My eight month Old F1b goldendoodle bit my five year old today

[Cherri]

My dog has started to raid our pantry if we leave the door open.  My son had just gotten a breakfast bar out that had chocolate in it, and my dog got a breakfast bar out too.  My son went to pull the bar out of my dog's mouth and my dog started ferociously growling at him and bit my son 3 times drawing blood. I do not think Bear bit as heard as he could, but it still worries me. He seems to be getting more and more aggressive.  My maltese and him seem to fight quite often and I think he sees my son as part of the pack.  Any advice?

[Lynne B]

The dog was doing what dogs do unless we teach them otherwise- resource guarding, and if there were not a child involved I could probably give you some tips on how to deal with that, but since there is- I would suggest you keep the child and dog separated until you get some professional help. If you can't keep them apart, then I would use a cage muzzle on the dog, the dog can drink water and pant with one and it will not cause stress. I suggest that you look for an APDT or CPDT certified trainer, or an animal behaviorist as soon as possible.
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APDT Trainer Directory http://www.apdt.com/petowners/ts/default.aspx

CPDT Trainer Directory http://www.ccpdt.org/index.php?option=com_mtree&Itemid=16" target="_blank

Animal Behaviorist Directory http://www.animalbehavior.org/ABSAppliedBehavior/caab-directory" target="_blank">

[Cherri]

Thank you for the directory!

[1knme66wzgv4k]

We had this exact same problem. I have a 4 year old and a 7 year old and whenever our doodle got anything extra tasty he would growl and get really scary. I couldn't believe how frightening our dog could be. I contacted our trainer who knew our dog and she helped us deal with it right away. It took some training to work through his resource guarding. We have seen tremendous improvement, but every once in awhile he will guard a bone or his kong or a new toy. He is 2 years old now, but this started when he was about 8 months. I have also taught my children that if he has something in his mouth to say, "DROP IT" and then tell him to "SIT and STAY" or to come and get me right away. We also thought when he was younger that he had aggression issues and had to get really tough with him. He responded really well with training and is such a sweetheart now. I suggest that you contact a local trainer who can meet your dog and really show you how to work with him.

[Cherri]

I will call, Thank you. Good to know that this is fixable! So scary around children.

[Cherri]

Well, when we got him at eight weeks old, he had a huge problem with resource guarding. We worked for weeks with him on training him with us and then our kids directed by a dog trainer. We have not been doing it since then because we thought he was over it. We have taught him to "drop it" and "come" and "stay", so I was so surprised when this happened. However, I have noticed that when I give my maltese and him treats that they will break out into a huge screaming and fighting, showing of teeth brawl. So, I have tried seperating them when giving treats, but my maltese tends to hide them in places when I am not watching so if my GD finds it she is furious and so begins the brawl. I break them up and put them in "time out". He seemed to go at my son the way he will my maltese. If my GD hurts my maltese, she gets mad which usually turns into a big brawl. Usually they are the best of friends, but I have noticed that they have really been in a disagreement of who is the alpha dog, which used to be my maltese since she is older. We have done training with Bear, but just recently have just been walking with no training, thinking we pretty much had it down. It seems the aggression has just started since he is entering his teenage years, but I do not want this to stay out of protection of my kids.

[Cherri]

Your scenerio sounds just like mine. Thank you for sharing that. I will definately start making Bear work for everything he gets. You are right, it is hard not to get frusterated at the bigger dog for bullying the smaller one. I am going to start breaking them into smaller pieces like you said so they wont get hidden by my maltese!

[Nugget's Family]

I agree with everyone saying "Get professional help!" i.e. a really good trainer. If you don't do it soon, your son and your dog will form an uneasy relationship which will last a long time. Our dog, when she was a puppy, used to grab on to our daughter's pants as she walked by almost tripping her. It really got my daughter crazy and she was young at the time, too, so we couldn't explain that it was puppy behavior. So, we had our trainer devote a whole session to getting Nugget past that behavior and it worked great for everyone!

Good luck.

[Laura & Chewie]

Chewie is also eight months old and we have been working with him on resource guarding on high value items. It's a gradual process. In a situation like yours, where he had something dangerous to him (chocolate), we would immediately "trade" him for a treat. I don't know about Bear, but Chewie will always trade for a treat...just have to say the word "treat" and he drops what's in him mouth. My grandchildren know to never try and take something from him unless they offer something else and he has already dropped the first item.

Good luck..it is such an upsetting thing to deal with, but not uncommon with a puppy.

[Cherri]

I think you are right about taking that out of his mouth. We really have to train our children as much as we do our dog to not ever take anything out of his mouth. I think it scared my son so badly that Bear was going to get hurt by the chocolate that he reacted. I am sure Bear sensed the fear and reacted as well.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I am sorry you and others are having this problem. I am sure it is compounded by the dog's size. Smaller dogs may do these things but it does get scarier when you are dealing with one of the big guys.

[Cherri]

Very true Nancy. I think my maltese can act just as ugly, but I have never seen her bite my kids. I just don't want this to become what he thinks is acceptable. I just don't want it to happen to anyone else's kids either that come over. It was such a shock, because I have always seen him as a big cuddly bear. The aggression just started getting more intense this month.

[Cherri]

Thank you all for the advice. We are definately start the training again. Thought we were finished after he learned the commands, but looks like we need to continually establish authority especially for my kids sake.