# 6 month old puppy biting kids



## ceegee (Mar 26, 2015)

First, I'm sorry, for you and for your dog, that you're going through this.

Second, these things almost never "just happen" without some kind of trigger or some kind of warning. You may not have seen it, but something caused this. You have four children, meaning that you're very busy, and you probably weren't always around when the puppy was with the children. My guess is that something happened: a child hurt the dog, or tormented it, or frightened it. You may already have asked the children about this, but you might want to ask them again, and make sure they know how important it is to tell you the truth. Your dog's life literally depends on it.

Kids do a lot of things that dogs don't like, and that can potentially hurt dogs and lead to the type of aggression you describe in your post. For example, they may lie on the dog, sit on the dog as if on a horse, play "tormenting" games like batting the dog's face with their hands, or pull the dog's tail or ears. They may bother the dog when he's lying down or trying to rest. They may be loud and shout in his face. (many submissive dogs don't like loud noises). They may jump on the dog when he's sleeping. They may try to dress up the dog and inadvertently hurt his joints as they pull his legs around to get the garment on. They may try to get the dog to do things that are dangerous (going down slides, etc.). And so on. When these types of things happen, a dog will almost always start out by looking uncomfortable and trying to leave the situation. It will then graduate to growling as a warning. The kind of biting you describe - a bite that draws blood - is usually a last resort and would come after multiple, escalating warnings. It's very rare indeed that a dog will simply start biting people, unless the incident that provoked it was quite serious (e.g. the dog was hurt and in pain as a result of whatever happened). You may not have seen the warnings, but they were given.

The other thing you might want to consider is why this particular dog was chosen for your family. Did you choose him, or did the breeder make the choice for you? If you chose him, why did you pick this particular puppy? A household with four children would normally be busy and noisy, so you would need a puppy able to deal with this. I would never choose a "submissive" puppy for a household like this. You don't say how old your children are, but many good breeders, and rightfully so, would not place a puppy in a home with four young children, simply because of the potential for bad things to happen to it.

It's a myth that puppies and children are "made" to go together. They aren't. I got my first golden retriever many decades ago. He was about 18 months old when he came to us, and had been returned to his breeder by a family with a young child, because they (said they) couldn't cope with both the child and the dog. He was an amazing dog for us, an adult couple, but the first time he came into contact with a child, he was not amazing, far from it. We saw how uncomfortable he was, removed him from the situation before it could deteriorate, and called the breeder. She went back to the original family, asked them some hard questions, and eventually found out that they had allowed their child to jump on and "ride" the dog. The dog had tried every which way, over a period of months, to avoid the child, and had then started growling, and eventually snapped, at which point they sent him back to the breeder. We kept him, of course, but that dog disliked children for the rest of his life and had to be managed very carefully.

Some questions you might want to consider:
How much formal obedience training have you done with your dog?
How diligent have you been in making sure your children know how to behave appropriately with a dog?
Did the dog spend time with the children but without adult supervision?
Has the dog ever seemed uncomfortable around your children or other children?
Have other people's children ever been alone with your dog, when you were not there?

It's a very sad situation all around.


----------



## DblTrblGolden2 (Aug 22, 2018)

They are almost never out of the blue or unprovoked situations. By that statement I don't mean that you've done anything wrong. If he's bitten and drawn blood on three children in one week he absolutely should not be near the children. I would take him out for exercise time and training myself and he would be separated from the children at all times. The kids need to learn how to safely interact with him and he needs time to learn what behavior is expected of him when playing with the kids. 

My oldest Golden had never been around young children when my Grandson was born. I wasn't anticipating any issues as he's a very well trained dog. I also have owned enough dogs to know warning signs. When Duke first saw my Grandson, an infant, his tail went straight up, his ears went back and his body went tense at that moment he was put in his room. It took from then until my Grandson was over 2 years old for me to allow Duke to be near him off leash. They are the best of friends now but it took time and consistent training. I know your puppy was raised with your children but you now know you have a problem. You are going to have to fix it.

I started with total separation. The next step was to allow Duke to see my Grandson with one person on one side of a gate with Duke and another on the other side of the gate holding my Grandson. I was normally with Duke as he is my dog and I didn't want jealousy to be an issue. He also listens to me so it made sense. I made sure that my husband or son had my Grandson just in case something should happen they both know Duke and dog behavior well enough to intervene. Eventually it got to where my Grandson could crawl or sit on one side of the gate and give Duke a treat. Duke was taught to wait so he didn't take it from my grandsons hand but off the floor after my grandson dropped it. When that went well we allowed Duke to be on a leash and my Grandson to be out playing in the yard but not with Duke. When Duke's body language was relaxed consistently we allowed my Grandson to walk up holding another adults hand and be near Duke. Eventually my Grandson would walk with me while I walked Duke. Not long after that they were able to play with close monitoring. They became friends and we have never looked back. My grandson tells everyone "Duke is the best dog ever!!" I always laugh to myself. If he had any idea what we went through. Today, my Grandson is now 6, I do not allow Duke with him without me there. It would just be irresponsible. I have two other Goldens he can play with anytime he wants but Duke needs supervision. My Grandson has also been taught to respect Duke's boundaries. He does not take toys from Duke like he does the other two. He does not run toward Duke. He calls Duke and lets Duke come to him. It's probably not necessary at this point but I don't ever want to be put in the position of knowing I had a problem and feeling the guilt of not being responsible. 

Duke is a high strung Golden. He is protective of me. I love him dearly and we have never had a real problem with him. If you watch him he gives clear signals when he doesn't like something. Often he will position himself in front of me to block access from strangers. It's nonchalant and most people don't notice it. If I say "it's okay" he will relax. He will twitch his ears back just slightly, then normally the tail goes up, and lastly he postures - it's a chest out front end braced stance. I do not let it go past the ear twitch unless I'm uncomfortable and want him to know it's okay to scare off whomever is approaching. He also has a rock solid obedience foundation that I can rely on.

You can teach your puppy to properly interact with your children but you will also have to teach your children how to safely interact with your puppy. It will be a job but one well worth doing. Be calm and consistent but most of all do not let another child near him unless you have complete control of the dog. Three bites is three to many. 

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum my mother is terrified of dogs, always has been. I have loved them since I was a tiny baby according to everyone that knows me. I will never forget my mother screaming that my puppy was going to mull me. The puppy was playing. He did break the skin, but it wasn't an aggressive behavior. I was a kid and didn't know how to train or stop a bad behavior. The dog thought that when I stopped playing he could grab my arm and hold me. After several trips to our family doctor to make sure I didn't get some horrible dog induced disease my family doctor convinced my mom that I was not going to die from playing with the dog. Thankfully our family doctor hunted with my Grandfather and knew our family very well. To this day when I see him he says "have you died from those vicious dogs you keep?" He is in his mid 80's and has two labs that he carries with him everywhere.


----------



## Jen45mn (Oct 14, 2020)

ceegee said:


> First, I'm sorry, for you and for your dog, that you're going through this.
> 
> Second, these things almost never "just happen" without some kind of trigger or some kind of warning. You may not have seen it, but something caused this. You have four children, meaning that you're very busy, and you probably weren't always around when the puppy was with the children. My guess is that something happened: a child hurt the dog, or tormented it, or frightened it. You may already have asked the children about this, but you might want to ask them again, and make sure they know how important it is to tell you the truth. Your dog's life literally depends on it.
> 
> ...



Thank you very much for your thoughtful reply. I appreciate it. Our kids are 13, 11 and twin 8 year olds. 

Honestly, my husband and I both have been very watchful with our puppy since bringing him home and our kids are pretty gentle with him. We've tried to expose him and socialize him a lot. He definitely has a negative feeling with kids that we are trying to figure out. We have the kids give him lots of treats/rewards to reinforce the positive with him. 

We are in a sad situation as we all love our dog, but he is not thriving with us. We have not yet done formal obedience training. I have a trainer scheduled to come to our home. I feel like we need it asap. It is truly sad. I'm concerned if it can ever get better even with training.


----------



## Jen45mn (Oct 14, 2020)

DblTrblGolden2 said:


> They are almost never out of the blue or unprovoked situations. By that statement I don't mean that you've done anything wrong. If he's bitten and drawn blood on three children in one week he absolutely should not be near the children. I would take him out for exercise time and training myself and he would be separated from the children at all times. The kids need to learn how to safely interact with him and he needs time to learn what behavior is expected of him when playing with the kids.
> 
> My oldest Golden had never been around young children when my Grandson was born. I wasn't anticipating any issues as he's a very well trained dog. I also have owned enough dogs to know warning signs. When Duke first saw my Grandson, an infant, his tail went straight up, his ears went back and his body went tense at that moment he was put in his room. It took from then until my Grandson was over 2 years old for me to allow Duke to be near him off leash. They are the best of friends now but it took time and consistent training. I know your puppy was raised with your children but you now know you have a problem. You are going to have to fix it.
> 
> ...


Thank you for your reply! Your input is helpful and your examples with your own dog. I appreciate your perspective and story. We have a serious situation on our hands that makes me sad. Can we get to a point to turn this around.....


----------



## DblTrblGolden2 (Aug 22, 2018)

Jen45mn said:


> Thank you for your reply! Your input is helpful and your examples with your own dog. I appreciate your perspective and story. We have a serious situation on our hands that makes me sad. Can we get to a point to turn this around.....


You can turn this around. He has to* not *be given another opportunity to bite a child. You need a professional trainer to train your family and the dog. It will not work if they just train the dog. In the mean time you need to be the one that is responsible for the dog (or another adult he respects). It is a process but it is definitely achievable. Your kids are also all old enough to understand that they need to help. I actually was thinking they were younger reading the original post. A trainer can work with the dog and the kids as well. Make sure the trainer you pick is a qualified one.

Did he give you any warning signs?
Is he obedience trained? sit, down, leave it, leash walking
Crate trained?
How much exercise does he get?


