Dog Aggression Towards Children
The presence of dog aggression toward children can be very distressing. Even if you don’t have kids of your own, it’s still crucial to ensure dogs and kids get along. Children and dogs can easily catch one other off surprise while interacting because both species have unexpected behaviour. Both children and dogs need to be taught appropriate conduct when interacting with one another. However, your dog must put up with even the most annoying behaviours, including pulling on the ears or tail, sudden movements, or running and yelling. Your dog’s adverse reactions to children are understandable and changeable. A few factors contribute to dog-child antagonism.
Making connections when you’re young
A dog’s primary fear of or hostility toward children is often brought on by a lack of early socialization with kids. According to behaviourists, puppies should be handled by 100 people by the time they are 12 weeks old. As a result of seeing people of all colours, sizes, shapes, and clothes, he gains the ability to deal with everything that comes his way. Without early exposure to various people, your dog won’t learn how to read people or develop the necessary social skills. Furthermore, children can act more like puppies and move quickly and boisterously, which makes it particularly challenging to understand them. They frequently don’t know how to engage with dogs, even when they are older. Your dog might not know whether they are yelling and running or coming at him quickly if they have not been around like that his entire life.
Traumatic events
Even if your dog has previously interacted in a good way with kids, it might not have always been sufficient to inspire confidence in them and varied situations with them. He might not have received the necessary training to handle children of different ages and energy levels. Or perhaps he had some young experiences with a child or two when he was younger. He learnt to distrust children for good reason if he was taunted or tormented. We cannot blame him for losing faith in kids after that.
What it does to us
Naturally, as business owners, we feel embarrassed. Or, we worry that someone will get bitten by our dog. Because we never know what may happen. We stop inviting kids over, avoid interacting with kids on the street, and take our dog for a late-night walk when no one else is there, and our stomachs drop. But when we tremble or tense, we tell our dog that there is a problem. We put our dog on high alert. He now has to protect himself as well as his worried owner. The beginning of a cycle that will only become worse.
How to stop dog aggression against children
We live in a reasonably populated area. In the future, we shouldn’t have to stop letting kids play with our dogs, but we do. We ought to all be content and happy when we go for walks or invite friends. This also applies to our dogs, who should relish meeting new people. By working with The Pooch Coach, you’ll learn how to change your and your dog’s reactions. You’ll be able to feel more at ease and secure among kids. Your dog will know that meeting new kids and getting stroked are both enjoyable experiences. You feel at ease hosting young people in your home and are comfortable when taking your dog on the road. Let us help you get over any worries you may be having about your dog’s interactions with kids.