Fear/aggression towards kids

DeadlyByDesign

Hi guys long time no speak. I come to you quite upset at the moment as I something has just reared it's ugly head and I am not sure how to deal with it.

Buddy is now 9 months old (he is a great dane) and he is the sweetest gentlest well behaved dog you could imagine. Over the last 2 months I have noticed him getting very territorial with strangers coming into the house. He will bark as they come in the door as if he is asking who the hell are you? Then when he realises there is no "stranger danger" he relaxes and is all sniffs and licks.

Yesterday something scary happened. 2 kids came to the door looking to be sponsored for a walk. I was just coming in from his evening walk and he was. on the leash. I knew he would let a few barks out of him as he takes time to warm to strangers. But as I was passing the kids he lunged. Now I am very upset about this as I always thought I could trust him and this display of aggression has completely knocked me for six. We have no kids in the house so I am not sure how I can desensitize him to this.

He has yet to be neutered, I had planned on doing this at the end of the month. I am just so shocked as I have never seen him do this before. I know what he is like, but i am not sure what to do.

Any advice here guys would be great.

Chris_Heilong

Training and setting limits is your best bet, maybe get every guest to greet him with a treat, that way he associate's visitors with good things, my is great with everyone and loves children, but he also loves toys and when he saw a child running in the field with a toy he lunged towards the toddler(he was on lead as he always is) so this is something we are working on know, dogs need to know there limits but they cant know unless we teach them.

Dr. Ian Dunbar has some good books and videos on dog training if you want to do it yourself.

portgirl123

i think with been such a big dog i dont thinki i would like to be handling this myself. If it was me i would be looking for recomendations for a good behaviourist. I would be doing it asap. Also would be thinking of getting him neutered sooner rather than later.

pics please

doggiewalker00

Remember hes still only a pup,and gets excited and exuberent very easily.
Thiers a diference in an exciteable bark to a I want to eat you bark.Was he growling,showing teeth?

Id imagine he just wanted to say hello,and you assumed the worse case becasue they were little kids and hes a big dog.a cavalier king charles will do the exact same thing if he sees kids at the front door!

Im sure he lunges you forward when your out on a walk and he wants to go to say hello to another dog or sniff a tree.

As hes a big dog he wont get away with jumping up to say hello that a little dog would do "aww thier soo cute",its more like "ahhh hes trying to eat me" even though thier behaving the eact same way.

Practice getting him to greet other people,men women children.Get them to walk up ask him to sit give him treat and a pet.if he jumps up gets over exuberant turn your back and walk away.

Why do most dogs go mental at the doorbell ringing and not the telephone?

Ding Dong! whoes thier?WOO HOO PEOPLE! Im going to say hello! will they play with me? is it another dog coming to visit ?.the dog has build up an association with the doorbell and things happening.

BLING...BLING."phhhhh im going back to sleep",nothing ever happens for a dog when the telephone rings.

desensitise the sound of the bell so that they wont be going ballistic ever time it rings.During the day ring the bell lots (you can get a button in B&Q that when you push it the bell goes off),ignore it and say nothing.gradually theyll make less fuss about the bell.

username123

DeadlyByDesign wrote: »

Over the last 2 months I have noticed him getting very territorial with strangers coming into the house. He will bark as they come in the door as if he is asking who the hell are you? Then when he realises there is no "stranger danger" he relaxes and is all sniffs and licks.

This part is what stood out to me. What happens when he does this? Are you correcting him for being territorial? Are you trying to desensitise him by bring lots of strangers to him in and out and YOU controlling the situation? What youve said here seems to be that HE chooses to relax when he is satisified that there is no 'stranger danger' whereas its YOU who should be telling him how to behave with a stranger.

Get him neutered asap as well.

bullylover

Hey, He is going through his 3rd Fear Period.
check out this website explains the lot:)
http://www.berkeleyhumane.org/upload/documents/CriticalFear.pdf
Other then that, if and hopefully it is his "fear period" I woudl wait till he comes out of it to neuture him, when you give him the chop you take away his testosterone and in doing so can make him even more nervous. Im all for neuturing and spaying, just be carefull about when:)
Hope that helps! I have a great dane going through his 2nd fear period at the min... so I know your pain:)