Nipping at children

[nabaztag_kitten]

Corrie is an 18 week old black lab/border collie/mutt (possibly some heeler, GSD, chow, and who knows what all else...sometimes I even see a hint of pit bull). I got him from the shelter when he was 8 weeks old. He was dumped along with his mother and the rest of his litter, so I don't know anything about the first several weeks, except that he was

Comments

[kayden_eidyak]

If Corrie has a lot of Border Collie or Heeler in him, he may be starting to exhibit a degree of herding instinct. BJ moving with the skateboard, and the movement of the girls coming forward and moving back and coming forward again may have triggered the reaction.

Understand this is just speculation. It's actually very difficult to tell what the reason may be without actually seeing what happened first hand and his reaction may have nothing to do with herding instinct.

Herding breeds like BCs and especially Heelers are extremely movement oriented and since children are prone to moving quickly and erratically, they are often targeted by the dog as something that needs to be kept in line. This doesn't always mean the dog will actually try to herd a child (though they may), but snapping at them can be a very common reaction.

I have a friend that works with BC rescue and she'll tell any prospective home with small children that are interested in a high-drive dog, that their child will probably get bit at some point. Not out of aggression on the dog's part, merely a hard-wired instinct to react to movement.

That said, biting and snapping towards people in any form is not okay. I would find a trainer in your area that can witness the behavior first hand and determine if it's actual aggression, inappropriate playfulness or some degree of herding instinct and advise you accordingly.

[ccb_love]

I could see this. My 1/2 BC will go into herding stance when children jumping around. She's never gotten close enough to one for me to see what would happen, but she'll nip at farm animals after she targets them in the same fashion. Luckily she has a really good 'leave it' unless its a tennis ball so we've avoided finding out 'what if'.

Or maybe in the future be sure you end a 'child introducing' session before she gets to this point? Let them pet once and then praise and walk away? That way you have a chance to make it a great experience for her without testing her limits. Sounds like both times it was just a 'too much, I'm done' kind of thing. My dogs let me know when they are done with people petting them by getting close/behind me (and then its MY responsibility to make the people leave them be) but if you and her aren't at this point yet it will be up to you to determine when this is. If you aren't sure of her limits its probably best to cut it short than go to long. After she's learned more appropriate ways of communicating with people then maybe stretch it out. Its hard though, when they are so young. It seems like the default is "use your mouth" in whatever way it is helpful at the time.

[nabaztag_kitten]

Ya, I agree I let it go too far the first couple times. I wish I knew better what the signals were. But I think since I didn't end it soon enough before, his reaction is escalating, so that today he actually growled and got his hackles up at a kid who hadn't come close yet (although he was looking at Corrie and acting like he wanted to pet him). I'm going to try getting in touch with a local behaviorist who might be able to actually see the behavior and give me more specific feedback.

[nabaztag_kitten]

Thanks for the ideas. He definitely has a lot of border collie traits. He tries to herd me when he gets excited (I just stand still and ignore him when he does it.) And he does the crouch and stare when he wants me to throw things, and sometimes when he's meeting new dogs.

It also makes sense that he's not really trying to herd them, but that some instinct is being triggered that he doesn't know what to do with, and that translates to snapping.

I'm worried that it's turning into something more than that though. Today at the shop (he comes to work with me at a snowboard shop) a small kid came in and before they even got close to each other, Corrie started growling at him and got his hackles up. Some of his siblings looked very GSD, and I wonder if there's some protective instinct kicking in as well. These are funny-looking humans, and they act weird, and that is cause for concern in his mind.

I took Corrie into the back office, which is where he often hangs out with his food and water and stuff, so it wasn't a punishment, just a seperation. But I feel like I'm just avoiding these situations, not working on making them better. Obviously, avoiding them is better than not avoiding them, but I'd like to make them better.

I've done some research about positive trainers in the area, and I'll get in touch with one. This is my last week at work (economy, recession, blah, blah) so money's a bit tight right now. Hopefully there's a behaviorist who can do a short-ish consultation for a reasonable price. Not sure how to recreate the behavior for them to see it though. Maybe I need to find a behaviorist who has a "stunt kid" ;) (Just Kidding!!)