Reply to Dog growling at baby

Forum Index » Pets

Reply to "Dog growling at baby"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Professional dog trainer here.

SO much misinformation in this thread.  Please please please read this:

Never, EVER punish growling.  Growling is a good thing!  It is the dog trying to tell you that it is uncomfortable with the situation, and you need to remove the child.  It is the only way the dog really has to tell you that it doesn't like what is going on.

If you choose to punish the dog (by yelling at it, grabbing the scruff, etc) when it growls, it will absolutely stop growling--which is when things get really dangerous.  You have taken away its ability to communicate.  Next time, when the dog is scared/cornered, it will not growl because it knows it will get punished for doing so.  It will resort to snapping out of desperation.

I would do the following:
1) Give your dog a safe place to retreat to.  A room, a crate, a fenced off portion of the living room.  Some place that your children are not allowed to go anywhere near.  When dog is feeling overwhelmed, it can go to its safe spot.

2)  Teach your children to ignore the dog 100% of the time, unless the dog approaches them for attention.  My son has been redirected from the time he began to crawl.  Any time he crawled towards the dog, he was turned around and we engaged him with other toys or games.

3)  When the dog came over and nuzzled him for pets, we taught him to gently pat her back, never her face.  He is now 18 months, and he never approaches the dog or touches her face.

4)  Read up on dog body language.  People always say, "The dog snapped!  I had no idea it was coming!  Totally unprovoked!"  Any decent trainer will tell you otherwise.  Dogs show a wide range of signals when they are stressed.  Yawning, panting, "whale eyes", ear set, etc are all cues that the dog is overwhelmed and needs you to help it out of the situation.  Learn these signs, for the sake of everyone in your household.  I cringe when I watch these youtube videos of children crawling all over the family dog who supposedly "loves" it.  The dog is ALWAYS showing signs of stress.  The people just don't realize it, because the dog isn't growling or moving away.  It's why the advice "Always monitor the dog and child" is worthless--if you don't know what to look for, you can't stop it before it's too late.

A 10 year old dog is not going to find a home from either a shelter or a rescue.  Both are inundated with young dogs.  Dogs over 6 are generally referred to as seniors, and have reduced adoption fees to try to beg someone to take them home.  If you really aren't willing to make simple changes to your life to protect both the dog and the child, then the only appropriate thing to do is try to rehome the dog yourself, or put it down.[/quote]

I'm not knocking your training skills, but your advice is the opposite of what I've found works with dogs. My parents had a dog that would growl if he disn't want you to come near him and our response was, as you advised, to leave him alone. He never bit anyone but he continued growling for the rest of his life when he wanted to be left alone. Later I got a dog who would occasionally bark and growl at me when he was not happy, wanted my chair, etc, and I would always yell loudly at him, growl right back, and hold him on the ground on his side until he calmed down and stopped resisting. After a month or so of that he stopped growling and has been well behaved for years since. He's also never bitten anyone. If he is pissed odd now he just takes a passive resistance approach by lying on his back so you can't pick him up. [/quote]

I should have said "may snap", not "will snap".

True, a dog who stops growling may never bite. Why take away an obvious warning sign though? That's like taking away the check engine light from your car. Maybe the engine will never blow, but there's a good chance it could, so why risk it?

You cannot be sure what a dogs next step will be. I want a dog in a house full of children to be comfortable and feel secure enough to make the warning signals he has without fear of repercussions.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics