Was just wondering how Oscar has decided he is dominant over the baby . Is quite upsetting as he is such a lovely dog apart from these problems .
It all started when my 15 month old daughter came in while he was eating and he growled her away (i was gobsmacked). He did it today for a second time i took his food away and put him in his crate , later i offered the food again whilst the baby was close (again under my supervision and he growled yet again) Makes me mad!
Secondly i walk with him my daughter being in the pushchair and he pulls upto pushchair and barks at her and trys to grab her legs (as if to say mee first not you) I pulled him back and gave him a telling off .

Though he still seems to behaving this way , Obviously i have gone wrong somewhere . He is fine to take food if im holding the bowl , even me having my hands in the bowl hes fine . So i tryed as someone suggested and sat my daughter on my lap she held the bowl and offered it to him . He really growled this time i shouted no stood up and put food away .

Where does this behaviour come from? I read they try to find there place more so in the pack between the age of 8 to 12 weeks but doesnt really tell you how to sort this out .
Need all they advice you can all give on this one please.
Thanyou in advance
Serena ,. By the way my daughter is 16 months and can only crawl at the moment.

What breed is Oscar? Remember not to over analyise Oscar, dogs are not human. He is trying to establish his role within the pack. He's not doing it on purpose, he's doing what comes naturally. You have to be firm. The top dog doesn't snap/growl at the young dog because he's touched her food, the top dog lets the young dog know the score before he even thinks about going near the food. Don't confuse him by saying "Oscar, no don't growl Oscar/Oscar stop pulling/Oscar if you do that one more time.." Just "NO!" when he hesitates "Good Boy" Punish must always = Praise even when saying "Good Boy" is the last thing you want to do. You just have to take Oscars confusion away, you need to be a complete party pooper until he knows his place and believe me he'll be alot more content. Keep it simple, be consistent and fair.
HTH
Julie :)
edited : I didn't realise poor Oscar was only 11 weeks old bless. Enjoy his puppy months, he's just finding his feet at the minue and doesn't understand the rules.

Serena have another look at the Perfect Puppy which I'm sure you've read millions of times already but - read again the section that dogs should see you as the food provider.
He is so young maybe he thinks you are both challenging him for his food. He has just left his litter mates and they all would have been scrapping and pinching food and he probably sees you both as similar threats especially as you might appear to be looming over him or hanging around unnecessarily.

I don't have kids myself but try this first before getting the child involved: get him to sit for the food, then put it on the floor and introduce extra nice things into the bowl as he eats; then leave him alone with his food. I'm sure he will be ok after a few tries and become more secure with you. When he stops growling try bringing the child into it then and do what you have been advised in your post.
cissy

Hi Serena,

Definately read the Perfect Puppy Book, it's fab!! Also as someone else said, he is a dog and they need to learn how to behave in the human pack.

We have just bought in a Working Beardie Puppy (we have 6 show bred beardies already) and she was a complete nightmare for the first 2 months, she has only just learned how to behave and is turning into a normal puppy. She has taken a lot of work and because she is extremely dominant, both us and the other dogs have had to be very pushy back to her (not aggressive, but being dominant over her).

Give him time, I would guess he is a teenager (between 9 and 18 months - approx), sounds like teenage behaviour and the hormones are starting to kick in and he is regarding your daughter as a threat to his position. Not sure what breed, but some breeds are prone to being more dominant than others.

With the food problem (we had this with Sparkle), I would suggest feeding him in small stages. With her we have had to use two bowls and put a small amount of food into the eating bowl while the rest is in MY bowl and she only got a little at a time, when I was ready to give it to her. She was very food possessive at 8 weeks old and growled like crazy and hung onto her food bowl with her teeth, curling her lip and fiercely growling. This has all stopped now and she is fine with people and dogs round her when she is eating, it took a lot of time and patience, but we got there.

We knew we were in for a hard time, because Working Beardies are not easy and have been bred to be dominant and bold, but luckily we are both experienced and sorted it quickly.

