Dog Growls at us when near children

gmg678

Hi,

i hope someone can help,

we have a 5yr female old Jack Russal.

she has always been very protective of the children.

we have a growing concern because for the past 2months we have been living in a house with 2 other dogs, but whenever there is any quick movement or excitment near the kids the JC is stright over fighting with the dog to get them away from the kids.

when the kids walk by she stands in front of the other dogs blocking them.

she growls at us and other people when they kiss or give the kids a hug.

we have a growing concern that she may go for us.

we are moving into our new house in Aug and we have to make a decsion if she will be coming with us.

sometimes she will be at the end of the kids bed when they are asleep. we will go in to remove her and she will growl at us. and when we remove her she growls lounder but will stop once we pick her up.

the dog is trainned, house trainned, follows simple commands.

the advise i am looking for is can we curtail this behavior. is there someone that i can speak to that will be able to help me.

any help would be great.

Thanks

G

SingItOut

When you remove her what commands are you using? or are you just trying to pick her up/pull her collar to remove her etc Does she respond well to treat training? You could try putting a leash on her prior to make it easier to remove her from their bedroom or simply don't allow her to go into the bedroom with her. Your best option would be to get in a qualified behaviorist/Trainer with a good reputation, I'm sure someone here will be able to give you some contacts.

Please do not give up on your dog, at 5 years she is on her way to middle age and also being a Jack russell it will be very difficult to rehome her. You are the only family she knows.

gmg678

thank you for responding to me.

we don't allow her into the bedroom any more but sometimes she will get upstairs to the room. i just walk in and softly tell her to come here and then pick her up. she does the sit,lie down,stay commands well.

its the growling at other times of the day, like when if i am going out and say goodbye to the kids she will growl.

we are going to speak to a behaviorst today,i sent a number of emails to different ones thorugh out Ireland none have replied thats why i came on here, but my partner went to vet this morning to see if there is anything that could help and they have a behaviorist there so we have appontment today at 530. i hope they can help I love that dog but the concern of the growling turning to biting is growing and more so if she bites one of the kids.

giving her up will be the last resort and if we can avoid it we will.

tk123

She's resource guarding the kids. It IS something you should be stop/resolve with the right steps. My dog used to resource guard certain treats but we worked through it - at his pace which was slowly but we got there in the end. There's still items that he guards - puke being one of them :rolleyes: but we have a system in place where we can "swap" something else for it. Any growling from him means we need to back off so in your case I wouldn't be lifting the dog up etc etc as - we don't have that option because he's 30 odd kgs

+1 on getting a qualified behaviourist out to the house to help you work through the issue. A checkup at the vets is a good idea too but how are you going to demonstrate what's happening to a behaviourst at the vets - it makes more sense for you to have them in the house and you can show them what happens, where you put the dog when it happens right?

Where are you based and people will be able to recommend somebody for you?
Emmaline at http://www.citizencanineireland.com would get my vote! My dog tried to break into a training class she was in one time after working with her lol - he was dying to see her!!

gmg678

Thanks for the help guys.

After speaking to the vet we are happy that with a bit of work we can put a stop to the growling.
Going back in 8 weeks for a follow up so here is hoping a change will happen.