My 9 month old lab/walker coon hound, Hershey, was crate trained, and I "thought" we socialized her pretty good during the window, but apparently I am wrong. I have aa 2 daughters, 12 and 9, so while my 12 yr old is adultsize, my 9 yr old is small. We have lots of kids running through our house and Hershey doesn't bother the big kids, but when my 9 yr old brings friends over she wants to jump and nip at them. I have noticed that the smaller the child the worse her reaction is, as far as barking with her hair standing straight up. And if she's outside on her lead and a group of small children walk into my yard she acts and sounds like if she could get to them, she would seriously hurt one of the kids. Especially if the child is small. A 4 yr old that comes over always wants me to put Hershey up before she comes in my house, and I think Hershey knows she's fearful of her and acts ALOT more aggressively towards her than most of the other kids that come to my house. Please help, I need to retrain my dog so that she isn't scaring small children that want to come to my house.
Hi and welcome. Do you put her on lead when other children come around? Does she get put in another room? You could practise getting her attention on you every time you see a child and reward any look at you, however quick the look is. Keep rewarding every time this happens. She will get used to children = treats. She then associates good things with children.
Hi and welcome to the forum I'm sure this is a worrying situation - you want your dog to be relaxed and the children to feel and be safe. To be honest I think this is a time when the advice of a behaviourist would be helpful - someone who can observe things as they happen and who can work out a programme of training with you, to help Hershey to become more comfortable with children. At the moment I'd say that her behaviour is all about fear and she is telling the children to go away because she is scared. The small child that is really afraid probably behaves the most oddly (from your dog's perspective) and so is more scary (so it's not that Hershey senses the child's vulnerability or anything like that, it's just the this child is behaving in a especially odd way and is possibly also staring at Hershey a lot or keeping an eye on Hershey). When seeking a behaviourist you want to avoid anyone who supports 'dominance' models. You want to go for someone who is very experienced in dealing with fearful dogs and who uses kind and gentle methods. Definitely quiz any potential behaviourist about their philosophy and approach - and feel free to ask for advice here on what sounds good and what doesn't.
