog is on the edge ( the edge of a needle).
You need to do serious obedience training with the dog. Teach it that inappropriate aggression will always result in a correction that it will remember. The dog needs to remember the correction the next time it thinks it needs to show aggression.
You can dance around the bush as much as you wish but if your dog does not respect the possible correction more than it fears the GHOSTS IN ITS HEAD you will never solve this problem.
This does not mean you go out and tear his head off in OB training - you set your bond with the dog there. Teach him that you are consistent and fair in your corrections along with praising the heck out of him when he does what you ask. But you need to correct to the level of control for aggression.
Food is not the problem for this dog. You found this out with your neighbor. It will ignore food when stressed.
Here are some DVDs to consider:
QUESTION on Preventing Dogs from Biting Children:
Mr. Frawley,
I am working on something regarding dog safety in a children's program I teach. I have taught arms down at the sides, not in a fist, for a curious dog who approaches a child. In the class I was teaching today, someone who is a pathologist in our Vet School suggested the crossed arms. A Vet Tech who is also watching the class checked him on that and said that the arms at the sides were fine for a curious dog.
In a search, I have both suggestions from different groups ...Humane Society says hands at the side ...other organizations say "Like a tree with your arms wrapped around you," and the American Vet Association and CDC just say be still with no suggestions on the arms.
Your site indicates that you really understand behavior of dogs, their dominance, and that you really seem to care for children and the dog bites. So, I'm going to pose the question to you...what is best, and do you have any supporting research? As you can tell, I work at a university and nothing seems to work without supporting research with people who have PhD's. ;) The pathologist is going to write a letter to my supervisor suggesting the change. I am teaching from a curriculum that was researched 10 years ago and I want to make sure that I'm teaching the right thing.
Thank you for your help.
(Oh, my gosh, and the pictures of the mastiff on the baby killed me!)
Thank you,
Joan
ANSWER:
Fold the hands. If a dog approaches a child with arms down by his side, the dog will automatically smell the child's hands. Kids hands always have interesting smells (like food). When a dog smells the hand - most kids will jerk the hand away. This quick movement will trigger prey drive and if a dog is inclined to bite it will bite in that moment.
I hope this helps
POSTED: 1:37 pm EDT March 15, 2007
HOUSTON -- A Houston mother told police that the family Dachshund bit off her 5-week-old son's genitals while she was sleeping, but investigators said they are skeptical of the mother's claims. Houston TV station KPRC reported that the baby was rushed to Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital on Tuesday after he was injured at The Huntley apartment complex."She said she woke up to hear the baby's cries and found the family pet standing over the boy," Estella Olguin, Child Protective Services, told KPRC. "She said the dog had been the one to bite the child's genitals off.""The injury that the child has is really not consistent with that of a dog bite or mauling," Olguin said. "We've never seen a case like this, when an animal is being blamed for mutilating a child's genitals."The baby is in critical condition at the hospital, but Olguin said he is expected to survive. He will face many surgeries to treat internal injuries and help repair the wound, she said.The baby's mother has talked to police and CPS investigators. She has not been implicated in any wrongdoing."We're looking into what could have caused these injuries and who could have caused these severe injuries to this baby," Olguin said.CPS has taken emergency custody of the infant. Houston Animal Control has taken possession of the dog.
QUESTION:
Hi,
My husband and I are owners of a chow that is around 6 years old. We just had a baby about a year ago and since then his attitude has changed towards me and I don’t know what to do. I have attempted on multiple occasions to put the dog outside or tell him simple commands and when I attempt this he tries to bite my hand or does a semi-lunge. He has become aggressive and does not like to listen to me. I feel scared to have my daughter on the ground when the dog is inside but I am also scared to discipline him when my husband is not home.
I feel it is just a matter of time and Simba will bite either me or my daughter.
I want to get rid of the dog and my husband keeps saying nothing will happen. My way of thinking is to prevent an accident from happening instead of waiting for the accident to happen.
Please help!
Thanks!
Kimberly
ED's ANSWER:
I wrote an article titled PREVENTING DOG BITES IN CHILDREN.
I recommend you and your husband read it and follow the advice.
Be careful with this dog. It’s not trained.
If you want to make it work you can but it means making changes in how you live with the dog and then training the dog.
I recommend that you get the 4 ½ hour DVD I did on my Basic Obedience program.
You will probably find that you have not had the full picture on the training steps for training your dog. A dog must go through training steps before it can be considered fully trained.
When you read the description of the DVD on my web site you will find out why I am not a fan of taking an untrained dog to obedience classes. No professional dog trainer would ever take his dog to an obedience class with 15 or 20 untrained dogs and try and train it there. Dogs cannot learn when faced with this kind of distraction.
If you read the testimonials on my DVD you will see that my customers feel the same way.
I also recommend that you read the article I recently wrote titled THE THEORY OF CORRECTIONS IN DOG TRAINING.
While obedience training is not the solution to all behavioral issue it most definitely is part of the solution for every single behavioral problem.
I recommend that you get the DVD I recently finished (it was a 5 year project) titled DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS.This DVD is 3 ½ hours long and does not cost not a lot of money. If you go to the web page you can read the outline of what I included.
My husband and I adopted a five month old rot/lab mix we named Jake from a local shelter. My husband is a cop and we bought him to be a guard dog for when he wasn't home. He is naturally alert and protective of my husband and me. After getting him home we found him to be extremely food aggressive, "nippy" with our children and only listening to my husband. After he attacked our beagle over his food the first time, we sought advice from an employee at Petsmart and were told that he needed to be put down. Not having trained a puppy, we told our five kids what was recommended and to say good-bye to Jake. I couldn't believe there were no alternatives and searched the internet. Your site was the first I came upon and I immediately started training him. He is brilliant. We have had him about a month and a half. I have taught him hand signals for sit, stay, and down. He's learned leave it, drop, get it (our way of saying fetch) and release when I want him to stop a stay position. The most important thing he has learned is to respect me. We had a trainer come to our house to help us break his aggression with food and it worked. He does not have all his kinks worked out. As a matter of fact my 11 year old daughter was bitten by him today. He was alone with her after she let him in from outside. He didn't break skin. He knocked her down by jumping on her and then bit her shoulder. He is very pack oriented and we have not worked hard enough on establishing our children as higher in rank. Maybe some will think it's crazy I want to keep him after that, but Jake doesn't know better. He will, thanks to your advice and training techniques. I'm not giving up on him. Thank you for your hope and inspiring us to try harder.
Sincerely,
Amy
ANSWER:
I would suggest you don’t leave any of your kids unattended with this dog, while it sounds like you are making progress I think you need to know that as dogs mature the tendencies you are seeing may become more pronounced.
If you haven’t purchased any of our videos, I would recommend the 4 hour DVD on Basic Dog Obedience.
You will probably find that you have not had the full picture on the training steps for training your dog. A dog must go through training steps before it can be considered fully trained.
When you read the description of the DVD on the web site you will find out why we are not fans of taking an untrained dog to obedience classes. No professional dog trainer would ever take his dog to an obedience class with 15 or 20 untrained dogs and try and train it there. Dogs cannot learn when faced with this kind of distraction.
If you read the testimonials on the DVD you will see that our customers feel the same way.
I also recommend that you read the recently written article titled THE THEORY OF CORRECTIONS IN DOG TRAINING.
While obedience training is not the solution to all behavioral issue it most definitely is part of the solution for every single behavioral problem.
I believe that this recently finished DVD could really help you. It’s titled DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS and was a 5 year project.
This DVD is 3 ½ hours long. You can go to the web page and read the outline of what’s included on the video. My DVDs are not meant to be watched one time. The fact is anyone who needs this information needs to watch it many, many times because every time they watch it they will pick up new ideas.
Hope this helps.
Hi. My husband and I own a year old German Shepherd. He is very loyal and loving. We have noticed some aggression problems from as early as 4 months. He would growl at adults that early. We have two children, 8 years old and 18 months. He has never been aggressive to any one in the family. Our main problem is that we are military. My husband was unexpectedly deployed shortly after we brought our puppy home. I have not been able to train him at home and keep up with my little one. Couple that with his aggressive streak with strangers and I have avoided taking him out in public on leash for fear of an accident.
At six months when we took him to get shots, he bit the vet assistant on the hand (after minutes of threatening and warning she still proceeded to shove her hand in his face as if to force him to like her). My husband and I were devastated and felt terrible. The vet said we would be having trouble with him. We had our puppy fixed around 7 or 8 months. The vet who did the procedure said we were going to have a major liability with our dog if we did not get him under control. We both feel embarrassed and angry that we are labeled as terrible people because we own such a "vicious" dog. They don't understand how loving he is with us. I am afraid to take him to obedience classes for fear of yet another incident.
I had another episode today with one of my daughters friends. My daughter opened the garage without checking with me first and the door to backyard from the garage was open. Our dog came through the garage, my daughter's friend started immediately screaming and running into the street. Our dog went after her and bit her in the bottom. It was nothing serious and he was not pursuing her after the initial chase. But, I am at my wits end. It is way too much to handle all by myself. My husband wont be home for another two and a half months.
