I went to visit my cousin last weekend.She has an eight year old poodle. My 2 year old nephew was playing on the floor and stroked the dog very gently, the dog yelped and turned towards my nephew and I think he caught his hand. I'm not sure that he bit him,but he was distraught. I have 3 dogs so he is used to dogs  he was so upset that he was sobbing asking why the dog did that. On quite a few occasions  over the weekend when we stroked him he yelped really loudly as if we had hurt him. He even did it on occasions when he was sitting next to us and we moved and we hadn't even touched him. My cousin keeps saying its because he is panicking. He had just had his booster so I wondered whether he was tender from that but from what my cousin says he has been acting like this with other people before he had his injection. I was very nervous with him around my nephew but she didn't seem concerned at all. She still says it is because he is panicking. I know nothing about poodle temperaments so what are your thoughts please
jane

I would think by this that there's something wrong could be the ears or even arthritis of the neck.  If it's only been doing it for a short time I would think of illness myself.

I'd have him checked out if he was mine.  He may just be panicking - in which case she should be seeking help in case he ups his responses - but it sounds more like he's in pain somewhere.  Reactions to pain can be dangerous - I took Sol to the vet on Tuesday because it dawned on me that her snapping always happened when me or the other dogs were near her back end; turns out she may have the beginnings of arthritis, when I was sure it was just guarding behaviour.  If this dog is reacting that strongly now then it should be checked out before things get worse.

It sounds to me as if he is in pain somewhere and wants to make sure nobody gets too close. So yes, I'd also get him to the vet. Our old family dog got rather protective of himself when arthritis set in and he was not at very happy about small children getting too close to him. He'd never been ill-treated by a child but he seemed to think they represented a bit of a risk.

Make sure they get teeth checked as well, as we know it can cause immense pain, yet it's overlooked in dogs a lot! An infected root can be excrutiating! All the best and hope everything works out ok, regards, Dawn