Help

Good afternoon,
Im writing this as im really not sure what to do regarding my dog stan, he is 18 months old now and during puppy hood he was well socialised with dogs and children, up until about 9 months old he was attacked and pinned by two different spaniels on separate occasions, this has now resulted in him being fear aggressive towards other dogs, this isnt much of a problem for me as i walk him in areas were not many people go, the problem was on saturday night. I took my 7 year old daughter round to my partners house for a sleep over, she has two young children and her friends son who is 6 was sleeping over aswell, i walked into the kitchen with Stan and two of the children came in to make a fuss of him, stan was anxious and cowering between my legs, i told the children to leave the room, which they did. I then took him into the sitting room, the children came in again an Stan went for my partners friends child, he has never met this child before, regardless i feel like i cannot trust him around children. Im really gutted by this situation iv found myself in because he is such a loving loyal dog with me. I just dont know what to do im hoping for some advice on the situation.
Best wishes
David

To be honest, it sounds like he was totally overwhelmed. Too much, too quickly. He sounds frightened tbh. Any frightened dog can & will react if pushed too far.

Exactly what happened between Stan & the child? The lead up & the actual interaction (I won't say attack because it may have been defensive)? Did the child approach Stan? What did you do before/during/after?

Caryll2 wrote:To be honest, it sounds like he was totally overwhelmed. Too much, too quickly. He sounds frightened tbh. Any frightened dog can & will react if pushed too far.

Exactly what happened between Stan & the child? The lead up & the actual interaction (I won't say attack because it may have been defensive)? Did the child approach Stan? What did you do before/during/after?

Good morning and thanks for the reply.

So the lead up was this, all the children were in the house, i went home to get stan, i walked into her house an went into the kitchen, stan followed me, my partners child came in to make a fuss of stan like she usually does but this time she was with the child stan has never met, a very overweight 6 year old boy, sounds awful but stan has never met overweight people! The 6 year old boy was copying my partners daughter, trying to stroke him an all in his face, stan cowered between my legs, i seen he was scared so i told the kids to leave an give him some space. I then took him into sitting room an he got on the couch, the children came in again all hyper for him an the boy approached him, this is wen stan growled and lunged at him, i had hold of stan so no harm done. I told stan off for this an he knew he had done wrong, we blocked off the stairs so stan couldnt go up, later on that night if that boy came down the stairs he would growl at him, i would proceed to tell stan no, in the morning when the 3 girls came down stan was fine, but if the boy came down the stairs he would be unsure but stopped the growling. Now im actually wrighting this down im starting to think i went about this situation all wrong, in hindsight i should of made sure the children were calm and introduced him in a more settled way rather than just letting him into the house with a load of over excited kids because they where having a sleep over.

Davaxtc1 wrote:
Now im actually wrighting this down im starting to think i went about this situation all wrong, in hindsight i should of made sure the children were calm and introduced him in a more settled way rather than just letting him into the house with a load of over excited kids because they where having a sleep over.

I think you've hit the nail on the head there. It probably would have been better to introduce, calmly, one at a time, with each child giving a favourite treat & gently petting. But you learn from experience!

Personally, I would try and put it behind you. Obviously, be aware when there are children around & make sure there's no hyper play etc, but if they have another sleepover approach things differently. Staffords are very sensitive dogs, despite their bulk & strength! *If he felt out of his depth then I can understand his reaction - not accept it, of course, but understand it.

How are things going? Have you had any further problems?

Caryll2 wrote:How are things going? Have you had any further problems?

Hi
No more problems thank god! Except for him eating a kids toy yesterday! Trip to the vets and 165 later he is fine!
Thanks for asking

Oh dear, been there, done that - probably most of us have!

Did they have to 'do' anything? Operation or vomiting?