My 7 month old GSD is extremely active and full of energy. Everything is a game to him. I have never seen one ounce of aggression in him until today. I take him everywhere with me (he goes to work with me every day) and is exposed to many people. Today I had to stop at a friends on my way home and he went balistic when he saw her children. I don't quite know if he was trying to be aggressive but he wouldn't listen to me at all, just kept barking and trying to jump at them. I layed him down but the kids were very scared of him so we left. Any suggestions? I've never really payed attention to kids being around before, he goes everywhere with me surely there were kids around! My plan is to get him around dog savy kids, am I on the right track? I have never had a dog with this problem.

My guess would be that where ever he spent his formative puppy imprint periods (approximately 4-12 weeks of age), he was not exposed to young children.

When he "went ballistic" at the sight of your friend's children what did you do?

Do you have any friends with children who are accustomed to harder tempered dogs such as working GSDs, Dobies, etc.? If you do, I would start socializing your GSD with the help of these kids (under close supervision).

Kathleen,

My 7 month old is going through a phase right now where he is a little leery of strange people even though he is well-socialized. When he is acting uncertain with a person I have them offer treats.

When he was very small he had about a 2 week period where he was afraid of kids. No reason for it but he was. I carried treats for the neighborhood kids to offer and he has since not had a problem.

My dog is a pet...if you're raising a working dog then my advice may be the wrong thing to do.

Good luck

Thanks for the replies. I am looking for kids that aren't afraid of dogs to try work with him. I'm also going to try and walk him more when kids are out playing, usually the only walk time we have is late in the evening.

I was supose to go check out a training group tommorrow but my 12 1/2 year old rhodesian bloated last night so I'll be having to stay with him for a while until he recovers from his surgery.

 Quote: Kathleen Heth

...my 12 1/2 year old rhodesian bloated last night so I'll be having to stay with him for a while until he recovers from his surgery.

Sad news, Kathleen. Keep us posted on his progress.

I too am sorry to hear about your ridgeback. Hope things are ok for you and recovery is in progress.

As for socializing your other dog around the kids, you got a tough row to hoe there, IMO. If you missed the critical timing of imprinting early on and 8 weeks to 8 months and loading this dog with kids at that time, your dog is likely very scared of children. Could be a phase too, like was mentioned on the other post.

One thing that (sort of) worked with my 1st dog who was never socialized with kids--saw her first one around a year and a half, was to have one child, around 10, whom I trusted, come with me to throw the ball for the dog. It really helped to explain to the child they were an important part of training for the dog, and they had to remain calm, no screeching/quick movements.

*First*, I'd get the dog going in ball drive and then after a while have the child join in. Of course, this exercise will only work if your dog is ball/toy driven. Then, I slowly built up to having another kid, eventually up to 3 kids standing, taking turns with the ball. It was a slow process, but eventually, the dog no longer foamed at the mouth with ballistic barking when she saw kids playing. HOWEVER, I never ever let children be around that dog alone, not even for a second, as inside the house, the dog was still somewhat leery.

Good luck with this and always play it safe.

Dante, my ridgeback, is recoving quite nicely. He's happy to home, but still on IV's here. He's a pretty strong boy for 12 1/2. Don't think me sleeping by his side has hurt him any .

Thanks for the advice about the pup. He is about 7 months now, I got him when he was about 4 months old, have no idea of his history he was found on the streets and picked up by animal control. I'm taking this seriously and am determined to make him a gentleman, he is the hardest dog I have ever had (and have done a lot of rescue!). I think he is probably one of the smartest too and that is part of his problem. I was thinking if he saw my other dog with kids maybe that'd help. Dante becomes very protective of children and might not let him in the same room if he feels he's too much. I'd have to wait til Dante is 100%. Ridgebacks are so easy!

When Jäger was a tyke we took treats with us everywhere and asked anyone who showed the slightest intrest (emphasis on children) in the dog to give him a treat.

These were highly controled events, I knelt down and put my arm around his neck and really held him closely (did I mention these were highly controlled events) so every encounter with strangers, kids in particular were always predictably favorable.

Later, once he was approaching two years old we began redirecting him away from strangers and kids with a command that told him to ignore them.

He minds splendidly as my service dog and has plenty of drive in protection class.

Red, not sure I would put my arm around this dogs neck,during the introduction to kids, I know if I did that to one of my dogs, while they were going off they get very protective over me, if this dog's bond is strong with this owner, the dog may see it as support from the pack and keep lunging at the kids, I would think a long line and a collar for a quick correction would be better,dunno just my thoughts, your dog may have a really easy going friendly attitude, the thing is
this pup is already hyped by kids....The food and ball plan are both great options.

Michelle:
I agree that only the owner knows what the dog's demeanor was, there's a world of difference between a seven month old's wanna play barking, so excited by the prospect of human puppies to play with that he knocked them down wanting to play rough and tumble like a puppy versus actually intending them harm.

I know Ed doesn't like pics, but, I'm hoping he'll allow it based on demonstrating a technique.


While holding the dog like this people approach the dog between 10: and 2:00 (like approaching a helicopter running while on the ground) while I hold the dog in check. He has to hear me because I'm right in his ear. He can't lunge, jump up, or knock a child down like on a leash where the dog can lunge ahead or can move latterly. Once he's mastered sit still to get his treat and affection we can begin adding variables by relating the known to the unknown. Once he sits still to meet without being held introduce calm children one at a time to play until the dog is used to whatever your goal is.

With my dog the neighborhood kids stood in line next to the gate to play with Jäger one at a time for several days, then I started adding them in twosies and threesies. Now they all come in at once and play soccer with him.