Mainly I am looking for advice. My husband and I do not want to get rid of him. We need help in fixing this aggression problem. I had a German shepherd as a child and know full well that they aren't the tail-wagging, stranger-friendly dog that everyone wants them to be. I can handle that. I can't handle the threat of him being out of control and the state telling us that we have to put him down! We thought that if it is not feasible for us to train him, that perhaps we could offer him to an agency (military, police, etc.) where he would get the satisfaction as a working dog and perhaps his aggression would be tempered. We purchased him from a local breeder in Southern California. His father and grandfather were grand victors for the last two years according to the breeders. He comes from a good blood line for show. However, advice I have received from other trainers in the area who know of the breeders say that the breeders focus mainly on show and not temperament. They have said plainly that the dogs from these particular breeders need lots of training from the get go and they have a tendency to be aggressive dogs. I feel like we don't have any other choice but to put him down. My husband and I both agree that we have to face the fact that we don't have the ideal environment for this dog.
Any assistance/advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance for your time. I know that you are tremendously busy.
ANSWER:
The dog you have has weak nerves. Read the article and Q&A I wrote on Fear Biters. READ ALL THE Q&As.
The issue is you have not properly trained this dog nor are you acting as responsible pet owners. Sorry if the fact and truth STINGS but I am not here to hold your hand.
The dog should have his environment controlled with dog crates and/or a dog kennel. You are not doing that – if you were the child would not have been bitten.
You are not listening to your vets – when pups act like this it’s a fear based response. Dogs with good nerves do not do this.
You are in avoidance of your dog biting a child. Read the article I wrote on how to prevent dog bites in children. But to say “It was nothing serious” is irresponsible. Any time a dog bites a child IT'S SERIOUS !!! The next time will be worse.
The fact is these kinds of dogs can be trained and they can be housed in a manner that does not allow them to be around strangers (adults or children). If you choose to do this then train this dog and get his housing under control. If you can't do this then find another home for the dog or put it to sleep.
If you would like to learn more about the principles of obedience training a dog, read the description for my Basic Dog Obedience video.
Hello, my name is Christina. I was searching on the internet about dog bites and happen to find you articles. I have a huge problem with my german shepherd. We have had him since he was 6 weeks old. He is now about 16 months old. We have always had a problem with him jumping on people, just playing. He has never tried to attack anyone, until last week. I have a 3 year old daughter,4 year old son, and a 9 month old daughter. We got a german shepherd for protection and mainly just have a good family pet. I always let my 3 year old and my 4 year old play with him in our fenced in front yard without any worries. A lot of the times I am inside. I totally trusted him. I was washing dishes and watching them play outside the window. My kids were jumping on the trampoline. Just before I came back inside I gave Conan,our dog, his bowl of food. I saw my daughter go up to him and start aggravate him by patting him on the head while he was eating. I quickly knocked on the window and told her to get away from him while he is eating. A few months ago he was eating his food inside the house and she went up to him and he growled at her. When he growled my husband whipped him pretty hard and he never did it again. After my daughter walked away from him my son started walking towards him, he was probably planning on aggravating him also. Well before my son even got in arms reach of him Conan jumped out and bit by his armpit. He had to have two stitches. When he got bit I ran out and got him and brought him in the house screaming and woke up my husband. Well my husband chained him up and hit him so hard, he busted our dogs lip open, he was hit pretty hard, he deserves it. Conan knew he did wrong as soon as it happened. Conan restrained himself from biting my daughter, she was the one that was patting him ont the head while he was eating. My son was just walking towards him and he bit him. I wonder if he has something against my son or already ran out of patients. I never thought Conan would bite one of the kids. I have him in the house a lot around all of my kids. Before this happened I would leave Conan in the room with my 9 month old daughter while I was cooking. Now all of my trust is gone. I want to get rid of him, but then again I don't. My husband seems to think that he won't do it again because he beat him so hard. I don't know what to do. I know he needs some kind of training. Conan listens to my husband, because he knows if he doesn't he gets punished hard. Like when someone walks in our fence usually Conan jumps all over him or her, he just wants attention. If I tell him to go lay down, he doesn't listen but if my husband just looks at him he runs to his dog house. I know that I need the control over him like my husband does. He bit my son, and he is already 16 months old do you think it is too late to train him and do you think with proper training he will bite again? If he bites my kid again I will never forgive myself, maybe I should just put him to sleep. Please help!!!
ANSWER:
Some people should not own dogs. I think you need to consider finding a nice home for this dog.
The problems here are with you and your husband not understanding what is going on with your dog. You had a plain warning that this dog did not want anyone near its food. Yet you feed the dog outside when the kids are loose. This is not a dog problem it’s a people problem. This may be hard to swallow but that happens to be the truth.
SECOND QUESTION:
I know, I take full responsibility for the dog biting my son. I have tried to teach my kids not to go around them while he was eating, but they are kids they will forget or don't understand why I tell them this. I know now that I should have never fed him outside with the kids. The very first time he growled months ago I thought that my husband punished him good enough so he wouldn't do it again. You said in one of your articles that he is at the age where he is growing into maturity and trying to be more dominant, maybe this is the case. He does do little things like rush in the door first shoving everybody else aside, I never gave that much thought until I read some of your article. It will be a week tomorrow that he bit my son. Since my son has got bit whenever they are outside playing I have Conan tied up, this weekend my husband is going to close off part of the fence so we can just put him in there instead of him being tied up. I really do want to train him and calm him down so I don't have to get rid of him. You told me I should find a nice home for him but I think he has a nice home here. Is it to late now to train him?
ANSWER:
It is maturity that is going on here.
If you keep the dog – get a dog crate and use it in the house – no toys down in the house or yard – NOT EVER – They are triggers to make the dog aggressive if the dog thinks they are his toys.
Put up a dog kennel outside and train THE KIDS to stay away. This is not a one sided affair – kids need to mind and respect the rules – no matter what age they are.
And the dog needs serious obedience training. This does not mean BEAT HIM UP – it means an obedience program that is on-going and makes sense.
If you would like to learn more about the principles of obedience training a dog, read the description for my Basic Dog Obedience video .
UPDATE:
I know you don't like emails but for some reason I just wanted to let you know that I am giving our dog a new home tomorrow. It will be hard after having him for a year and a half, we did get attached to him. I don't know how in the world I even considered the possibility of keeping him after he bit my son. I am just so thankful that my son only had to have two little stitches. I know that is bad enough but it could have been a lot worse. Conan used to be so good, only recently has he been getting an attitude. I haven't broke the news to my husband yet he is still working. I am sure he will do what I want to do, our kids are our main priority. Thank you again for listening and your advice.
Christina
Yesterday we put our very loving 7 year old dog to sleep. I rescued him from the SPCA when he was only 4 months. He had been hit by a car and had his left leg removed. During his life he has been exposed to many kinds of people, and always showed affection to them. He had never had formal dog training. But my husband showed him that he was the dog not the master. By controlling his actions and other training techniques. However about 8 months ago we had a bunch of people over that he knew very well, and a girl about 18 tried to pet him while he was eating and he (for the first time ever) snapped at her and made a small cut to her cheek. I thought it was because of all the excitement in the room and the girl going near her while he ate. We stopped having more than a few people over at a time. But 4 months after I had an 8 year old girl over and she and Rocky always played together. But just before she was to go home, she went and tried to pet him, ( while he was resting) and he snapped at her and made a small cut on her forehead. This freaked us out,and then we had very few people over and never let anyone pet him. He stilled seemed so happy and normal. We had no other problems with him until yesterday morning. I went to pet him before I left for work, (he was lying down but awake) and he barked furiously at me. I took him to the vet, and he suggested that we put him to sleep, because he was a big dog and could potentially do a lot of damage to someone. Also the vet thought that Rocky would be to old for proper training. I'm feeling very sad because Rocky was a very good dog. He just seemed to become more vicious and always going for the face. Did I do the right thing? Can a good dog turn vicious and dangerous?
Thank you for replying to my email. I just found your Q&A on the web, and I can tell that you are very knowledgeably about dogs.
Lana
ANSWER:
You did the right thing.
Dear Mr. Frawley,
Thank you for your sound advice. I have a question and would appreciate your advice. I think I know what to do but probably just need to hear it. I have a 3 yr old daughter and when we visit my in-laws (her Grandparents), their mini yorkie growls and charges her. She doesn't do anything to the dog for it to charge her. It has bit her once when the dog was sitting in grandma's lap and my daughter touched the dog by accident. It punctured the skin on both sides of her hand, but nothing that needed stitches. Actually, the dog has bitten everyone but me because I won't go near it. They put the dog behind baby gates, but it gets loose when the other kids move the gate to go somewhere. It's such a small dog and I don't want to look crazy, but should we refuse to go to family events until they get rid of the dog? I don't think they will get rid of the dog--they did say if it bit her they'd get rid of it, but once it happened, they didn't do anything. Just baby gates I trip over--yes, I've thought of deliberately falling on the dog. Have you heard of a small dog causing much bite damage? I need some facts to back up my reasoning because they will think I'm being irrational--seriously!
Thank you,
Marie
ANSWER:
This is a dangerous situation for your baby - VERY DANGEROUS. When she is bit she will be bit in the face!!!
