Ellie snapped at a child.
 

Ellie and I were at a family member's house and so was the youngest member of our family (she is 4). Ellie has never really shown any attitude around this child except for maybe protecting her or if I would hold the child as a baby. So, I was holding Ellie on the couch and the child comes up and starts playing barbies by us and trying to pet Ellie with barbies arms. :rolleyes: I didn't let Ellie down because she would've chased the cats and the other dog and the kid would have chased Ellie.:eek: I was still holding her when a big dog came up and started sniffing her (which she will have no part of) and then at the same time the child starts barking and panting in Ellie's face (she likes to "play doggie"). Ellie growled and snapped but I let it go because the other dog was right there bothering her. Then I was holding Ellie by the harness (no other dog in site) and child comes up again and starts panting and barking in Ellie's face again. Ellie snapped again and I had to punish her (which did no good because everytime the child wanted to pet her after that she would growl and I had to hold her mouth). I know Ellie isn't very well trained so that is half of it but kids need to jsut sit in look in my opinion. What should I have done differently? Now I have to be concerned that Ellie has child aggression.:mad: Should dogs be able to take that from kids? Sorry for the long post. I am just a little upset.

PS... this kid jumps on, lays on, elbows, pokes, prods, yells and pulls on her own dog.

i think dogs that GROW up with it should be able to take it even tho kids need to learn respect
i think she may have just not liked that one child it sounds like she was in a VERY Confuseing situation
i would bring her around another child and see how she does

I don't know if this is true or not but I'v heard that since kids are so unpredictable dogs don't know what they are going to do, so they snap, growl, bark, etc.. at them.

You know how they say dogs can sense danger or a dangerous person, we'll with kids they can't because kids don't know what they will do themselves, lol, that makes dogs are leary of them.

Maybe that is what happened it's not your babies fault, she just couldn't get a sense of what the child was going to do, afterall she was barking at her :rolleyes:

Murfee is good around kids. We had 11 here yesterday and he was fine but he has a long memory. We had one little girl who would come over and ALWAYS get in his face even when we told her not to. Finally Murfee snapped at her. I told him "no" but also told Kali to stay out of his face. Every time Kali came over I had to pick up Murfee to make sure he didn't go after her 'cause he never forgot what a pest she is. Maybe your baby just doesn't like the little girl comeing up and barking in his face....I know I wouldn't! But I know it's really hard with relatives 'cause we don't want anyone getting mad:D Patty

I should have added that the mother of this child said, "I would have bit her too".:)

Maybe there is a possibility that the lil girl played with the cats and Ellie smell the cats on the girl and didn't like the smell?

Ryoko rarely barks at people but when the cable guys came (2 different guys 2 different times) Ryoko went crazy barking at them and I asked if they had pets as well and they said yes... I mean it could be any reason why she acted that way but this is just something else to consider????

sounds like she was irritated. since you were at first holding her, she could not remove herself and the 2nd time you had her on the leash and it would have been the same.

when ganja was about 6 raven was old enough to crawl over and poke, prod, pull, etc. ganja was so sweet and patient. but when she had had enough, she would walk away and lay where he couldn't get to her.

since ellie had no other means than to scream at this little girl, that is what she did. i'm glad the mother supports you! :)

I think Ellie is fascinated by the cats and she has to chase them everytime we go over there. :( It would have been nice to just let Ellie go and hide but she does not cower for anything and still would have ran after the cats and I was really worried that if I did let her go the girl would have chased her and fell on her.

I know how upsetting it is when your dog snaps at a child. Even if it was the child's fault people usually think the dog was in the wrong. I would try the advice given and if you know some calmer children take her around them and see how she reacts. I've only had my Yorkie for a week but I'm trying to take her places where she'll get socialized more than my last dog (walks at the park & around our neighborhood, PetSmart, etc.). My last dog became aggressive (after a neighbor boy tormented her through our fence) and I know part of that was my fault because she wasn't totally trained and she wasn't socialized very much outside of our family and friends.

Good luck and let us know how she does the next time she's around kids.

i can COMPLETELY understand.. it just breaks your heart to see that your sweet dog is capable of that... however the child needs to understand that because this is a small dog, she needs to be treated more gently. When we were at the yorkiefair in may, i had Layla on my lap and she was EXHAUSTED from the long day and no nap and this girl was holding a puppy that wasn't hers and for some reason was going to hand the puppy to me??? it was a werid situation, so she was hovering over Layla and me with this puppy and Layla snapped at the dog.. i felt sick to my stomach... thankfully some wonderful YT members also saw it and let me know their dogs would ahve done the same thing.. and i think Layla would have done the same thing to that young girl as much as she LOVES kids.. she doens't like to be overhwlemed.. and children need to understand that... i woudlnt' worry about it too much.... just keep a close eye and be FIRM with the kid next time.

I think this is true because Bengi acts the same way around my 6 year old brother. He growls at him because he doesn't know what he's going to do. A few timee I caught him bothering Bengi and hitting him (not hard). So now, even if he goes to pet him, he shows his teeth to him. Sometimes Bengi plays with him, and my brother can pet him many times, but usually when Bengi is resting in the sofa or something like that, he may snap him

I posted a question about this maybe two months ago but no one responded. Our Yorkie snaps at every child under the age of ten. I don't know how she knows ages, but she does not like young children for absolutely no reason. She has never been alone with a young child and never been mistreated by a young child. In fact, the small children she has snapped at were only reaching to pet her very gently. I always feel terrible about this, and we have to put her in the bedroom when our granddaughter visits. Our Yorkie is six years old. It has happened for all these years.

Sorry, I don't have any suggestions. My last dog didn't like any kids except mine and I never did find a way to change her mind. I hope someone can help. Have you talked to your vet or a trainer about this?

Emma growled at a little girl once...in fact it was at our housewarming party-and it was the new neighbors' two year old girl-way to make a great first impression, eh? Anyway, I think she did this because the little girl was all up in Emma's face, and she was already overwhelmed with the 50 other people that were in her new house, she wasn't used to her surroundings yet, and Milli had just gotten here 2 weeks before too...We told the kids to leave her alone, but they don't listen. I think it's just their way of telling kids to leave them alone!

We brought Emma around the same kids a few weeks later, and Emma did fine-that is, after we told the kids to squat down and hold out their hands for her to sniff, rather than bum-rushing Emma! I think it's all in how the situation is presented, and the general mood of the dog at the time of the interaction!