Please bear with me, but I am new to the forum and new to the dog world. Haven't had a dog since I was a kid. Our family, after much investigating, purchased a male french bulldog pup. We have purchased Ed's DVD on raising a puppy and we have had this dog for since November. He is a great dog in many ways, but is extremely food agressive with the kids (4 & 11). If they so much as get near the cabinet where his food is kept, he will lunge and try to attack their feet. He is kept on leash or in the crate alot of the time in the house, but we have been letting him loose a little more now. He seems to pick on the kids and is very unpredictable. He will play fine with them, then start growling, at that point - I verbally correct him and stuff him in his crate. He knows he's done something wrong as he is terrified of me and my husband and will just sort of cringe and lie down. We don't hit him but will grab him by his neck and give him a shake. Also, he will stare at what the kids are doing intently and then snap at them unexpectedly. He has left marks on feet and hands. I have to say I am getting frustrated by his behavior. I try to avoid these situations and watch him all the time when the kids are around. Constant supervision. He is very unpredictable and will try to take advantage of the situation with them. He is wonderful with adults, never showing any aggression with food or toys, we can stick our hand right in his food and he backs off, but if kids try to hug him or something, he will start growling, never mind trying to take something away from him. Am I wrong - but is this "normal" puppy behavior. Not knowing what else to do, we took video and went to the Michigan Humane Society for an aggression workshop. After viewing the video, the trainer there told us that we should find a different home for him and he can never be trusted - that he will eventually bite someone. Her take on it was that these types of dogs can never be fully turned around. And if our expectations are for a family dog, we can never have that in him. Is there a serious bite in our future? I am open to any and all suggestions or comments. We are following Ed's puppy DVD pretty much fully. Are we giving him too much freedom at this point? Is this more of a temperment problem that can't be corrected? Should we be looking for a new home for him? Our household is pretty loud and could be distracting (2kids, 4 cats, 1 parrot) and he is pretty much constantly wanting to chase the cats when he is loose in the house. He goes for 1 long walk a day, weather permitting (it's like 4 degrees today). Any info would be appreciated.
Denise

Just by the things you have said on the forum I would say you need to find another home for this pup or send this one back to the breeder and tell them what is going on. In fact the if the first thing you should do. If this is only a pup and he is acting like this with kids then my guess is it's only going to get worse. This dog sees your children, or any children for that matter, as the omega below him. If you want a family pet then I suggest getting a different dog..look for a GSD at a rescue. There are many dogs, good family dogs that like kids, out there just waiting to be adopted by a good family. Good luck and keep us posted

wow I have never seen aggression in a French Bulldog - have known many and they have always been nothing but sweet with everyone. But, I guess there are exceptions. I agree with Karmen and the Humane Society who gave you advice - I would not trust a dog who exhibited this kind of nervy/nervous aggressive/dominant behavior especially around children, and especially as a pup. Perhaps a home without children, and with a person experienced with working with dominant or problem dogs.
Molly

Which is why we specifically picked a frenchie. I have met several of them over the past year and was hooked on their sweetness. He hasn't had any obedience training yet. Do you think I might benefit from purchasing Leerburgs obedience video and work on using the prong collar and strong corrections? At least giving it a shot? He seems to exhibit these aggressions when he's on leash in the house, seems to be better if he's off leash, but closely supervised. Do some dogs feel more threatened by being on the leash? I don't know - I researched this breed to death and looked for a breeder for months, met both the mom and dad - who were very friendly with our kids. This dog, right from the start, has totally blown our perceptions of this breed - he acts like a boston terrier on steroids. I am so disappointed and sad ... but I'm pretty sure my unmarried, childless petsitter would take him in a heartbeat, if there is no hope for this guy.

I’m curious, how do the children respond to all of this? When the dog growls how do the kids react? When the dog snaps at them how do the kids react? How in general do the kids treat the dog?

Its probably best if you find a new child free home for the dog, but before you get another dog you should make an assessment if the behavior you see with the dog was enabled/promoted by its interaction with the children or if the situation is totally a result of the dog's personality.

If the issues are a result of, or enabled by, the family/child interaction with the dog then you may promote this behavior in any new dog you get. Of course, the extent of which the negative behavior occurs (if you are accidentally reinforcing it) still depends on the dog.

I've got 2 girls (4 & 11), it's funny, because the older daughter responds with fear, she will yell and cry (even though there was no contact) she is kind of afraid of him, the younger one is pretty tough about it, she takes it all in stride and tells him "NO!" - we use her for our experiments with the dog. What I mean by experiments is we'll have her walk past the dog while her is laying down and see what his reaction is, we will have her open the small refrigerator near his food cabinet to test his reaction because lately he has been snarling and lunging at that when the kids go to get a drink from it. All the girls want to do is play with the dog, you know regular things throwing a ball (I have him bring it back to me), giving him a treat - they don't ever get into rough play with him (they can't!) He is kind of a spaz - when my husband shovels snow, he 'attacks' the shovel, latching unto it, he 'attacks' the vacuum like a loon, anything that is pushed. We thought it was funny, but maybe this all points to some temperment flaw. This dog was raised with 3 little girls and mom and dad on the premises. I have spoken with the breeder numerous times, he claims that there were never any problems - but I don't know, those kids could have teased the hell out of him - who knows. We got him when he was 14 weeks old. I thought it was a GOOD thing that he came from a home with children - ah the ideal situation! Maybe not! Much of the time he is a good, fun, couch-potato. He seems to snap at the kids in the evenings when he seems cranky or tired - we put him in his crate and he sleeps. But I don't know - I'm probably making excuses for him. Thanks for all your input. Whatever advice anyone has, good or bad - I'm open to it and appreciate it!

My favorite part of this is using a 4 year old child as a test guinea pig in your sick little experiments. I mean your telling us the dog has aggression problems for pete's sake. :rolleyes:

!!!WOW!!! I'd at least use a neighbor kid if I was going to do something like that. :rolleyes:

Just a thought but if you decide to get rid of this dog, be sure and let the next person, Humane Scociety, etc, know that the dog has these problems. Sounds like the last owners or breeder may have overlooked or ignored that.

When I say "experiments", we needed to know under what circumstances the dog was doing this and to whom he is targeting. It was very helpful to take video so the Humane Society could see exactly what it is that he is doing. My child is not in danger, you idiot! I least I'm trying to do something to determine the problem. The reason I'm on this forum is to try and determine if his problems are aggression related - don't need you beating me up because you have nothing better to do!