Dogs scared of small children

Clare Bear

I have nephews and nieces, and our dogs at home - all four of them are all afraid of the 2 year old child. I got a jack russell of my own last week and brought him home, he had the same reaction to her. Scared looking, slight growling, keeping well back. All five dogs are fine with the older children, it's just the 2 year old they're scared of. Our four dogs were the exact same with the older children when they were younger so it's not just this specific child. Does anyone else notice that their pets are afraid of babies/smaller children? I thought it would have been that they're noisier but the toddler is no louder than the other children. Could it possibly be that they're smaller than what the dogs are used to in terms of an adult so that is why they're unsure?

Anyone else found this kind of behaviour or is it just my odd ball dogs?

star-pants

It's not odd at all, smaller children can be seen as a threat, or as prey.
Because they're down at their level it brings them closer to being a dog (in an odd way) and a lot of breeds/dogs are not comfortable with the noise and movement of very young children.
They're unpredictable, might move at the dog, want to pull at it, jump on it etc and some dogs just plain don't like it.
My two Lhasa Apsos aren't fond of young children so I make sure to keep my distance if a passing child comes close (just to be safe, I don't wish to frighten a child if they bark).

You can try to adjust them to it, but the young ones need to be very gentle and slow around the dogs, they're just wary of them. And depending on the dog, they may or may not get used to it. I'm sure there are training methods, but it is known that some breeds just aren't great with children.

lrushe

Little kids can be scary to dogs who are not used to living with them. Think of it from the dogs point of view, there's this little, unpredictable creature darting around their house, squeeling in a high pitched voice When my nieces and nephews come over the cat legs it and you can almost see the dogs rolling their eyes, we're used to the quiet life in our house

Clare Bear

lrushe wrote: »

Little kids can be scary to dogs who are not used to living with them. Think of it from the dogs point of view, there's this little, unpredictable creature darting around their house, squeeling in a high pitched voice When my nieces and nephews come over the cat legs it and you can almost see the dogs rolling their eyes, we're used to the quiet life in our house

Yeah I thought about the noise thing but the four dogs have grown up with the children regularly coming to the house and the 2 year old is a very quiet kid so I just find it odd that they're still fearful of her just because of her size, I don't mind my Jack Russell being scared of her because it was his first time seeing her but I thought the other four would be used to her by now. Could be a jealousy thing too, they're used to getting all the attention until she comes in the door so it could be a number of things. They haven't gone to bite her or anything but we'd never leave her alone with them just in case. It's a shame because it's making her very scared of dogs lately, she's terrified of any dog she sees now and it's obviously from our lot growling at her.

lorebringer

One of mine is very frightened of small children, he has gotten better over the years (generally steers clear of them) but is still not happy if they approach him. On walks it's not too much of a problem because my others are good with kids and we offer them for rubs so that he can avoid them and in our house (we don't have any children) he will bark at the strange noises they make for a while and then stay away from them. I think it has to do with how unpredictable children are and how they are perceived as little people acting very strangely to the dog. Also, the fingers - my chap doesn't like the sticky fingers in his face. It's odd because he is fine with very young children who are not yet walking and newborn babies (prams are a whole other story!) but once they become mobile up until they are around 5/6ish he is very frightened of them. He likes running around playing with older kids but I still would never trust him with a child of any age because there is always some element of stress there.

We did have a close call one day on a walk, we passed a birthday party and all the children (all under 6) came running over to us to pet the dogs. The others thought it was great - rolling over in the grass for belly rubs :rolleyes: - but he was very frightened. He was hiding behind me OH (who was trying to explain to the kids to leave him alone) and he peed all over himself (the dog, not my OH!) because he was so afraid. He was growling a bit, very stressed and very obviously scared but the children paid no attention and kept trying to pet him. Of course, there were no adults to be seen supervising all the young children in the garden. We hurried on and my OH said he was afraid that our dog was going to snap or bite one of the kids because he was so stressed. The poor dog didn't get over it for about a week.

SarahSassy

Where is the pic Clare?

YOURFACE!

Kula is terrified of kids as well. Last weekend we took the dogs to Glendalough for a walk and these two girls, maybe around ten saw Kula and came running after us "aawwww-ing" and squeeling "shes so cute" poor Kula got such a fright and tried to bolt away. I asked them to stop crowding her and to give her a little space and then they could pet her but they just didnt listen. Kula was hiding behind me until they finally calmed down and then I let them pet her for a little bit. Kula, being a German Shepherd, Im seriously catious about kids near her. She would NEVER bite but a kid may get worried around her or she could lick one of them and they could get a fright and what could come after that is what I dread.

I do think its the high pitched voices or crying, the manic running and their size worries dogs. Maybe they think they could fall on them, especially the little ones?