Do not go to these peoples' house unless they get a dog crate and keep the dog in the crate while you are there. When they complain, you have to make it clear why you will not come there. This is crazy.
Do you want to gamble with your child's FACE?
Show them this email and have them read the article I wrote on PREVENTING DOG BITES IN CHILDREN.
Question:
Ed,
My wife let my dog into the dining room to 'clean up' the cheese that my son had dropped on the floor during dinner. My 2 yr old son started grabbing the cheese on the floor, and after several minutes of this my wife heard my dog growl and my son cry. After awhile my wife noticed that my son had small cuts (less than 1mm) on his eyelid and along his cheek. These cuts barely drew blood. I don't mean to downplay the serious nature of this reaction. My dog nipped my son in a "Get away from my scraps" message. It could have been the eye instead of the eyelid.My dog is a 7 yr old Rhodesian ridgeback unuttered male. He loves people and other dogs,except other unuttered males. Although very friendly he does have trouble obeying. It takes several repetitions of "sit" for him to sit and wait while we're eating. He pulls on walks but tends to listen to me if I use a stern deep serious voice. He does get defensive about his food. He will growl at me if I come up and pretend to eat it. My son has bothered my dog while he's eating probably 20 times. He's never growled at my son while doing this. He has growled at my son when he's been sleeping on the couch covered and my son pokes him and pulls the cover off him. My son was apparently hitting him with a stick today without incident. We correct this behavior in our son as soon as we see it too. Our dog will walk away when pestered by our son.
After the bite he was scolded by my wife and put downstairs in the bedroom. When I got home 20 minutes later and found out, I went down and gave him a hard slap on the nose, grabbed him by the muzzle, and have been repeating the commands, "Gentle" and "No biting" all night.
We think we should neuter our dog. Would you recommend this? What else should we do?
Thanks,
Luke
Ed's Response:
This is 100% an owner problem and not a dog problem.
The way you have handled this is drop dead stupid. So stupid I am not sure this is not a prank email.
You have created this situation by the way you live with this dog. You have not established a pack structure or properly trained this dog - this has resulted in a dog that doesn't not know his rank within the family pack.
If you want to learn how to fix this read my free eBooks and get a couple of my training DVD's My web site has a large number of FREE eBooks that I have written. Go to the main directory for eBooks.
We have a 4 year old Schutzhund III, male, German Shepherd that my husband trained from a puppy. We have had some dominant issues, but they have all been non-aggressive (i.e. going through doors first, running up/down the stairs ahead of us) and have been ceased since reading your article on dealing with the dominant dog (thank you!). Our 2 year old daughter has just reached the stage of exhibiting annoying behaviors toward our dog and cat (i.e. pulling hair, screaming, poking, etc.). Our dog, Sampson, takes commands from her (i.e. sit, out) without hesitation and they play well together, but an incident occurred wherein Sampson treated her like a puppy in that he growled at her, pushed her to the ground, placed his paw on her back and his mouth on her head. You could see where his mouth had been, but there was no damage (i.e. no open skin, bleeding, bruising). I understand that this was an expression of dominance over my daughter due to an action that she elicited that he did not like (I think she flanked him). This incident occurred while my husband was at work and Sampson has had little obedience training from me. Do you feel that this behavior could escalate and is there a way to teach him that our daughter's pack order needs to be raised? (We realize that I need to affirm my pack order by doing regular obedience training with him as well.) Have you encountered instances with this before and do you feel that this dog is safe to have around our daughter? Thank you in advance for your response.
Sincerely,
Gayle
ANSWER:
This is definitely a dominance issue. I can not tell you if it will escalate. I can tell you that I WOULD ASSUME THAT IT WILL ESCALATE and you should change the way you live with your dog.
I have written an article titled Preventing Dog Bites in Children. You need to read it. The simple fact that you allowed the baby and the dog to be in the same room and you were not there is truly disturbing. You are asking for an incident.
You should also get my DVD on Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive Dogs.
This dog may be the sweetest nicest dog in the world and knows how to be gentle (it sounds like it is) but are you willing to gamble with your child’s safety??
Question:
I need help explaining to my mother in law that her dog is not safe and should not be around children.
1st incident, my mother in-law was getting in between the 2 dogs when they were fighting and the Female big her leg. It broke skin and it was pretty bad.
2nd incident, Her 2 dogs were fighting and her son jumped on his bed to get away from the dogs and the female bit his ankle.
3rd incident, My mother in law and her son were wrestling around being a little rowdy and she opened the door where the dog was and he bit her sons leg and than his ankle.
She keeps saying that these are all justifiable reasons for the dog biting.
She got rid of the dog and 4 days later turns around and gets the dog back.
I told her I refuse to let her watch my 3 year old daughter anymore and I am going to get a new babysitter. She keeps telling me dog won't hurt my daughter. All it takes is one time. She can't get this through her head. I couldn't see her trying to train this dog either.
What do I do to get through to her that this dog should not be around children?
Answer:
Send her to this web page http://www.leerburg.com/kidbites.htm tell her to read the article and look at the photos. Ask her how she would feel if her grandchild was to end up looking like those kids. Print it off and give it to her if you need to.
Then send her to this page and have her watch the free video clip.
She needs to train her dogs, and keep her grandchild safe. If she won’t do either of those things I wouldn’t take my child there either.
Question:
Ed,
Yesterday I had a situation where my dog bit my 3 year old nephew. My dog is a Catahoula leopard hound and is probably the sweetest animal I have ever know. He has been well socialized as we go to dog parks often. The neighborhood children often come and ask if he can come outside to play with them, which of course we always supervise. He has never shown the tiniest bit of aggression towards any human being ever, except for my nephew. My nephew has screamed at him, run up and kicked him for no reason, and is very inconsistent, sometimes petting him and sometimes yelling at him to get away from him. I try to never have my dogs around my nephew because of this, but yesterday we had a family get together and I did not want to leave my 2 dogs at home alone for 16 hours, so I brought them with me. When my dog saw my nephew that morning, he took his screaming for a little bit and then growled at him a little, so I put him outside. Even when they are in the house together, I never leave the dog with him, I always sit next to my dog with my hand on him so nothing could ever happen. I was gone from the house and had left my dogs outside and didn't even know anyone would be there while I was gone. Some family came back while I was gone and let the dogs in the house. My nephew walked up to my dog, bent over and said hello to him, and my dog bit him. It wasn't a full on attack, it was just a bite and let go, but it happened to be in the face because that's what was leaning towards him.
My nephew had to get a few stitches, but his injuries are relatively minor and should leave no scarring.
Even so, I fully realize the gravity of this situation. I understand that I may have to put my dog to sleep, as my brother-in-law is insisting it, or maybe possible give him away to someone.
I just don't understand how this happened. I would never have let my nephew approach him like that had I been there.
Is it normal for a dog to react if it has been harassed in the past by someone, even if it is not happening at that very moment?
I've heard dogs that bite once are prone to bite again. Do you think my dog would be a dangerous dog in the future?
Thanks,
Jaime
Cindy's Answer:
I would say that this dog should not be re-homed into a family with children, if you end up finding him a new place to live. I don't believe that the dog is at fault here, but the people.
Some dogs don't like anyone in their personal space and will warn first and then if the warning was not heeded, they bite. Most adults don't read dog warning signals and children are notorious for being oblivious to the signs dogs show when they want to be left alone. You made a huge mistake in taking this dog to this gathering without making sure you had a secure place to leave him , especially knowing he had shown aggression to your nephew in the past. You may have cost this dog his life by being careless. Simply crating this dog in a location away from the family gathering (in the shade or in a secure room) would have prevented this whole thing.
Your dog is already dangerous around children, as proved by the bite your nephew sustained in the face.
I feel that situations like this are SO avoidable, but they happen every day. Hopefully your nephew fully recovers and isn't afraid of dogs long term. They psychological damage that kids sustain from dog bites are just as scarring as physical marks can be. The parents of kids and owners of dogs need to work together to educate kids to leave dogs alone and the dog owners need to train and supervise their dogs so things like this don't happen.
"Preventing Dog Bites in Children" is something for your nephew's parents to read, so this doesn't happen again.
Cindy
A Response:
I was not careless. I left my dog securely in the back yard and no one was even there, and I didn't know they were going to be there. His mother came back early and allowed the child to let the animals inside by himself. I would never have done that, first off because I wasn't going to allow them to play together anymore that day. I would have loved to supervise my dog, but I wasn't there to have that option.
I have already gotten the insight of a vet and a dog behaviorist, but thanks for your input anyway.
Jaime
Another Response from Cindy:
I am quoting you here...
"I would have loved to supervise my dog, but I wasn't there to have that option." Last time I checked, supervision required being physically present.
Your dog would have been better off left at home. Obviously the yard you left him in was NOT secure because he was easily removed by someone when you were not supervising.
Like I said, the adult humans were to blame here... not the child or the dog. Poor handling of the dog and the child are obvious.
No vet or behaviorist worth their salt would disagree, I am sure. I'm not sure why you wrote, but when mistakes are made that end up with accidents like this many people look for ways to justify it. Accidents like this are almost always because of mistakes we humans make, the dogs are only behaving in a manner that serves them. I think it should be a lesson learned and hopefully your dog won't lose his life because of carelessness.
