# looking for advice - golden scared of kids



## Mssjnnfer (Aug 9, 2009)

When kids approach her, have them give her some treats.


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## Bender (Dec 30, 2008)

Find a school yard in your area that is fenced, with no gates for a long section. Then, use a clicker to do some basic things she knows quite well and practice there when school is letting out etc.. and there are lots of kids, but they're not likely to actually get close to her. Then one of the things you can work is having her look, then go to the fence with/without kids right there. 

I've done this with quite a few dogs and it works great, the dogs soon figure out that there is a ton of kids but they're not going to get too close to them (mainly used to teach the dog to ignore the kids instead of going up to play with them, but it would work for fear as well). 

Lana


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

My Starlite has never been a fan of being rushed by groups of children, either. And parents see a Golden Retriever and instantly assume it's okay! Now he adores my son, but more so than the other dogs, he will get up and walk away if the baby crawls on him (which is fine, that's his right!). Some dogs love children, and some are just more wary.


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

Start with calm kids and YOU feed him treats as they calmly approach. His ability to continue to eat treats from YOU is your indicator as to how he's feeling. If he stops taking food, he's too stressed and you need to ask the kids to leave, or you turn and calmly get him out of there.

I don't like to have the "scary thing" feed b/c many dogs will rush up, snatch the treat and back away and some come in to get the food and then realize they're so close to teh scary thing and THEN freak out.


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

You need to decide if you just want your dog comfortable in the presence of children, or if you want him to actually be comfortable interacting with them. I think this will dictate a lot of how you approach the training. 

If you just want your dog comfortable in the presence of kids, I would always have the reward come from you. The kids then just become a "distraction" for him to ignore. You can slowly work up to having kids pet him, but the reward would still come from you.

The other approach would be to have the kids provide the reward. I would do this with a very slow process. Find some kids that are old enough and calm enough to follow directions. Give them some really yummy treats to hide in their hands or laps, and have them sit quietly on the ground. Any time the dog approaches the kid's area on her own, the child can give put out a treat for the dog. Do not have the kids talk to, pet, or even make eye contact with the dog. Once the dog learns that she can safely go up and get a treat without being bombard with kid craziness, you can very slowly start to increase the interaction between dog and kid. Start with child giving a soft "good girl," then later a gentle pat on the chest. The most difficult part is you have to find many different children over time that you can practice with, so the dog doesn't just think that one child is okay while others are still scary.


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## Lucky's mom (Nov 4, 2005)

Stuff every pocket you can find on a non-hyper kid with treats, ...so that they smell oh....so....pleasent....

I would go easy and slow though....a fearful dog is not a stable or predictable dog in my opinion.

Personally....I wouldn't let an unknown child in a park pet my frightened dog.


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## tennisball (Oct 14, 2009)

My golden didn't like young children either. It wasn't a problem, as I didn't know any young kids, until I started babysitting. Like the others said, treats work well, and I also let the little girl feed Cody his dinner  But the thing that made him fall for her was the brush. I gave her a brush and she'd brush him for an hour a day, he loved it!


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