----------



## gdgli (Aug 24, 2011)

Has he bitten any adults? That is your first clue. Here is a list of child related things that dogs tend to not like:
1. Tail pulling
2. Hugging
3. Patting on top of the head
4. Staring the dog in the eyes
5. Teasing
6. Fast movements---kids move quite fast compared to an adult
7. Kids chasing each other near the dog
8. Walking up to the dog and reaching for the dog
9. Reaching for the dog while he is lying down
10. Reaching for dog toys

Not saying these things happened but they often do when you are not looking.
Keep kids away from the dog, teach them how to pet, and teach appropriate behavior to the kids.


----------



## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Jen45mn said:


> Thank you very much for your thoughtful reply. I appreciate it. Our kids are 13, 11 and twin 8 year olds.
> 
> Honestly, my husband and I both have been very watchful with our puppy since bringing him home and our kids are pretty gentle with him. We've tried to expose him and socialize him a lot. He definitely has a negative feeling with kids that we are trying to figure out. We have the kids give him lots of treats/rewards to reinforce the positive with him.
> 
> We are in a sad situation as we all love our dog, but he is not thriving with us. We have not yet done formal obedience training. I have a trainer scheduled to come to our home. I feel like we need it asap. It is truly sad. I'm concerned if it can ever get better even with training.


Did he attack your kids.... or neighbor kids? Reason why I ask and obviously you know - but this could expose you to lawsuits if he bit other kids.

If this is just snapping at your kids -

Without knowing the circumstances, I would guess it was one of two things -

He is resource guarding over something - including you.
He is reacting to kids that grab, sit on him, etc..... and warning them to back off.

Years ago, I went to summer camp with one of my siblings and the camp was held on some people's property. So you had like 20-40 kids of all ages there as part of the camp.

The property owning family had a little yorkie mix. Cutest dog in the whole world.

He would have herds of 7 year old girls chasing after him and trying to pick him up and so on. And this led to him hiding most of the time.

One of these times he went under the family's deck and when the kids told me he was down there - I was nervous about him being under there and getting attacked by something. So I went in to go get him, with the plan to bring him into the house.

So found him and he looked at me and snarled. He had the hunch, mean eyes, and full bared teeth.

So while I was not one of the kids who had been chasing after him and harassing him - he still reacted to me and warned me off.

I immediately backed off and left him down there. Personally speaking, I was shocked because this was a very sweet dog. I think he had to of felt very harassed and harangued to get to the point he was at. 

Bites happen when a dog is warning somebody off. Sometimes it's not as obvious as I describe. Sometimes it's dogs avoiding eye contact and getting very stiff.



I kinda do encourage that you have somebody visit who can talk to you and get more information about what happened. And have them work with the dog a little to see where his comfort levels are, what triggers are, what he can tolerate or not.

He's already had multiple attacks occur, so you should not "trust" him. But you can learn to live with him. Your older kids are old enough to help with training and exercising him. They can work at building a bond with that dog + moving past him looking at them as littermates. The little kids, you should work with them on how to approach the dog and what not to do. It's tough if you got this dog to be a playbuddy for the little kids especially, but until he matures and gets past all of the fear stages and behavioral/hormonal stuff (until he's about 2-3 years old), you have to train the little kids to assume he will bite them.

In my family with a dog who went through a similar stage (between 9 and 12 months), my youngest brother and sister were taught to never put their hands near him if he had something in his mouth. Likewise, they were taught to back off immediately if he demonstrated the most subtle warning. <= Our dog did not get away with any of that, but the little kids were too low on the totem pole to be the ones to manage or correct him when he was misbehaving.

In our case, we had a dog trainer and behaviorist working with us. We took our dog to classes - and he stayed in classes for about 7 years. This was a dog who was bred to have a job.

Would say that you can get past all this - but management is key.

I hope the dog gets to have a place with his family - in the house, sleeping at the foot of the bed, etc. For an insecure and fearful dog - having his place in a home and knowing his people love him - it's a pretty big deal.


----------



## Jen45mn (Oct 14, 2020)

DblTrblGolden2 said:


> You can turn this around. He has to* not *be given another opportunity to bite a child. You need a professional trainer to train your family and the dog. It will not work if they just train the dog. In the mean time you need to be the one that is responsible for the dog (or another adult he respects). It is a process but it is definitely achievable. Your kids are also all old enough to understand that they need to help. I actually was thinking they were younger reading the original post. A trainer can work with the dog and the kids as well. Make sure the trainer you pick is a qualified one.
> 
> Did he give you any warning signs?
> Is he obedience trained? sit, down, leave it, leash walking
> ...


 Thank you for your reply. 
He does sit, stay and laydown....he is quite sweet and rolls right over on his back when you pet him even for our kids to rub his tummy. 

He is crate trained. Gets treats he loves to go in. He gets walked daily and sometimes more running and playing with the neighbor puppy a little older, but they love to play.


----------



## Jen45mn (Oct 14, 2020)

He has at times growled, but 2 of the instances...no warning. In 1 situation, I noticed he stiffened right up, but he was laying down so


----------



## Jen45mn (Oct 14, 2020)

Jen45mn said:


> He has at times growled, but 2 of the instances...no warning. In 1 situation, I noticed he stiffened right up, but he was laying down so 8 missed it. ;(
> 
> 
> Megora said:
> ...


----------