Cindy
Reply from Jaimie:
I am not trying to justify it. I was trying to find out if my dog was a huge threat to anyone in the future, so now I have that information. You don't have to worry, my dog is not being put to sleep. Of course there was human error, and I understand that, and of course lessons had been learned. All I wanted to know was if that was the issue or if my dog had any kind of major problem itself. Yours was a web site that came up with a lot of dog bite information, but don't worry I will never come to you guys with any kind of issue ever again, because we are all pained enough by this situation. I don't need to be berated by strangers.
Jaime
Cindy's Final Response:
I wasn't berating you, but trying to make a point that you didn't seem to be willing to accept. I'm glad your dog is not being put down, other than this incident he sounds like a nice dog. I am sure in his mind he was defending himself from this little person that he already has a shaky history with.
I don't believe your dog is a "ticking time bomb" or one of those dogs who is looking for trouble. I think he doesn't like kids in his space, and he has been put in positions where he didn't feel like you would protect him so he took it upon himself to do it. He is a dog that I would consider dangerous around small kids. Biting kids is a major problem, but one that can be managed if you look at it from all angles. Obedience training and management.
People underestimate how much our dogs look to us for protection from things that make them uncomfortable.
As for your definition of secure, you need to make the level of security fit the need. For a dog that I would be concerned about biting ANYONE, he or she would be in a locked crate in my vehicle or left in a kennel run with a lockable gate. People take liberties with strange dogs that cause accidents. (as you found out) In many ways managing your dog is the easy part; dealing with the ignorance of people can be very challenging.
Cindy
Question:
Hi,
My mom has a two year old Golden Retriever that she thinks the world of. I have five children that I think the world of. Recently, my youngest has become mobile (he's only one year old). Since the baby has started crawling and walking my mom's dog has become aggressive with him. It started when the baby crawled past the dog when she was resting and the dog snarked (snarled/barked) right in the baby's face. I was right there as was my mom. I immediately grabbed my son and tried to swallow my heart. My mom didn't even respond. When I asked why she didn't get mad at the dog she just said, "Oh, she does that to the cat all the time." My mom isn't deranged in other areas of life, just when it comes to her dog. Since that day I don't let the baby get anywhere near the dog and am always careful to stand between them, but the dog continues to do snark at him. She does it whether or not my mom is around. She has never done it in front of my husband though. I think she is terrified of him. He is definitely a pack leader in her eyes. We only see my mom once a month or so. The dog is fine with the other kids, it's just the baby. My mom brushes it off by saying that the dog would never actually bite the baby and that I should let the dog sniff the baby and be near him. I am terrified that that animal is going to sooner or later bite my baby. Are my fears well grounded? I don't know what to say to my mom. She really believes that her dog would never bite. I am also sure that the dog senses my fear as well. I was attacked by my best friend's dog when I was 16. I just can't relax around my mom's dog-it scares me. My mom knows this too. Any advice would be so much appreciated! Thank-you!
Michelle
Answer:
I think your mom needs to take a look at this section on our web site. I will warn you that it’s graphic, but your mom needs to realize that one bite to a child’s face can be devastating. Many of the photos on this page are from people who were either bitten by their own dogs OR by dogs that the victims were told “don’t bite.” I am a dog owner and trainer, but also a mother and I would agree with you and say YES, your fears are well grounded.
I would not let my children around a dog that behaves in this way.
I think if this was my mother, I would give her a choice. She can deal with the problem and work with the dog and keep the dog under control or I would not visit her home with my kids. I feel it’s that important.
Here is a section on preventing dog bites in children.
If your mother would like some advice on training materials so she can work on this issue, I would be glad to advise her.
I hope this helps.
Cindy
Question:
Hello,
We recently acquired a young pit bull puppy. She is 3 months and a generally well behaved girl. We have yet to go through formal training because of our newest baby being in the hospital. I've been reading the articles on the web site and plan to buy the puppy training DVD. However, I did have a question regarding her interaction with my 2 year old daughter. My daughter and the puppy play well together. Though my daughter loves to boss the puppy around. The dog generally listens to her but does tend to try and assert dominance by standing over her when they're playing. My main concern is the biting. Because the puppy has mouthed my daughter when she first arrived my daughter thinks that's how she plays ...which she's right. But I'm afraid of something escalating. She likes to stick her hand in the dog's mouth and say "bite!" and then she'll tackle the dog and bite her.
Most the time it's not a hard bite but she can get carried away. The dog just lies there and I tend to think that the dog just sees her as a litter mate since we rescued the puppy when she was only 5 weeks old. We are trying to teach our daughter not to do that but she doesn't seem to understand since she realizes that's how the puppy plays. My husband is very concerned that things will get out of hand when the puppy is bigger and she'll attack our daughter. Is this really that big of an issue that we have to worry about that? And how do I break this cycle? Do I teach the dog to mouth gently (which I have taught my previous dogs) or do I teach her not to mouth at all? Thank you!
Jammie
Answer:
I would not EVER let a child and dog interact in the way you have been. Please stop this right away. I would recommend you purchase the DVD titled Your Puppy 8 Weeks to 8 Months.
Ed has owned and trained German Shepherds for 45 years. In the past 30 years we have bred over 350 litters of working bloodline German Shepherds. We give this video to all of our puppy customers and we almost never get questions on how to raise a pup.
I would also recommend this video Pack Structure for the Family Pet. Watch the free streaming video on this page, it's a real eye opener for most people.
We have an extensive section on kids and dogs. Please spend some time reading this and if you don't already have a crate for your puppy, please get one today.
Cindy
Question:
I have been reading on your site for a few years now, and have always found just the answer I have needed at the time. We have recently brought a new family pet into our lives, a beautiful male black lab we named Raja. We got him at 11 weeks, and he is now just shy of 6 months.
I did a refresher on myself by reading through all your basic puppy training pages, and as always it was very informative. I am sure you get all sorts of emails with questions, but this is not one of them. I have no question for you as I have found everything I need on your web site
My dog is absolutely fantastic and has quickly picked up everything I have put forth to him. He minds me perfectly and knows his place within our family structure. We have four children aged 13-1 and he is great with everyone. (Even when the baby lays on his face while he chews his bones). He has recently mastered restraining himself when visitors come over and he keeps his bum down and quickly comes to my side and sits and waits until I say he can go and say hello (with manners).
We have now moved our training to minding under heavy distraction. He impresses me daily. My dog is very lucky for all the information you have put out for me to read as it has made me a very smart owner and trainer. He is like my children- perfect and ready for molding- Luckily I have the proper information to not screw that up! I have you to thank for that.
I have steered MANY people to your web site and encourage them to purchase from you. Some have and some have not- Those who have not now have annoying little dogs that think they own the place~ Except when they come to my house..isnt that interesting?!
Every time someone says ( and they do daily) WOW! Your dog is so well behaved! - I tell them where I got my info on training, and I say thank you.So now I would like to say to you- "thank you." I appreciate all you have done for me and my dog and family.
Have a wonderful holiday season.
Be well,
Red
Answer:
Thanks for your email, I’m glad you are so pleased with your pup and it sounds like you are doing a great job with his training.
However, it would be irresponsible of me to not mention that letting a child lay on a dog under any circumstances is quite dangerous. It doesn’t matter if the dog is well trained; it’s just not worth the risk to a child. This particular statement alarmed me "Even when the baby lays on his face while he chews his bones."
Your dog is still very much a baby, and as he matures there is a good chance he will do as dogs do and try to move up the ranks within the family pack. This is when signs of dominance begin to rear their head and it’s very accurate to say that no baby can be dominant over a dog.
It’s just not realistic. This page has some streaming video that I believe you should watch - Pack Structure for the Family Pet.I would commend you on all the good work you’ve done so far, but you may want to take a look at this page.
I’d hate for anything to happen to your child. As a mother AND a dog trainer, I would never allow my child to lay on any of our dogs EVER but when they have a bone or other object the risk for an accident goes way up. It’s just not worth taking a chance, no matter how much confidence you have in your dog. Kids can do things that a dog perceives as a threat and it only takes once. Why risk it?
Cindy
Question:
I am writing to you while still shaking. Our german shep, 4.5 years old, (unneutered male) just did what to me was unthinkable - he bit a friend's child.
We have experience with obedience training with a previous (wonderful) dog we had. We did not, however, have it professionally done with this dog (one of two dogs we have actually). My husband and I thought understanding the "principles" of Alpha etc. and raising the dog with love and limits was enough.
In short, in our 4+ years of having this dog (since he was a puppy) we have never, not once, had reason to have concern over this dog. Like many owners I would have sworn this dog was safe around children (both ours and those of friends and visitors). No aggression (he would bark at strangers but that's rather the point of having a dog isn't it? Once assured a visitor was "okay" he was fine). If anything, he's always been rather "timid" and will cower if you so much as raise your voice at him.