I would definately suggest training classes and making sure that whenever your daughter is in the room, he enjoys her being there, ie give him fuss, a bit of training, a new toy etc (obviously making sure she doesn't grab it off of him) and involve him in what you do with her, so that he doesn't feel excluded and left out.

Good luck and keep at it.

manda
X

My personal opinion is that taking the food away from him is the worst thing you can do, it teaches him that he needs to be aggressive over his food because when your daughter is there it might be taken away.
I would start getting him used to humans being around his food. Try first with a chew, something not too tasty, and then when he's chewing that, show him that you have a really really tasty treat, something he loves, and lure him away from the chew, while you've got his interest and he's left the chew, pick it up with the other hand as you feed the tasty tit bit, and then hand him his chew back.
After you've done that a few times and he's used to it, move onto his food bowl, and repeat it there. It would be useful if your daughter could do it, but she's probably too young to understand yet.
If you've read the Perfect Puppy, you'll be pleased to know that that method comes directly from Gwen Bailey herself!

If there is real aggression involved, you HAVE to see a behaviour counsellor, your daughter is far too young to be able to understand what's going on, she could end up walking past his food bowl and getting really hurt. There are loads of reasons your dog could be acting like that around her, and dominance is not necessarily the answer, he could be frightened of her, children are too noisy for me let alone a dogs sensitive ears! He might also be excited by her because children move differently to adults.

Good luck getting to the bottom of it, but I would strongly reccomend getting professional help with this one, it sounds like a time bomb waiting to go off.

Take care,
Jo

Hiya,
I dont want to start a big debate about dominance theorys here, but i do want to have my say!

Please, stop thinking about wether or not Oscar is being 'dominant' or not. Step back, and try to see what your dog is telling you!
By growling when your young child is near his food, he is saying 'i am not happy with this situation'. In effect, he is giving your daughter a warning to back off and leave him alone.
If you then take away his food, you are in effect telling him that his food is a very important resource, and it MUST be protected at all costs!

You say your daughter has just started to crawl, and i would think that this is part of what is upsetting oscar. The previously noisy, but mostly immobile child has become mobile, and is able to get around. He does not understand her, or her body language, and now feels he has to guard things that are important to him from her.
I personally would not see this as dominance, i would see it as a dog that is confused, and probably nervous.

If you force your daughters presence upon Oscar, when he is eating, and a warning from him stating that he is unhappy with the situation that leads to removal of food, and punishment, then he is more likely to link your daughters presence with punishment, and not his original growling!

My suggestion is to make sure your daughter is NOT present when the dog is fed, and to try and reduce the importance of food to him, so feed him less palatable food, and more often, if that is possible.
Also, i strongly suggest that you see a good behaviourist, before any one gets bitten.

Emma

I just want to add that I've been reading through the other messages, and didn't realise he was so young! Perhaps a behavourist is a bit extreme, sorry!

From your other posts, namely describing how he was barking at all the scary things in the world, it sounds to me like he is feeling quite frightened, and worrying about whether he's going to get a meal or not is an extra thing for him to deal with. He hasn't yet learned how to deal with things like this, and needs to learn that growling isn't the best way. You don't want to reward him for growling I know, but at the same time, it's better than biting, and he is giving you warnings and letting you know how he feels, if you take away his willingness to do that, you will end up with a dog who bites for 'no reason', because he can't tell you when he is uncomfortable.

I think your best course of action is to prevent him growling in the first place, so never have your daughter around when he's eating. I know this will be hard because with him being so young he'll be eating lots of meals a day, but if you do lots of training with him around his food bowl teaching him not to be posessive, he will soon get more confident and not feel the need to growl. When you do introduce your daughter to him when he's eating (not for a long time yet), make sure you do it very carefully, and only go at a pace he is comfortable with.

Sorry for the earlier confusion.
Jo

Hi Cheers all ,
Ok i re read the Perfect Puppy and found the bit about food . So i followed the advice and will continue to do so , so far hes doing exactly as the book said he will
Thankyou all
Serena and Oscar (the non dominant dog LOL)