[AwwJackson]

Hey Everyone! New to YT, have lurked for a few months now but this is my first post.

Have had my yorkie Jackson for about 5 months now. He will be 8 months in a few weeks. He's a very timid guy, extremely standoffish around new people. Even a little timid with me(he loves my gf). He has gotten a little better as we have worked pretty hard at getting him to open up. We have tried to put him in as many social situations as we can(pet stores, public parks/dog parks/parties/gf takes him to work etc.). With these social situations inevitably comes people and kids always wanting to come pet Jackson. Usually, I'll pick Jackson up and let the kids come up to pet him as he would normally just run away if someone tried to come up to him on the ground. I've never had him bark at a kid while I was holding him, until yesterday.

My and my girlfriend took Jackson to the park and had him off his leash. A couple kids came running up to us obviously wanting to pet/play with him. Jackson proceeded to bark at them. I picked Jackson up, so the boys could come pet him. He continued to bark in my arms, and seemed anxious as usual when he's around new people. He's always been all talk, so I decided to let the boys pet him which they did. I let Jackson down out of my arms, the boys ran around chasing the ball we had and Jackson chased after them barking at them as he chased. Me and my girlfriend decided to put an end to the playing as we were worried Jackson would bite one of the boys.

Now Jackson has never actually bitten or nipped at anybody, I'm just really worried about him around kids as he gets much more anxious around them. I don't want his fear/timidness to lead to aggression. I'm not sure what I would do if he bit someone, let a alone a kid. As he is still young, I would like to nip this behavior in the butt. Has anyone dealt with this before? Any advice in stopping this behavior?

Thanks everyone! I look forward to posting more on the forums! It's been amazing watching Jackson grow up and slowly open up to things and situations. I've attached some photos of Jackson after his recent summer grooming.