Dog barks at kids/small people only

Poor_old_gill

My dog always barks at kids or small people but nobody else - has anyone experienced this?

How do you socialise them/get them used to kids?

Hi Gill.

What age is the dog? What breed is he? How long have you had him? Can you explain a bit more about the barking? Does he lunge and bark, freeze and bark, back away and bark etc? What does his body language look like to you? Do you have children in the house or visiting?

Sorry for all the questions. When it comes to training a dog with children it would be good to see exactly what's happening to be sure of the safest route and depending on your answers you may well need a behaviourist or a one to one with a reputable trainer.

Most likely it's one of two things. No experience of children which would make him quite naturally nervous of them in which case you need to teach him that children mean good things happen. Never scary things.

Or he's had negative experiences with children in which case you need to replace his bad associations with good associations.

I'd start with just treating him everytime you see a child (from a safe distance) before he reacts to them. Never punish the behaviour or you'll reinforce that children do indeed mean bad things happen and it will only get worse. I wouldn't recommend anything else until I knew more about the situation.

I'd be keeping him on a leash at all times even if he's just barking in excitement as it can be quite scary for children.

tk123

I saw this earlier and thought of this post! The only thing I’ll say is that a clicker will make everyone turn around and go ‘huh?’ which may or may not bother you lol! In a different situation I’d suggest saying yes or whatever word you want... but if your dog is already barking the clicker would hopefully get their attention better.

Poor_old_gill

Poor_old_gill wrote: »

My dog always barks at kids or small people but nobody else - has anyone experienced this?

How do you socialise them/get them used to kids?

We have the same issue with a neighbour's dog, a lab. I love dogs and so does my toddler but every time we walk past their house or go anywhere near their gate he goes nuts and gets very hostile. He doesn't do it with adults, just children. Toddler got a bit of a scare last week when we didn't see dog in garden and dog came charging at their hedge and was really aggressive. Child was very upset and notice he is now much more wary which is a shame as he loves dogs. Neighbour saw incident and instead of apologising or acknowledging what had happened, he asked me not to let kid anywhere near his gate (we were on the footpath). I can't help but think that it's his issue to resolve and if the dog can't be trusted with kids around then he needs to be kept in the back garden.

whisky_galore

[Deleted User] wrote: »

We have the same issue with a neighbour's dog, a lab. I love dogs and so does my toddler but every time we walk past their house or go anywhere near their gate he goes nuts and gets very hostile. He doesn't do it with adults, just children. Toddler got a bit of a scare last week when we didn't see dog in garden and dog came charging at their hedge and was really aggressive. Child was very upset and notice he is now much more wary which is a shame as he loves dogs. Neighbour saw incident and instead of apologising or acknowledging what had happened, he asked me not to let kid anywhere near his gate (we were on the footpath). I can't help but think that it's his issue to resolve and if the dog can't be trusted with kids around then he needs to be kept in the back garden.

It's his property. If the dog can't get out and the child can't get in, well I don't see how you can force him to put his dog elsewhere, esp it's not causing a nuisance otherwise and it's well cared for.

It's a life lesson for the child, deal with it. Don't expect every strange dog or animal to be as nice as pie.

tk123

whisky_galore wrote: »

It's his property. If the dog can't get out and the child can't get in, well I don't see how you can force him to put his dog elsewhere, esp it's not causing a nuisance otherwise and it's well cared for.

It's a life lesson for the child, deal with it. Don't expect every strange dog or animal to be as nice as pie.

I mightn’t have been so blunt lol but I agree. Unwanted attention from toddlers caused Lucy to be afraid of them and she’d try to get away or hide from them. Many a morning coffee at the park was ruined by other people’s kids trying to pet my dogs - dogs they didn’t know and could have had any reaction for all the parents knew. I even had an autistic child punch Bailey in the head one time and pull at his fur

whisky_galore

whisky_galore wrote: »

It's his property. If the dog can't get out and the child can't get in, well I don't see how you can force him to put his dog elsewhere, esp it's not causing a nuisance otherwise and it's well cared for.

It's a life lesson for the child, deal with it. Don't expect every strange dog or animal to be as nice as pie.

I amn't going to force him to do anything. For the record, we were just walking on the public path and the dog lunged well over the hedge (must have been over a foot if not more onto path) and aimed a bite at my child's face. He just missed. I was very scared, the child was petrified.

We won't even walk on that side of the street anymore and the toddler insists on being in my arms now. We also can't play ball in our cul de sac or on the road during lockdown as the dog patrols the front of the house barking incessantly at us. It's very intimidating.

We've also had to move both kids' bedrooms to back of the house and to blare white noise while kids are asleep as dog is constantly barking. While on lockdown, I can't go into front garden or walk past their house while kids are having naps or asleep at night as dog barks so much and wakes kids up.

The neighbour is in estate much longer than us and his dogs are his life so we've made the decision not to make a deal of it, but at least one of the other neighbours had a similar incident recently and the dog is getting more and more cranky.

Unfortunately, it seems the tail is wagging the dog in this situation.

whisky_galore

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I amn't going to force him to do anything. For the record, we were just walking on the public path and the dog lunged well over the hedge (must have been over a foot if not more onto path) and aimed a bite at my child's face. He just missed. I was very scared, the child was petrified.

We won't even walk on that side of the street anymore and the toddler insists on being in my arms now. We also can't play ball in our cul de sac or on the road during lockdown as the dog patrols the front of the house barking incessantly at us. It's very intimidating.

We've also had to move both kids' bedrooms to back of the house and to blare white noise while kids are asleep as dog is constantly barking. While on lockdown, I can't go into front garden or walk past their house while kids are having naps or asleep at night as dog barks so much and wakes kids up.

The neighbour is in estate much longer than us and his dogs are his life so we've made the decision not to make a deal of it, but at least one of the other neighbours had a similar incident recently and the dog is getting more and more cranky.

Unfortunately, it seems the tail is wagging the dog in this situation.

Well if it's constant barking, that's an issue that you and affected neighbours could take further as there are laws to deal with nuisance barking.
I don't see why he being there any longer has any relevance.

whisky_galore

whisky_galore wrote: »

Well if it's constant barking, that's an issue that you and affected neighbours could take further as there are laws to deal with nuisance barking.
I don't see why he being there any longer has any relevance.

Constant is an exaggeration on my part. It's constant when we are in our front garden, we walk on the road outside or play in our cul de sac, all of which we keep to a minimum now. If the kids are asleep or napping we can't do any of those things.

Even broaching the issue would lead to World War 3. They are set in their ways and have many habits, including parking their cars on the footpath outside instead of in their driveway, as their front garden gets the sun, which would not be tolerated in most places but has become common practice amongst a group of older neighbours.

They are actually decent people as long as you fall into line with some of their unusual practices and habits.

Hannibal_Smith

Is it kids that come into your home that you want to train the dog to get used to? Or is it when you're out and about?

I'm no expert and still have my learner plates on when it comes to dog owning, but our guy used to bark at EVERY dog and would especially lose it when it was a blonde dog When out on walks, another dog approaching was really stressful!

So we watched a few Zak George videos on you tube and he spoke about distraction when another dog came along. So say for example, you're out for a walk and you see a toddler approaching, you have a word, ours is watch. And you hold the treat, while walking and saying watch and the dog is so focused on the treat that the trigger will have passed without them noticing.

It took A LOT of work, but now we don't need the treat. He'll happily walk by a dog, but looks up for the reward when they've passed....which I do give in to because he's so cute . He still isn't over his blonde dog issue though.

Not sure if that's of any use, but hope you find a solution to it!