How Do You Treat Dog Aggression Toward Children?
Dog aggression toward children can be overcome, but once a dog shows aggressive tendencies—whether to children, other dogs or adults–you shouldn’t trust the dog with children. Children and pets should always be supervised when they’re together. Even small dogs can damage children. Some dogs can become overprotective of children or of an adult in the family, causing the dog to display what looks like aggressive behavior. Introduce your dog to older children. Make sure your dog is on a leash. Have a child stand and allow the dog to approach the child. Don’t let the child approach the dog. At first, the child shouldn’t pet the dog. Let the dog sniff the child. Remove the dog from the area. Keep these meetings to a few minutes at a time. Do this a few times a day for a few seconds at a time. Don’t allow your dog to become agitated or excited before removing him from the area. Do this until the dog and child can stand next to each other for a full minute. Allow a child to approach the do
