How can I work on this dog behavior?
Question by Lil Miss Answershine: How can I work on this dog behavior?
When I am walking my dog and he sees either a child (sometimes on a bike or just a little kid with his parent) my dog has a barking fit (i guess to keep them away). I used to drag him away and not say anything to him but now I have been trying a stern “no” or a “leave it” and when he does i give him a “good boy”.
Is there anything else that I can do to help my dog get over his fear of little ones? We don’t have any kids in the house.
Best answer:
Answer by Curtis M
Some ignorant person is going to say “Socialize him with kids!”…kids x a dog who doesn’t like kids = Kid with a face that’ll be scarred for life….On the walk the dog should be focused on you and only you. Put a training collar on him, when he barks give a stern correction and a firm “NO”. Do this every time he barks at somebody and he’ll stop.
What do you think? Answer below!
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Practice going on walks with your dog. When you see a child walking by the street, and your dog sees it too, give him his favorite toy, or a treat to distract him. Then when he passes the child, reward him. Keep using this method, and over time, he should get better.
Try to anticipate the stimulus first (the child or whatever makes him bark) – make him sit and offer a treat or scratch his chest to keep him calm before he reacts.
DrCog
SOCIALIZE with a kid is RIGHT!
take him to parks around MANY people as possible and ALWAYS HAVE A MUZZLE ON THIS DoG
and a choke collar or spike training collar.
he apparently needs to be whi[[ed into shape
Sound like your dog has particular issues with kids. The only way he’s going to overcome those issues is to spend more time with children and learn that they aren’t that bad.
Maybe it was in his past or soemthing where some children did something bad to him?
Either way, he’s got to learn that kids are his friend and he sould spend some more time around them.
Keep working on getting and keeping your dog’s attention. Add good treats to this situation and you’ll be counter conditioning. Teach your dog the behavior you want when scary things are around. Visit this site to learn more about how to help dogs feel more comfortable around things that scare them
http://www.fearfuldogs.com
You need to understand triggers and thresholds to start. Basically you want to change the way your dog feels about kids. Instead of being afraid or upset he should feel happy. Kids appearing mean treats, kids appearing mean good things. But you need to keep the dog under threshold.