We generally refer to him as a baby more than anything.Today, while I was upstairs, my daughter (9) and the three visiting children (they come here daily btw) were sitting downstairs. The little boy who was bit (age 9) says he was sitting on an ottoman just petting the dog when, without provocation the dog turned and bit his face. Our daughter, horrified, ran to get me and I came in to find the dog cowering on the floor and the child with two small cuts on his face and one one his ear. I really thought at first the dog may have scratched him (not that this would be ACCEPTABLE in any way) but now believe this was the dog's TEETH. I am beyond horrified. Truly.
I have repeatedly asked the children (my child and the victim, both age 9) if the dog growled or in any way indicated displeasure before turning on the child. The children all say no.
We have checked the dog thoroughly for any injury, sore ears, etc. that could have somehow contributed to this incident (NOT that we are in ANY way implying that this would be acceptable - just looking for what we may have previously missed?) Although the children had earlier casually mentioned that their older brother had "run over his foot" when dropping them off (children are prone to dramatics a bit and I initially thought this report flawed when the dog himself seemed fine and wasn't limping or in any way appearing to be injured), my husband ran his hands all over the dog, felt his ears, paws, neck in the collar area, etc. with no apparently tenderness on the dog's part.
I am just heartsick over this and we will be getting rid of the dog. No question. I cannot keep a dog that is unsafe with children. Period. Even though he has never shown an ounce of aggression toward any of us prior to this, the risk is simply too great. If I had any doubts, the photos on your web site convinced me.
Let me say that we consider ourselves responsible dog owners. We trained him as a puppy, were careful to never allow him to be dominant in our household (we thought), we thought we could trust this dog to sit in a room with school-age children. We were wrong.
I understand from your site that working with the dog may be advisable, but as much as I love the memory of what I thought was my wonderful family dog - I simply cannot take the risk of having this dog around the many family and friends we hope to have at our home. It breaks me heart to let him go (as he runs around the yard with his ball in his mouth) but I cannot imagine even entertaining the thought of keeping him. He is truly NOT the same dog to me that he was four hours ago.
Answer:
This is why we absolutely never EVER advise leaving dogs unattended with kids, especially someone else’s children. Kids (and most adults for that matter) don’t understand and recognize the signals dog’s give, and I guarantee you there was warning and when the child didn’t back off the dog did what dogs are genetically programmed to do and bit. I’m not excusing the dog, but if he would have been supervised this would not have happened. It has nothing to do with being professionally trained.
If you get another dog, I hope you will take some time and learn more about how to be a good pack leader for the dog. (This includes keeping him/her out of situations where s/he feels the need to make a decision like your dog did earlier).
If you want to work with the dog, let me know and I’ll make some suggestions on educational materials.
Cindy
Question:
Hi there,
I stumbled across your web site while searching about dogs biting children. Here is my situation...
We adopted a dog from a lady who could no longer care for him about a year ago. He was being crated all day while she was at work and she felt bad for him. I believe that he is a Scottish Terrier Poodle mix. He is about 2 years old now and as a puppy he was in a family with young children. He then got adopted to the lady I got him from because the first family had to move to a rental which did not allow dogs. He is a very sweet dog who craves a lot of attention. I have 2 children who are more than happy to provide all of the attention that he needs. My children are 2 years and 4 years of age. My son, the 2 year old, plays with him a lot and he has never had a bad encounter with our dog. He used to pull his tail and chase him around the house when he was younger with no growls or nips aimed toward him. My son has grown out of that phase with a lot of discipline from us and because of the fact that he is a year older now. My daughter, the 4 year old, on the other hand has had quite a few warning growls and nips from our dog. Nothing that has ever broken skin or even left a mark, but still scary. She always chooses to "mess" with him when he is sleeping or resting. I have told her time and time again that she is not to bother him when he is resting because he either gets started and reacts badly or becomes annoyed and in his way is telling her to buzz off. It happened again today after about a month of no bad reactions from the dog. She was playing around him and I guess thought that he wanted to join her...and she got bit on the arm. Again, no broken skin, just a few tears and a pooch who looked remorseful afterwards.
My question for you...what should I do? Aside from trying to teach her right from wrong, of course. I am wondering if I should be worried about my dog's behavior. I am scared that I will be rushing her to the hospital one day to get stitched up and then have to explain to her that he needs a new home. They love him so much as do I. But I love my children more than the dog. Please help! Thanks.
Kacie
Answer:
You are right to be concerned. Behavior like this won’t go away without making some changes and it typically escalates.
I would make sure before you do anything else you get a crate and crate train the dog and then teach your kids that when the dog is in the crate, it’s OFF LIMITS. Unless you can control the kids, this will make much of the training that has to be done difficult if not impossible.
I’d start with our Groundwork program and the DVD Pack Structure for the Family Pet.
Your dog will also need some structured obedience training.
I believe that this DVD could really help you. It’s titled DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS and was a 5 year project. You can go to the web page and read the outline of what’s included on the video. These DVDs are not meant to be watched one time. The fact is anyone who needs this information needs to watch it many times because every time they watch it they will pick up new ideas.
I think if you can put the time in reestablishing leadership with the dog, and teaching your kids that the dog is not to be bothered this can be turned around. The dog needs a place to go where he can not be bothered by the kids and your kids need to respect this. While I don’t excuse any dog for biting kids, dogs look to us to protect them and when we don’t do it they take matters into their own hands (so to speak). He can’t communicate with words, so he’s trying to get his point across in the only way he knows how.
I would direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the web site for any additional questions you may have. If you type in your key words it will guide you to articles, Q & A’s and posts on our forum.
I hope this helps.
Cindy
Question:
I looked on your web site for raising a German Shepherd puppy with a special needs child but could not find anything.
We got Draken (grandson to Asko Von Der Lutter) our 17 week old puppy (on Monday) and have started working on pack structure in our household. It is our first time we have raised a puppy and our second German Shepherd (which was purchased already trained).
How do I develop pack structure with a child with special needs (Down Syndrome and Autism Non-Verbal)?
She can not give commands or discipline him. We discipline for her when he is play biting or playing too rough with her. When he is older will it be safe if they are left alone in the room together if she remains non verbal?
Thanks for any information you can provide.
David and Lori
Answer:
It's not realistic to expect ANY child to be the pack leader, but especially a special needs child. This would be a dangerous endeavor and one I would
never recommend. It's up to the adult in any family with children to train
the dog and teach the dog the acceptable behavior in the home and around the child.I don't ever recommend leaving dogs alone with children, ever. I just got an email last week where a 4 year old dog was left alone with 3 kids while the mother went upstairs for a moment and there was a bite. She will never really know what happened, because she wasn't supervising. You owe it to your child and your dog to be a good leader and supervise their interactions.
I would suggest some material we have on the web site about kids & dogs.
Here are the resources I would recommend for you and your pup; Pack Structure for the Family Pet, The Power of Training Dogs with Markers, and Clicker Train your own Assistance Dog.
I would also recommend you purchase the DVD titled Your Puppy 8 Weeks to 8 Months.
Ed has owned and trained German Shepherds for 45 years. In the past 30 years we have bred over 350 litters of working bloodline German Shepherds. We give this video to all of our puppy customers and we almost never get questions on how to raise a pup.
You should also consider the DVD on Basic Dog Obedience. I recommend the handlers start studying this DVD right away even though you won’t use some of this training material for several months (usually not until the pup is 4 to 6 months old).
I also recommend that you go to the web site and read the article on “Ed’s Philosophy of Dog Training.” I believe you will not only learn something about dog training, I hope you will also adopt the same philosophy on dog training.
I hope this helps.
Cindy
Question:
I write to you from London
At the moment my daughter and her husband have almost a breakdown of their martial relationship, because of their dog Max, a two and a half adopted cross, I understand between Jack Russell Terrier and Staffordshire terrier. They have a 10 year-old boy, Anton and 9 year-old daughter, Emily who were both bitten by the dog last year-nothing serious but painful. They have in the house another dog, again some welsh terrier cross, a female, Daisy, but they had it from a puppy and this dog is fantastic with the children.
When they adopted Max, he immediately attempted to show dominance. As I and my wife live nearby, the dog was left during the day (while they are at work) at our home. Max, while occupying the couch, growled at my wife, when she passed by him. Then, same day, minutes later, he growled at me, baring his teeth. I hit him with a folder newspaper, he run away, but later he growled again at me. This time I hit him hard with a stick and since then he understood who is the pack leader and turned out to be craving for my attention.
Around that time he bit my grandchildren, and my daughter wanted to get rid of him, but her husband refused. He believed, that after castrating the dog and teaching the children not to disturb it when eating or sleeping the dog there would be no more accident. In time, Max accepted that my wife, my daughter and her husband were dominant as far he was concerned. My grandson would play with him, but would not pet him much, still apprehensive about the bite he got from him. But my granddaughter would hug him and often would be flat on the floor next to him, face to face. But two days ago, Max was resting on the floor, Emily came down the stairs and stroke him with her bare foot. Max bit her, this time quite hard. My daughter told her husband that she wanted definitely Max out of the house but her husband flatly refused. He got some support from the children- I thing Anton is a bit indifferent, he loves Daisy and prefers to play with her, but Emily, though bitten, still want Max to remain with the family. My daughter is adamant, she is terrified that Max may one day bite Emily on the face, but her husband is adamant too – he says that he loves Max, that the children love hum too and that he will teach Emily when not to touch or disturb the dog and not to have her on the floor face to face with the dog- and my daughter’s position is that they can’t rely on Emily as she forgets, will not follow the rules and a vary bad accident may happen. Her husband takes her position as one against him personally and at the moment they don’t speak to each other. I have told my daughter to teach Emily to become dominant, like threatening the dog with the stick, but it looks Emily is unable to do that, she is too soft of a girl.
