I have a Labrador-sized crossbreed, Mollie, who came from a small rescue kennel two years ago, where she was estimated to be about two years old. Mollie has always disliked children, off the lead she will go out of her way to avoid them, but if cornered she has been known to growl. We have no idea of her history, but I'm sure she has been tormented in the past. I usually walk her in places where we are highly unlikely to meet anybody, but at present I can't drive as the roads here are so bad. We have a large field nearby where lots of people walk their dogs and it's all I can use until the weather improves.
Unfortunately, it's also full of kids playing in the snow. Many of them seem to have no idea how to approach a dog, and today a youngster of six or seven ran up to her before I could intervene and tried to pat her. She was taken aback and did growl at him; luckily the mother told the child off for running up to a strange dog but I could meet a less sensible mum next time. Mollie has never actually bitten anyone, and I really do not want to subject her to a muzzle. She is a young dog and needs her exercise, and even if I keep her on the lead there's no guarantee that children won't come running up, they seem to have no manners these days. What can I do?
Name and address witheld
There is no way to control other people's children (sadly). I use a body blocking technique, so I put myself between the dog and the child. If you are aware there are children in the area and are keeping as much distance as you can and are watching you should have time to do this.
ReplyDeleteI also tend to say sharply 'don't touch' which can startle the child into stopping, with not very sensible mums they sometimes object to their child being 'spoken to like that'. I am happy that they would be more upset with a nipped or traumatised child.
Be safe, put a muzzle on her. If she does nip, you could end up with big problems. Ann
ReplyDeleteYou dog will only begin to like children if she meets them regularly and realises they pose no threat, so it's good that the weather is forcing you to come across lots of them.
ReplyDeleteIf you revert to walking in empty spaces, the situation will not improve.
Your dog sounds like my old one was, in that she might bite or be aggressive if cornered. This is what I did.
I would walk casually among the children with the dog and if any ran up to him, I would put my hand up and tell them to stop. I'd explain that he was not used to children and was frightened of them, especially children running towards her. I'd say it would be helpful if he could meet them but they should not crowd around him.
I found that the children who were interested in dogs were always helpful. They would stop and I would let my dog approach them, if he wanted (don't ever force the situation), and if the children weren't frightened, I would give them treats to give him.
This worked wonders at changing the way he saw children, as you can imagine, and soon the children were able to stroke him and he became relaxed about meeting them.
My advice to children who were frightened, was just to ignore him and not even look at him.
It's so important that dogs see children as just part of the general scene, rather than as terrifying versions of grown-ups.
But you have to be alert.
I don't think children are being bad mannered when they run up, they probably know a child-friendly dog themselves and assume your dog is the same.
Parents can't possibly object to this approach.
Julia Lewis
As a parent, I would object if a dog with a fear of children was walked near my son and used him as a training aid without asking my permission!
ReplyDeleteMina,
ReplyDeleteit sounds dreadful put like that, although I can see what you mean! I certainly wasn't coldly thinking of the children as "training aids" but we were just out on our everyday walk, which in our case was Wimbledon Common, and while not going unnecessarily close, we certainly were not avoiding children.
Quite honestly, if my dog had a habit of lunging or being overtly aggressive, I would have been more circumspect in my approach, but it would have been essentially the same but with him on a lead.
It's all a question of watching the body language and taking action if there are aggressive signs.
The thing is, you have to be extremely careful because as a dog owner, if your dog bites anyone and someone reports it, well that's it - the dog is likely to be put down.
Most of the time the parents were standing nearby, so they were always happy that I was controlling the situation, but this being London, there are often children out on their own (older ones, that is).
The thing with dogs is that, as I'm sure you know, you need to socialise them and get them used to many things - children, other dogs, horses, golfers, joggers, cyclists - and it's so much better to walk them where you can come across as many of these as possible, then they take everything in their stride.
I try to emulate the guide dog training! So far it's worked.
Julia Lewis
Perhaps I've just been traumatised by my own dog, who was so friendly he knocked a couple of kiddies over by jumping to say hello. I wouldn't have dreamed of fixing the problem by walking him around little kiddies (not even my own nephew), but worked on recall instead, then practised on a long line ... just realised what I said! Practised on kiddies without permission. ;) But we did a lot of work away from them first.
ReplyDelete