Barking at children

Caro

Caro

Moderator
This is a problem I am having with a friend's 4yr old Lhasa Apso. This little dog will go up to any child and bark at it, and has gotten his owner into a couple of arguments with parents and is causing problems for the rest of us, incl some animosity between parents and dog owners at the oval.

Deska loves children and will go up to them if he is told 'okay', but now if Deska goes toward a child this Lhasa cuts Deska off and races at the kid barking.

The Lhasa owner usually yells at the dog and say to the kids 'he wont bite you can pat him' (which is stupid because kids should never try to pat a barking dog no matter what). The owner is infirm so it takes him a while to catch up to his dog when it does this.

What can I do to stop this happening before we all get banned from the oval. The ranger has already warned us all because of parents complaining. I need an intervention I can do that doesnt upset the owner.
 
What a bummer, to think that a problem with one dog could spoil everything for all dogs; and how sad that the Lhasa is allowed to get away with this behavior. Sounds like a very difficult situation with the owner, who must be turning the dog out loose for play / exercise, but doesn’t seem concerned about anything else.

It’s difficult to tell from your description whether the dog is fear aggressive or simply a little tyrant. Regardless, I’d be worried that the dog is stressed and that this could escalate to biting a child; or equally that this could lead to other dogs getting worked up.

My inclination would be to suggest that if the dog must come to the Oval that it be on lead. If children and dogs don’t have separate areas, they need to peacefully co-exist.

Plenty could be done to try to de-sensitize the dog to children, but only if the owner is inclined to do so.
 
I would suggest it is nervousness and the dog is unused to children.

Is it children of a certain age? Dogs have to be socialised with youngsters of all ages, else they can be nervous. Children move faster and have higher pitched voices to adults that can also unnerve a dog.

I even know of a couple of labs who suffered from this. Gradual desensitization is the key.

However, as this owner has limited control I would suggest you mention keeping the dog on a lead. A dog barking at a person is intimidating, especially to a child and I am not surprised parents are concerned.

Reacting to the dog by using force (water bottles, shake bottles) or with a loud shout is liable to reinforce the fear behind the behaviour. But this does need to be dealt with soon.

I think you might have to be honest with this man, tell him people have complained and until the problem is solved the dog needs to be under better control. You could even offer to watch the dog if it wears a long line, so you can intervene and reel it in if it starts to charge off.

Bear in mind Lhasos actually have a guarding instinct and were supposed to alert the monks in the temple to intruders. So they can definitely be noisy towards people they don't know.
 
Mine puppies do this too! Well, they bark at everyone that walks by! If the person crouches down, they run over to them and give love... but to someone walking by it's a bit intimidating. Lily is worse and I think it's because she's shy in public and around new people. Theo barks more to be petted. Both bark at bikes like crazy.
 
labgirl said:
I would suggest it is nervousness and the dog is unused to children.

Is it children of a certain age? Dogs have to be socialised with youngsters of all ages, else they can be nervous. Children move faster and have higher pitched voices to adults that can also unnerve a dog.

I even know of a couple of labs who suffered from this. Gradual desensitization is the key.

However, as this owner has limited control I would suggest you mention keeping the dog on a lead. A dog barking at a person is intimidating, especially to a child and I am not surprised parents are concerned.

Reacting to the dog by using force (water bottles, shake bottles) or with a loud shout is liable to reinforce the fear behind the behaviour. But this does need to be dealt with soon.

I think you might have to be honest with this man, tell him people have complained and until the problem is solved the dog needs to be under better control. You could even offer to watch the dog if it wears a long line, so you can intervene and reel it in if it starts to charge off.

Bear in mind Lhasos actually have a guarding instinct and were supposed to alert the monks in the temple to intruders. So they can definitely be noisy towards people they don't know.
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Maybe they are a Lhasos mix because they will bark at anyone walking by, it's the "woof" bark too! I can get them to sit down by my side and calm down but it takes a lot of work and u can tell they still want to bark and jump up so bad.
 
Darn, I was really hoping to avoid the direct approach. I know my dogs can be annoying sometimes so I hate to criticise the behaviour of any one elses dog, but its a really awful thing to do to kids isnt it. Its summer holidays atm so there are lots and lots of kids at the oval.

What do you think about me giving the dog treats every time we see a kid? I'm not sure if Lhasas are that bright that he would get the link between treats and kids, he does often get treats from me anyway.
 
Maybe they are a Lhasos mix because they will bark at anyone walking by, it's the "woof" bark too! I can get them to sit down by my side and calm down but it takes a lot of work and u can tell they still want to bark and jump up so bad.
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Maybe, Lhasos are definitely intruder-detecting dogs!

What do you think about me giving the dog treats every time we see a kid? I'm not sure if Lhasas are that bright that he would get the link between treats and kids, he does often get treats from me anyway.
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If you could incorporate the 'watch' command then maybe it would work. But you may find the dog barks after having the treat. Also, it would need to be consistent as any time the dog was allowed to bark at a child, any previous training of non-barking would be ruined.

Steady and calm socialisation is really the key, but it is not something you can do for someone else's dog. Chizel, my trainer's dog, has Lhaso in him and he will bark at strangers passing and he really means it. She had to work on his socialisation (he was a rescue) because a lot of it was based on fear of the unknown. But it is ongoing.

I don't know the regulations in Oz, but over-here if a dog is considered out-of-control it can be reported and proceedings taken against the owner. It could even be deemed dangerous if it was barking at kids in what seemed a threatening manner.

Unfortunately this is a situation that could escalate and my main concern would be that this man could end up with a lot of problems on his hands and a lot of stress for the sake of letting his dog off lead.
 
familier

our koby which is a sheltie runs towards kids and barks and then runs from them, this really bothers me as im sure he is scares the heck out of them. Our girls are all older teens so he didn't grow up around young children and I do believe he is frightened of them. We have tried to get him around smaller children as much as possible to help with this matter but all our neices and nephews and our friends kid are all older too. In the summer we would let him watch the kids down at the park playing soccer but he still seems to be very intimidated by young kids and Im at a loss as to what to do as well.
kobysmom
 
For one someone has to keep cool about such situation and don't let it escalate. Someone has to explain to parents that not every bark means " I am ready to attack you" some dogs just have very high motion stimulation so running screaming humans with windmilling hands make them very excited.
Che starts barking when someone starts paying close attention to him like "oh what a cute dog, etc" and he goes into barking fit, although he is very quiet dog by Sheltie standard and was socialized to death with kids and adults.
Second- someone has to talk to Lhasa owner and explain to him/her that they need very fast developed "hush" command and better recall. Chasing barking dog is bad decision. Owner might need to substitute excited bark for other behavior like tugging or ball?
 
I understand this breed a bit being around them. They are wary of strangers, and they can become aggressive. My sister owns one, and friends have had them. I have only been around one family where they didn't bite.

They have to be socialized from a pup on, an continue socializing. They can attach themselves to one person, and everyone else is on a lower branch.

From my sister's trainer, and talking to breeders about her dog, who had fear aggression, bit the holy heck out of her. The human must show they are the leader, they are on the highest branch. This is the type of breed that has to have a reminder everyday who is the leader and putting them through their paces, along with socializing.

To this day, my sister has to remind her Lhasa not to bite, getting excited, fear aggression, wanting his way. She accidently dropped food on the floor, he bit her while she was picking it up. Oh its been a journey with this little stinker. He is better, but visitors BEWARE. The other dogs my friends owned were put down. The one didn't like when a new baby came into the house, and bit the owner. No way were they going to risk the baby being bit.

They were bred to be guard dogs in Tibet, and that is what they are.
 
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