My question is, can Max be trained not to bite Emily, or the dog should be re-homed?
Sincerely,
Anton
London
Answer:
The problems they are seeing are the result of the way they live with their dogs. When dogs act like this they lack leadership from their owners. In other words their owners don’t understand how important pack drive is in how they raise their dogs.
Owners of dogs like this underestimate the genetic power of "PACK DRIVE " Pack structure is not something new and it is not optional, and if you don’t provide the structure and leadership a dog NEEDS then he or she will behave as canines have for thousands of years and will structure your family and household their own way. This dog is not behaving badly out of spite or stubbornness; this dog is simply being a dog, a dog that needs some guidance and rules.
This dog needs ALL privileges and freedoms restricted. Hitting a dog like this doesn’t establish leadership in a healthy way, and can actually provoke self defensive behavior.
Whether or not this dog can be worked with sufficiently to be safe in a family with children is not something I can say from just reading an email. I do know that all the adults involved need to know this is not the dog’s fault; he’s simply doing what comes naturally to him. He’s behaving in a way that he’s been ALLOWED.
I’d start with our Groundwork program and the video that picks up where the article leaves off - Pack Structure for the Family Pet.
Here is a DVD that I would recommend titled Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive Dogs. If you go to the link on this DVD you can read about what it covers. You will also see a detailed outline of what’s in the video.
I’d also advise that everyone involved take a look at the section of our website that shows what happens when dogs and kids aren’t supervised properly. It’s a bit graphic but I feel its necessary educational material.
Managing this dog will be a lifelong endeavor, it’s not a matter of putting in a few weeks of training and then it’s done. Leadership is an ongoing process, and one that should not be taken lightly.
I hope this helps.
Cindy
Question:
More of the same. I been reading your website articles. Our 4 year old aussie/blue heeler/bernise mt. dog bit a child he has been around many, many times. The boy was climbing over the fence into the neighbors yard to retrieve a toy. There are several small dogs in their yard that my dog runs the fence with. My dog grabbed his ankle and pulled him back--when the boy was down, our dog continued to bite at his clothes--pulling him by his shirt. I got to the boy and brought him inside. And I had the other kids come in too. LD has been a great dog up to this point. He is great with our 2 and 4 year old. He sleeps with our 4 year old son or he sleeps by me. He stays in the yard (we have a 1/2 acre for the backyard). He loves our cat---our cat is dominant over him. He growled once at our 2 year old when he was eating once. We sat the kids down and had a long discussion about leaving animals alone when they eat. We have noticed in the last year he has become more aggressive with strangers. One day we were sledding and LD grabbed at a guys snow suit before he went down the hill like he was trying to keep him form going--he was barking and upset with us. We thought he was being protective.
After a relative's dog bit someone, my husband and I had a talk about what we would do if that ever happened with us. We had agreed to get rid of our dog or put him down. Now the time is here and I am scared and sad. Wavering on the decision, I found your website. Can there be hope in training us to be better pet owners? LD follows me everywhere, he talks to me----he uses the bathroom on command---he obeys my few voice commands ( he is not trained)--he is a smart dog. We are so attached to him. But is this a problem that is accelerating? Could one of our children be next? Is it worth the effort or will I never be able to trust him as a family dog--will he ever be able to play in the backyard with children unsupervised after he has been properly trained? Please respond with advice.
Ignorantly,
Gina
Answer:
Many dogs, even dogs that don’t have a history of human aggression, will bite when someone reaches over a fence. Whether this is territorial aggression or barrier frustration, it doesn’t really matter. This is how many dogs behave so it’s our job as dog owners and parents to understand dog behavior and protect the people around us and also train and control the dog so these opportunities don’t have a chance to present themselves. Many times what people label “protective” is actually the dog guarding something that’s important to him because he’s behaving dominantly, and this needs to be recognized and addressed.
I wouldn’t ever let this dog play unsupervised with kids. I don’t actually see a reason for it and you’ve found out it’s dangerous. I’m always surprised when people even want to allow dogs that have shown aggressive behavior and kids to be alone together. As a parent, I just don’t get that. My son is now 15, and has grown up with dogs. Many of the dogs we have owned over the years have been dogs that would be considered dangerous but my son has never been so much as growled at because I monitor and control the interactions that my dogs have with my children.
I’d set off on a regimen of more control and training for your dog.
I’d start with our Groundwork program and Pack Structure for the Family Pet DVD.
I believe that this DVD could really help you. It’s titled DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS and was a 5 year project. You can go to the web page and read the outline of what’s included on the video. These DVDs are not meant to be watched one time. The fact is anyone who needs this information needs to watch it many times because every time they watch it they will pick up new ideas.
I would direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the website for any additional questions you may have. If you type in your key words it will guide you to articles, Q & A’s and posts on our forum. We have a large section on kids & dogs.
I hope this helps.
Cindy
Question:
HI,
Our dog killed our kitten a couple days ago. He showed no aggressive signs, no excessive interest and seemed to be good friends with it in 4 weeks we had it. Licked it's bottom when it was smaller, played with it, slept with it, shared water bowl, etc. I don't know what happened exactly but dog was in his bed which is a denlike area between couch and wall (where he and kitten slept together often) and apparently bit kitten very hard (blood, puncture wounds), I did not witness but was just around corner and heard nothing at all, just found dead kitten next to his bed next time I walked in room. He was nothing but patient with the kitten and isn't aggressive about food or toys. He is also nothing but patient with my 2.5 year old son, but now I fear he will do something out of the blue like this.
The only other times he has acted aggressive was twice when he was lying down sleeping against a wall and someone he didn't know well bent down to pet him and he snapped at them after initially letting them touch him, but didn't break skin.
Do you think it was just that he was surprised and overreacted, or didn't know his own strength? I've considered a muzzle or kenneling now, or just trying to find him another home, which I would hate but I don't trust him now. Any thought you have would be helpful. He is 65 pounds, rottweiler mix (maybe some chow?), 4 years old.
Many thanks,
Mer
Answer:
Since no one saw what happened it’s impossible for me to make a guess at why the dog killed the kitten. I’m not surprised though, I would NEVER allow any of my dogs to have unsupervised contact with any baby animal no matter what they behaved like in my presence. Too many things can happen as you have found out.
The lesson here is to NEVER allow your dog to have contact with your son unless you are supervising 100% of the time.
Your dog should know the crate and be comfortable with confinement when you can’t watch him. I’d start with our Groundwork program and the video that picks up where the article leaves off. Pack Structure for the Family Pet.
I’d make sure the dog is trained and reliable with obedience commands, Basic Dog Obedience.
I would also recommend you read our section on kids & dogs.
I would direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the website for any additional questions you may have. If you type in your key words it will guide you to articles, Q & A’s and posts on our forum.
Question:
Good Morning,
I am a new Mother of two Twin Boys. My family members will not listen to me about my wishes regarding their dogs. They seem to want to put the babies' faces near the mouth of the dog. I am looking for a politically correct article to give to them to show the danger this may cause to my children. If you do not have something like this – can you please direct me to someplace that I would be able to find this kind of information?
Thank you,
Haley
Answer:
I'd recommend reading our section on kids and dogs [this page].
I’m not sure how politically correct it is, but it is accurate. If I had to choose between offending an adult and keeping my children safe from ignorance then I’d do what ever it takes.
I think my family members would be in for a wake up call if they were putting my kids in the face of a dog.
Good luck, Cindy
Question:
Ed,
You are a wealth of knowledge and we are "lucky," yes lucky to have you... Thank You.
I am asking for your knowledge and wisdom today...
Here's my problem... 2 days ago I was in Emergency with my 18 yr. old son getting his faced stitched up after Dragon bit him. Dragon was lying on my bed (don't even say it... I know about the bed). Jeff was walking into the room, at about a foot away from the bed he lunged up at his face and did a full mouth bite to his face. My son never had a chance, he is very lucky that he only ended up with stitches in a few places, it just missed one eye and close to tearing lip.
1 year ago while playing with Dragon on the bed (I know, I know) my son sort of curled his neck over Dragon's shoulder blades and Dragon bit him twice quickly in the back of the head, he did break the skin and there was bleeding but no stitches. Shame on me, I knew better, I am knowledgeable on dog behaviour and I absolutely should not have gotten comfortable just because he never again showed any signs of dominance with anyone.
My Doberman is 3 3/4 yrs old,
* neutered 7 mos ago (not due to dominance issues).
* German import as a pup, working line - 'Edertal' line
* Purchased with Shutzhund training in mind for him.
* Excellent obedience and tracking.
* "Started" bite work with decoy at 2 1/2yrs - tugs, few sleeve bites, less than 10. I noticed during a session he seemed to slip into defence rather than working in prey drive. I immediately called off the session and chose instead to stop all protection sessions to let him mentally mature a little more.Life changed somewhat and I have not continued any formal training. Obedience is used daily and he loves it. He is still exercised regularly.
* Stable temperament, he is not sharp, assumes everyone is friendly first, will show dominance with other males if given the chance but it is controlled through obedience (I don't let him).
* Never a problem with absolutely anyone regarding dominance/aggression apart from my son.
My dilemma... I don't live alone, therefore this problem is not just for me to handle.
- Husband - not very knowledgeable, also dominant, difficult to teach him anything
- Son - Jeff, got bit - now wants nothing to do with dog - doesn't care whether we keep or get rid of Dragon - but won't buy into any formal training to establish his order in our pack.
- 11 year old daughter - more dog knowledge and understanding than any of them, no problem correcting dog.
In your opinion is this a completely manageable situation that even if my husband and my daughter slip up on there commitment from time to time (which is what I'm afraid of) I do work full time shift work and I don't want my dog crated continually. unless I am there to supervise. Slipping up of dog on furniture or bed is NOT an option, but other commitments to always know what the dog is doing at all times, weather they are on computer or watching TV etc. I always know where my dogs are and what they are doing when I am in the house. I want my dog to still interact with family while I am away from the home.
I will be ordering your Dominant dog video - but need your input right now.....
I thank you for your time Ed.
Tanya
Ontario, Canada
Answer:
I’m not sure what to say, because in order for your family and dog to be safe then you are going to need to keep your dog in a secure location when you can’t supervise him.
I’m going to quote you here “Jeff was walking into the room, at about a foot away from the bed he lunged up at his face and did a full mouth bite to his face. My son never had a chance, he is very lucky that he only ended up with stitches in a few places, it just missed one eye and close to tearing lip.”
What more needs to happen for you to realize that this dog can NOT be loose and interacting with people in your home when you aren’t supervising? You WERE home and looked what happened!! I’m sorry but unless you are willing to completely re-structure your dog’s life in and around the house and unless your family will honor and uphold this handling of the dog, I can’t help you.
If you want to do what needs to be done then this situation can be managed, but if not then I’m afraid my advice would be to rehome the dog. It’s just a tragedy waiting to happen.
As the mother of a teenager and the owner of several dogs who are strong working line dogs, I can’t imagine not being willing to protect my family and my dog from another situation.
The dominant dog DVD is great, but this dog needs to be under complete ON LEASH supervision with you at all times unless he’s in a kennel. Dominance aggression has nothing to do with obedience training or schuthzund training, it’s the temperament and genetics of the dog paired with irresponsible handling in the home environment.
I'd recommend reading our section on kids and dogs. You can see some of the damage that other dogs, less powerful than yours, have done to kids.
This is a serious situation and needs to be handled as such.
Cindy
Comment:
Mr. Frawley-
Last summer I came across your website in an effort to find more information on how to resolve my dog vs. baby issue. My (ex) husband and I had a dachshund that we rescued from the SPCA. He was a great dog for the first few months, but unfortunately for him we treated him like a little person. He became aggressive toward visitors at our house when they came near his food and water, and eventually jumped and bit at anyone that came into our home. The dog successfully broke the skin of 5 of our friends/family. We solved this by putting him away when we would have people over. After two years of having our dog we became pregnant. Immediately I was concerned about how he would react to a baby. My thought was that we should make him an outside dog before the baby came so that he would have time to adjust. That seemed to be going ok until I discovered that my ex was letting him sneak in when I was away or asleep. The baby came and I was still concerned. I never allowed him alone in the room with my son and anytime my son was within dog reach I put the dog away or outside. The dog began acting out by chewing the baby's toys and marking in his room. (the leg of his crib, leg of the chair where I fed the baby...) Once after returning from the store I found my husband laughing that the dog had hunched on the baby (husband was never left alone with my son again). When the baby was about to start crawling I took to Google to get more information about how to protect my almost mobile infant. After finding your website I decided to put my foot down about the dog being an outside dog or finding a new home. My ex said he would only do that if the dog actually bit the baby. I basically gave him an ultimatem to either get rid of the dog or us. He chose the dog and I moved out with the baby. That was six months ago and now I have a court order that the dog isn't allowed on the same property as my son and that my ex husband has to be continuously monitored during his visitations with our son (and has to get a psych-eval!). I wrote all of this to thank you for your website and the information you are sharing. Your site encouraged me to do what I already knew was right. I am sending your website address to friends of mine that just found out they are expecting and own two dogs. Thank you again.
Dog Bite:
On 03/02/1984 I was 6 years old when the neighbor’s dog bit me. I was in the owner’s house, watching TV, the dog was sitting in front of me, I kind of had to look around the dog to see the cartoons. My name was mentioned in a conversation between Neighbor and my mom so I turned my head to look at them. That was when the dog jumped at me.
In picture 1 you can see how I couldn’t close my eye all the way—this was because my eyelid had been torn off and was hanging next to my nose. After being re-attached, it was a little too short. Pictures 2 and 3 were me sitting on the couch at home after coming home from the hospital. Picture 4 is after the stitches were removed from the tear in my face; puncture wounds all healed pretty well. Picture 5 depicts a better-healed scar.
I had plastic surgery twice to remove the scar, my eyelid is still a little different than the other one—not noticeable to the average person but very aggravating to anyone putting make-up on me! The physical scar under my eye has been totally removed but it was very painful and frightening as I was still rather young when the surgeries occurred and when they do surgery right under your eye, they can’t allow you to be put under as they need your eye to stay open... scary to say the least.
The emotional trauma was enormous. The taunting from other children about my messed-up face, cruel and painful. The subsequent surgeries were terrorizing.
This dog had bitten another child in the neighborhood not too long before me, in the face as well. The owners said it wouldn’t happen again and the dog was allowed to live. Then, my mom and I went over to Neighbor’s house for a visit, they talked while I watched TV.
Dyani-Alexandra
Dog-weary mother of 2 girls who aren’t even allowed to LOOK at a dog
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Ed's Response:
Thank you for sending this. I will add it to the article I wrote on Kids and dogs. People need to see how important it is to control the environment their dogs are allowed to be in,
Too many are just stupid pet owners who live in denial of their dogs aggressive problems.
Regards,
Ed Frawley
Dog Bite:
Hello,
I recently stumbled upon your website, I see that you are always on the look out for pictures of bites, so here u go.
Well on 03/03/10 @ about 4:30 my son (7 years old) was playing outside with his friend like he always does. A neighbor let her dog outside while she checked the mail. Well my sons friend (7 year old boy) barked at the dog but then the dog came running and growling after them so the boys were scared and made a run for it but the dog was faster and jumped up and bite my son on his back. The lady heard him screaming so she turned and quickly got her dog and put him away, her dog is a Shepard/lab mix 2 1/2 year old by the way. The owner also said that he has never done this before and he always plays with kids and she didn't know what happened, she kind of blamed it on the other kid for barking... I blame it on her because where I live there is a leash law and she clearly didn't follow it... Luckily the bite was not too deep but it did get a little infected and we had to put him on stronger antibiotics, but my son is a little messed up over it mentally.
My question is; Is it normal behavior for a so called friendly dog to do this? To me this is not normal and the dog should have never done this but I'm not an expert...
Thank you,
Gabby
Ed's Response:
I wrote an article on my website about preventing dog bits in children. While it doesn’t deal with this exact issue, every dog owner who has a dog around children may want to read it.
In your case there is a degree of responsibility that you need to accept with supervising your children and his friends. While I was not there, taunting a dog is not a smart thing to do. Your son paid the price for his friend's misbehavior.
So should this dog have done this? NO. Should the other boy have taunted the dog? NO.
In addition, turning and running probably triggered this dog to chase and bite. The odds are had the kids stood their ground and faced the dog he would have run up and barked. The owner would have heard this and come and got her dog under control. That may have been difficult for kids to do but had anyone ever told them how to deal with a dog they would have known to stand still with their hands crossed in front and tucked under their arms. If they get knocked down, they should lay on their stomach and cover their head with their arms and not scream.
The bottom line is almost all dog bites are preventable. In this case your son was lucky it was not worse. This neighbor should never have this dog off leash. Not ever and not for any reason.
Dog Bite:
Hello,
I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction for some material in training my dog not to bite. We have a 7 month old male shitzu/ Yorkie mix that is showing signs of aggression towards my 6 year old son. He has bit my son twice to the point of drawing blood. We had a trainer come out and work with the two of them to try and repair the bond. It seemed she worked more with training my son than with the dog. She taught my son not to stare him in the eye and not to be ground level with the dog and to stand tall. The first time he bit my son was a couple of months ago. I was holding him and my son reached in to pet him and he bit his hand puncturing it and drawing blood. Last night he bit my son again in the face. He took one of my son’s toys and when he reached down to get it the dog lunged at my son’s face growling and snarling and bit him and held on until l I swatted him. Luckily he only weighs about 6lbs and didn’t do much damage… I have been researching Yorkie pet rescues today for placement. But I am wondering if he is fixable at this point and can be trained to be a loving dog with my son. He is fine with myself, my husband and our 9 year old daughter. He is currently being crate trained. And when out of the crate we keep him on the leash in the house at our sides while the kids are home until he can be trusted. He bit my son yesterday while on the leash. We planned on having him neutered this month. I’d hate to give him away if there is some hope for him but then again I would never forgive myself if he seriously injured my son or another child for that matter. Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated.
Mary
Ed's Response:
Mary,
Most self described professional trainers don’t understand dog aggression and dominance. I can’t tell you how often I get emails like yours.
The fact is this dog is the way he is because of how you have lived with him. I don’t mean this in a negative way – most people just don’t understand how important this is with SOME (not all) dogs. Yours happens to be the kind of temperament that needs very specific rules and it needs to understand the consequences of not following the rules. It’s no different than raising a child.
You need to change the way you live with your dog. Run it through a pack structure program – this is details in the DVD I produced titled Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Dog.
You should also get the DVD titled Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive Dogs. I would also have this dog wear a dominant dog collar when on leash - how to use it is explained in the dominant dog DVD and on my web site.
This can be fixed if you make the decision to educate yourself and your family.
Regards,
Ed Frawley
Question:
Hello! I just finished reading several portions of your website and I have to say I respect your advice and opinion. We purchased an English Mastiff when he was 8 weeks old. Coby is now 16 weeks. He is very well trained. He comes to us with distractions going on, he waits at an open door until we tell him it's okay to go in, etc. I have a couple of concerns about him and I would be so grateful if you could lend your advice.
We have 3 children - a 4 year old, a 3 year old, and an 18 month old. Coby is especially protective of our 18 month old, Cayle. He never leaves Cayle's side. My brother came over one day and began holding Cayle in the air like an "airplane" and Coby went crazy. He was circling my brother over and over until my brother finally put him down. My husband did this a couple weeks later, and Coby began to circle and scratch (not painfully, just an urgent scratch) at my husband's legs until he proceeded to put our son down. Then yesterday we were at a family BBQ and my cousin tried to ride a bike in between Coby and Cayle. Coby lunged, placed himself between Cayle and the bicycle and began barking and growling at my cousin. I know that this breed becomes very protective of their families, and I truly believe that Coby would never try to hurt anyone but of course, I now have people (everyone has an opinion, right?) who are trying to tell me that Coby is much too protective of Cayle. Not having owned this breed before, I think it is normal compared to everything I've read but I would really like to have your opinion on it.
Finally, I read that you strongly advocate crate training. I've only used crate training on a Great Dane that we had previously and it worked (of course) so we tried using it with Coby. In the beginning he whined and went crazy in his crate. We left him in there and never took him out so as not to reinforce the behavior. Everytime he was placed in his crate and he began to go wild, he would poop and pee all over his crate. We would then let him out, give him a bath, clean his crate and he would go right back into the crate without play, only to do it all over again. We kept this up, thinking that part of the problem was that he was a pet-store dog and that he had learned it was okay to soil his crate. One night when my grandmother stayed over, she let him out of his crate (unknowingly to us) during one of his "fits" and he laid next to Cayle for the whole night without soiling anywhere. We have allowed him to continue this (sleeping next to Cayle's crib) since he was about 10 weeks old and so far, we've not had any accidents in the house since. I work from home so I am with him always and he is never in his crate anymore. When he needs to go out, he waits by the door (we're going to start bell training him soon, as he won't bark and we're worried we won't get to him in time). If we need to leave him, he goes out in the fenced yard with his dog house, etc. My question is whether I'm "hurting" his training by doing this or if there will be any problems in the future from this that we cannot yet see?
Thank you in advance and keep up the good work!
Amanda
Answer:
Hi Amanda,
First of all, it’s really impossible for a 4 month old puppy to be “protective” in the sense that most people think of. Most likely he’s possessive of your son like he would be a toy, bone or food. This can turn into a dangerous scenario in the blink of an eye. I would NEVER allow a puppy, but most especially a large breed puppy that is going to be huge, to interact with kids unless he was on a leash and you were holding the leash to control all his movements. This has nothing to do with the breed of dog, but to do with the kind of temperament he has.
I highly recommend you read over the section we have about preventing dog bites in kids.
Your puppy needs to learn about pack structure, I’d read the article Ed wrote on The Groundwork to Becoming your Puppy’s Pack Leader. I’d also recommend Pack Structure for the Family Pet DVD. And Your Puppy 8 weeks to 8 Months DVD.
By not acclimating your puppy to the crate, you are actually setting him up for future problems. What if you need to confine or crate him in the future? An adult mastiff is going to be very difficult to contain if he realizes that he can throw a fit and escape or be let out. I would not allow a dog to sleep in a baby’s room, ever! This is less about house training than about leadership and rules for the dog. We also have a Q&A section on separation anxiety that may help you. If you don’t work on some of these things now, I am afraid you are going to really regret it when this dog becomes more mature.
We also have a number of eBooks, which include topics that may help you.
For future questions, you might benefit from learning to use our SEARCH function, which is located in the top left corner of every page of the website. If you type in your key words or question it will find you articles, Q&As, free streaming video and links to threads on our discussion forum. Our website has over 16,000 pages and it’s very likely you’ll find the information you are looking for. I hope this helps.
Cindy Rhodes
Question:
Ma'am,
My dog isn't aggressive to my children, he's oblivious! I have a rescue dog that is constantly focused on me, eyes following my face 24-7. He lunges toward my chin to nuzzle it whenever I'm doing anything less than standing or sitting at full military attention. I cannot bend down even the slightest bit for any reason without this dog jumping at my chin. He insists on having his nose within less than an inch of mine whenever possible, for as long as he can. If I push him or his nose out of the way (kinda hard to see the world when his nose is literally IN my eye) he just pushes back harder to get back into position. He seems oblivious to anything other than the location of my face, does not see that I am trying to pick something up, trying to fold laundry, trying to lay his food bowl down so he can eat (who needs food when I can be in Mom's face? seems to be his thought process) or anything else. He continuously steps on or shoves aside anything in his way to my face.
The problem is that what is in his way is often my two young children, an infant and a toddler. He never looks at them, never seems to notice that he stepped on something that makes noise afterwards (loud crying, he doesn't seem to even hear it), never seems to consider anything other than me as even existing. The child I am holding this time is as easily shoved aside as the laundry I was holding last time (5 minutes ago). I have tried to force him to notice/acknowledge the children when he has run them over, stepped on them, shoved them aside, etc, but he never even looks at them no matter what. They simply don't seem to exist as long as I am around.
I have had the oldest boy try to walk the dog, but he outweighs the oldest boy by 2x and is not leash trained very well. He just dragged the child where ever I went, and squashed the child trying to meld himself into my leg. He won't acknowledge his favorite treat in my boy's little hand held directly under his nose. Having either boy stand in-between the dog and I to pet him only gets the boy shoved aside and stepped on as he lunges for my chin. He will sometimes acknowledge a stick thrown in the backyard or will run around my son for about 30 seconds (yes, I really timed it) if he has forgotten that I am at the house watching. This is rare, and never happens once the dog sees me. Even then, he seems to be more interested in the stick or ball and still does not see the child that threw it for him.
I cannot have a 50Lb+ dog stepping on an infant or bowling over a toddler every time I show my face. I want to show this dog that he has a home here, that he's loved and welcome, but I cannot spend hours petting him and ignoring the rest of the family. He is NOT more important then them. If he were aggressive, that would be one thing, but he's not, he's just oblivious! How do I widen his focus? How do I show this dog that there are other family members, that these family members are important to me? How do I fix this?
Please, any advise will be welcome!
Answer:
I would first refer you to our section on preventing dog bites in children. If your dog is indifferent to the kids, then I would encourage that to continue. Some dogs show aggression and some choose to ignore, and by trying to force the issue you may cause a really big problem.
I would also recommend you stop trying to have your child interact with the dog in the manner you described below. It’s impossible for a small child to be a leader to a large dog and you are putting the child at risk by trying to force the interaction. Instead, I would put some firm rules in place for your dog: to stop the clingy behavior with you and become a more balanced dog. I would put your focus on that, and control the dog’s movements and environment. This means a crate or on leash at all times. I don’t allow dogs to be “in my face” or move freely around my home unless they follow ALL my rules and it sounds like this dog is a very needy and pushy. You don’t mention how long you’ve had the dog, but you should start over as if he’s just been brought into your home for the first time.
Start with our groundwork program. I’d also recommend Pack Structure for the Family Pet.
Control the kids, keep them out of the dog’s space and control the dog at all times and teach him some rules and boundaries. Dogs only behave in a way that is reinforcing to them, so if you allow him to follow you around and push into your space then that’s what he’ll do. Dogs don’t know how we want them to behave, we have to show them. This may be a dog that never really wants to socialize with others, and that’s ok. They are all different, just as people are. Pack structure is the key to showing him that you are in charge of how he acts in and around the home.
We also have a number of eBooks, which include topics that may help you.
For future questions, you might benefit from learning to use our SEARCH function, which is located in the top left corner of every page of the website. If you type in your key words or question it will find you articles, Q&As, free streaming video and links to threads on our discussion forum. Our website has over 16,000 pages and it’s very likely you’ll find the information you are looking for. I hope this helps.
Cindy Rhodes
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