I will try some of those, thanks Brit! :)

Brit's right - my guy is somewhat treat-picky as well, and Wellness Pure Rewards and the freeze-dried, one-ingredient treats are a hit around here. He loves freeze-dried lamb, freeze-dried chicken breast, chicken jerky, and any of the Wellness Pure Rewards (I think we have venison right now). Hopefully some of those can encourage good behavior :)

Dexter is exactly the same. he has severe agression problems. he will BITE any child and any new man and some women that he meets. (for those of you that have seen his videos, i know that seems surreal!)

it is completely our fault because he traveled with us to Costa Rica for 4 months when he was still prety young. they treat animals very different there and he was the smallest dog by far. so he got a lot of negative attention from the locals (people running up to him and snapping and getting in his face. he became very afraid of new people and fear breads aggression. :(

we are looking into geting a behavourist to see him also. i love to go shopping with him, but its gotten to the point that i cant because even if a sales associate comes to talk to me, he goes crazy.

i understand your frustration becuase this isnt something that you can easily repeat to get a good result. cant ask a guy off the street to come help you train your dog to like new people for a few hours.

we had dex out at a friends cottage a few weekends ago and we tried the "ignore" tactic and it worked ok. basically, the one friend there that dex had never met, we had him wear boots all weekend and ignored when dex went after his feet. after a little bit, dexter gave up and stopped biting him. harder to do this with children, unfortunatley.

anyway, if/when i hire a behavourist, i will let you know what they say. it sounds like they have similar problems! :(

Sorry you are going through this..
No problem here Daisy loves my kids, 3,5,9 .. She only barks at them when I tell them to do something and they don't listen.lol It's hilarious.
She love my Son the 3 year old the most she will cuddle with him on the couch with him when he is watching a show .lol

Miles isn't aggressive with kids, but he definitely doesn't like them. It's more like he's afraid of them. I think it might have something to do with how kids actions can be pretty sudden and unpredictable (both their movements and their voices!). When kids want to pet him, I'll get down on the ground with Miles and hold him so he still knows I'm there. Then I'll remind the kids that he gets very scared because they're so "big"...so be quiet and gentle with him. It seems to help a little bit (although he still doesn't thoroughly enjoy it!).

I'm certainly no expert, but maybe if you carefully mediated the interaction between the two (hold the dog so he knows you're there) and reminded the child to be very calm and quiet, perhaps it could get better???

Deuce runs to the backyard when he sees the kids walking home from school. We don't have any young children in the house. I'm trying to get him more familiar by taking him out to watch them coming home from school. Right now he likes me to hold him. He likes to watch from the chair in the front window but he needs to hear them. I know he's thinking they sure are noisy and run around alot. This will take some time.

One of ours isn't crazy about little kids, she will nip at the 4 yr old that spends time at our house; however, the little boy (sweet as he is) is loud, clumsy, and comes at her too fast and she has nipped him more than once. Not excusing her behavior, but sometimes I feel like biting him (lol) Ironically, she was well socialized when we got her, I took her everywhere with me thus she was exposed to everything. Our other one is the laid back one and loves everyone and she hasn't had the socialization like the "nipper"...I really believe the only reason she barks at certain things is because she learned it from the first one. Again, more than one vet has explained it to me as such:
Dogs, like people have personalities...often times there is someone we don't like...for no good reason, just don't "click" and sometimes a dog will simply dislike a person or another dog, the vet also said those are usually the more intelligent dogs as they are able to "reason" (within reason) and "discern". And clearly between our two dogs, the more 'aggressive' one is unusually smart, whereas the laid back one we joke and said if she'd been a boy we should have named her "Odie"
I think I do need to reintroduce the one to situations again in calm environments and take the poster's advice on bringing treats, etc. Good luck, if you find the "cure" to liking kids...post it as I'd like to know.
Kendra

Thanks for the responses Everyone!

I am sorry about the problem with Dexter, but at least I don't feel so alone now:p Please let me know if you are able to work through this behavior, I would be very interested in how it goes!:)

Mine has always been raised with my children so I have never had a problem.

I hope you can find a way to get through this.

Me too! Bailey wasn't around many kids at all, but as soon as he sees one he gets super excited and wants to play, I can't believe the difference in Jesse's attitude toward them!

No hate, but...
 

VERY, VERY nervous around kids. My nieces visited last year and the youngest traumatized my baby-boy :( She chased him around the house to pick him up and hold him like a doll, squeezed him tight and not letting go. Long story short...Nicky prefers no kids :mad:. Now I have a rule for family and friends: if my babies don't want to be bothered, respect their wishes, period.
Maybe your baby had a similar experience.

Awww, So sorry that happened to your little one, you really have to be so careful with small children. I asked the previous owner if Jesse had a tramatic experience with a child, she told me no, that he was rarely around them.

Widget does not like kids but he would never bite one. He goes and hides until they leave however his brother loves to play with kids and they were both raised together and their experiences with kids were the same?

My dogs don't like kids much but they are not little psychos about it. They stay FAR away when kids comes over. When kids try to pick them up, they run away and hide behind me. But if a kid does get them they will tolerate being held. My boyfriend (whom I now live with) has 2 boys, ages 14 & 16 and the dogs very RARELY voluntarily go near them! I don't know what to do with making that better. I keep hoping it happens in time too, but its been almost 3 years!

Teegy loves kids, he falls asleep in the baby car seat with my one year old nephew and follows him everywhere. He was playing with the neighbourhood kids in the park on Friday and loves the kids in my building. It's me who doesn't like them hahahahahaha