I am a little concerned about our 130 pound Mastiff being around my daughter.

Question

Thank you for your very candid answers to people's questions. It is refreshing to see someone with a concern for the safety of both the dog and the people in the dog's life. It is not often that I hear the honest answer of "put the dog to sleep."

    After reading some of the serious concerns of your writers, mine may seem a bit trivial. In November, my husband and I adopted a two year old , 130lb female English Mastiff from the Rescue League. In the previous home the dog was raised with children and had absolutely no problems. The dog was put up for adoption only because the owner was diagnosed with terminal cancer and, due to treatments, could no longer give the dog the attention it needed.

    I have two concerns.

    A month ago our neighbor was walking his Yorkie Terrier. Gracie, our dog, saw the dog and ran to it, actually breaking her collar, and began sniffing at the dog. She then began to put her head down and literally toss the dog into the air as she raised her head up. At one point she even pounced on the dog. I firmly told her to stop and she listened and allowed the man to walk away with the dog. The dog was unhurt.

    Later in the month we took her over to my in-laws to meet their yellow lab. The yellow lab is extremely friendly and not very bright. I was leaning over petting our dog when the lab came bounding out of the home (I now know what a stupid mistake it was to let the intro. go that way). Gracie saw the dog coming and immediately pounced on her and pinned her to the ground. She placed her jaws around the other dogs back and held her down but did not bite. I pulled her away (now that I read your article on dog fights I know that was also a mistake). I told her to sit and then I began to pet my in laws dog while telling Gracie that it was "Ok." From that point on Gracie and the dog were fine and we took them for a walk together.

    Also, our daughter is learning how to walk. Recently, Gracie was sleeping on the floor and our daughter basically jumped on her belly. Gracie lifted her head and let out a bark and went back to sleep. I realize that this does not sound like much, but it doesn't need to when it comes to the safety of my daughter. I called the Rescue League contact and explained the situation to her. She told us that we needed to respect the dogs boundaries. I know she is correct. We were allowing our daughter free reign with the dog. Because she is so large, a couch potatoes, and very people friendly, we we're assuming that our little girl could not harm her. We are now very careful to not allow our daughter to be a nuisance to her.

    However, I wanted an opinion from someone who seems a little more objective. I got the feeling that the rescue league would rally around the dog no matter what the circumstance. I have grown attached to the dog but wouldn't hesitate to return it if there is a need. Do you think we have reason for more than the normal concern for the dog/child relationship?

    If not, what should we do about her and other dogs. We walk her with a prong collar but she still gets excited when she sees them. She listens to my sit command and I am able to control her but only because she lets me. She outweighs me by twenty pounds.

    Should we take her to obedience classes so she can be around other dogs? Now that she walks well with my in-laws dog should we continue that?

    Again, thank you for your availability. It is appreciated.

    Jessica

Accepted Answer

It sounds like you have a very nice dog.

You need to control your daughter more than your dog. Children need to learn respect, just as dogs do. There is no excuse for a child to jump on a dog like that. In my opinion the child gets told NO just like a puppy gets told NO. If she does it again she gets a swat. There are limits to the torment that a dog should be expected to take from kids.

If the prong collar does not work on the walks (with other dogs) get an electric collar - the Tri Tronics Companion works just fine. (You can find it in the list of training equipment on my web site.)

You do need to train this dog in obedience. The goal of the training is to establish better control - not to make a dog get along with other dogs. Obedience also establishes pack leadership.

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.