Cocker Spaniel ignoring our child

Dinging

I have a 4 year old golden cocker spaniel bitch. She is a fairly timid dog, very friendly, she is comfortable with anyone once she gets to know them. She is easily frightened, would bark allot and generally is very defensive with strangers and other dogs particularly other female dogs. She will play with the kids on the street, chase them and let them chase her, play football, catch etc with them and lets the kids rub her tummy and take her for walks. She has recently began to bark at everything now which is new behavior, She has never bitten anyone but if approached when chewing a bone in the back garden would snarl and lash out so I would just leave her alone when she is with her bone. She would be OK if your removed her food and water which we have had to do if our son is in the room. She is not allowed on the couch nor upstairs to the bedrooms and we are fairly strict in laying down the boundaries such as when we are eating she is made leave the room.

We have a new child who is now 16 months old and our dog has managed to pretty much ignore our son since he was born. However when our son would go to rub her or approach her bed which is under the stairs the dog would growl at our son. My wife and I never leave the dog and our son alone but we feel very uneasy at this situation as our son is now walking and it is very difficult to keep an eye on them both. We understand the principle of hierarchy and the pack mentality but we do not seem to have been able to get the dog to accept that our son is now higher in the pack that her and as a result we are now looking at getting rid of the dog as we feel the risk is to high.

The dog is quite needy and will whimper at night when I go to bed and will generally cry and whimper when I am upstairs which again can be very annoying, this is new behavior.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what can be done? are there any training courses, web site or books that can help me solve this problem. Any advice is much appreciated.

Dinging.

Guill

I had a friend with the same issue, he tied the dogs leash to his belt and walked around all day (for a couple of days) like that, eventually the dog got used to seeing him feed the child and take care of it and eventually accepted it to the pack!

Dinging

Thanks Guill, will give that a go over the weekend.

Guill

Any Luck?

Dusty87

I went through something very similiar. When my girlfriend was 8 months pregnant the dog turned vicious to strangers. He has calmed down a bit now.
Whats frightening here though is that she will growl at you (her owner).
My dog never did that.
Also whats worrying is the growling at your child.
My dog calmed after a bit of training but i still wouldnt trust him if he felt threatened or felt we were threatened.
Sounds like your dog is beginning to think its the leader of the pack.
Few simple steps like feeding after seeing you eating first, not leaving its food down all day etc. PM if you want more info.

Dinging

Just an update to this in case anyone else has a similar experience. Over the last 2 weeks we have been consistently strict with the dog and the child I might add! The dog is put out of the room when any food is being consumed and the dog only eats after we have eaten. I am getting my 16 month old to help me prepare the dogs dinner and will only allow the dog to eat when I say so, the food is left out for 20 minutes, if it is not eaten by then it goes in the bin. I have also started allowing my son to feed the dog a treat or 2 each day but only when the doc is in the sit position and so far so good. Each morning when the dog greets my son and I we make sure that she is sitting and my son will pet her but only gently. I suppose what we are trying to do is show the dog that she is not the leader of the pack and that my son is above her in rank and she must recognise this and obey as she would in a normal pack. Obviously a bit more to do on this and I would never trust the dog alone with my son ever but things have much improved.

All the best, Dinging.