biting children

[philip swift clarke]

HI
I rescued a working cocker named lucy about 2 years ago,,she was very nervous and clingy, but has come on in leaps and bounds, you realy wouldnt know it is the same dog,
However recently my brother came to visit with his wife and young child, she is 3 years old, and it was the first time our dog had met her,
Of course i didnt think there would be a problem, but all of a sudden the dog went for the child, in a very nasty way, she didn't bite her, but needless to say it was very frightening for the child,
Recently over the last few months she has done the same thing on different occations, not biting but being very aggresive toward young children, I do not want to punish her excessivley as i dont want her to regress back to her former nervous self,
Any advice would be much apriciated
Phil                    

[Pammy]

Could have sworn I replied to this earlier. Never mind - here goes again....

Phil - punishing her will not help, simply make things worse. You have a dog that clearly has a problem with children, sometimes the case with rescue dogs, but not always one that's obvious until a situation presents itself.

Your only option, imho, is to keep Lucy away from young children. Often, young children frighten a dog by behaving in a way the dog sees as frightening, so they react the only way they know how. As you probably don't know what Lucy's previous experience with children is, you'll never know for sure that you've managed to counteract it. Therefore, I think for your and her sake, you must keep her away from small children. This way - she won't be in a position where she can harm a child, or where you need to punish her or be at risk of regressing.

That's probably not what you wanted to hear, but trying to force her into the company of children I feel is just too risky, and you would end up somewhere you really wouldn't want to be                    

[Jane S]

I agree with Pam - the last thing you want to do is punish a dog who has a history of nervousness nor should you force her to interact with children if she isn't happy in their company. Normally puppies need to be socialised with children from an early age & if they don't get that essential socialisation, then as older dogs they may be fearful of children & fear often results in a display of aggression. Very young children can be especially frightening to a nervy dog as they tend to move & act unpredictably. Some dogs can get over this fear but others never do I'm afraid                    

[*Jay*]

I agree with Pam and Jane. My oldest dog is very bad with children and will snap without warning. I now just keep him away from kids - gets me out of babysitting duties :wink: