Fear of children

[Nana Newfie]

my dog is a male newfoundland. The most lovable dog in every way except he is scared of children! Problem because kids all want to shriek and cry out as he looks like an adorable teddy bear...but he tries to hide behind me or jump inside my mobility scooter to get away from them. Problem because we live on a housing estate and with parks full of children. When he barks he scares them as they are at eye level with him. My children are fully grown, as are all our friends and family. He loves my late teen kids and all their friends at 3pm or middle of the night when they arrive home. So not that he isn’t used to people. Out with him he adores all other dogs and has never a cross word with any of them and he is a terrible flirt with adult humans. He just freezes when I have tried to take him to school gates or near the park when kids on swings etc. How can I get him over this? Any tips would be gratefully received. He is 19 months old unneutered yet as he too young still if that helps. Do I muzzle him and march on past them? Any ideas please from a desperate dog owner.

 

[JoanneF]

First, don't hold back telling children not to approach him. He may well look like a big teddy bear but the children need to learn respect and it isn't fair on him if they rush in.

Next, I would try to find a quiet place fairly close to a play park but not so close that he is upset. He will have an invisible radius of space where anything stressful triggers his anxiety. Outside the zone is far away not to be a perceived threat, anything in the zone is a threat and triggers the fight or flight response you may have heard of. Keep him just outside this distance that he is relaxed. Reward his calm behaviour. Gradually, over weeks and months (not days) work on reducing the distance. But - be aware that if your dog has had a stressful episode the stress hormone can stay in the body for up to 48 hours so a distance he was comfortable with the day before might be too close that day. So the safe distance can change, watch his body language.

Trainers describe behaviour like this with reference to the three Ds. Distance, as above - but also be aware of Duration (your dog might be tolerant for 10 seconds, but not 15) and Distraction - how distracting the stimulus is; a calm child might not trigger any reaction at a given distance but a bouncy one might.

Alongside that you could train a 'watch me'. As your dog looks at you, mark and reward the behaviour. Ask for longer periods of watching. Then if a child approaches, after you have worked on the distance issue, you can get your dog to focus on you and not the child. BUT - some dogs find this scary as they cannot see the thing they are anxious about so you need to judge your dog.

 

[Josie]

My dog is the same @Nana Newfie - he doesn’t like the way they move! Mysterious creatures they are!!

I find it also depends on how the child reacts around him. For example, yesterday my neighbors son who is 5 was walking along the river bank with sun glasses and a hat on. Dennis barked at him and I explained he didn’t like his hat or glasses. So the little boy took them off and showed Dennis his face and things were fine. The boy acted perfectly and wasn’t scared and wasn’t trying to get in Dens face.

I personally wouldn’t muzzle your boy. But like Joannef said, take things slowly. Get him used to children at a gradual pace. Reward him when he doesn’t react to them. Read each situation as an individual.

You could even get his confidence up (when he’s ready) and walk alongside with a child who isn’t bothered about him. Giving him treats and praise.

 

[Mad Murphy]

Im another one with a dog that is nervous of children and youre right they come up to you screaming and waving their arms, I would feel scared if another human did that to me..
I have no worries about telling children to back off. Outside today a child ran along outside my garden screaming as if there was murder going on and when Murphy barked he shouted rotten dog..I yelled back 'rotten child with no manners'! Only then did his mother step in and tell him to shut up.

So maybe the advice JoanneF is the best, dont try to force him and dont try to introduce him too quickly. By the way Murphy was fine with my grandchildren last year, the odd woof if they ran unexpectdly but he was otherwise calm and they are not the easiest of children, so sometimes I think its also our reactions that count a lot. Obviously I love my grandchildren and he saw me greet and hug them so he must have understood them as being different to other peoples children..

 

[JudyN]

My dog is the same too - he's fine if children ignore him but as you say, some children are drawn to dogs like a magnet.

You only need to muzzle your dog if you can foresee an incident when a child actually gets bitten, because if this did happen, it could go very badly for your dog (and the child, of course). If you do decide to muzzle him you shouldn't let this make you feel more confident about getting closer to a child than he's comfortable with though - it's just for if things go wrong. It might also make parents think twice about letting their children run up to him, but in my experience they don't seem to think that a muzzled dog doesn't want to be cuddled by their little darlings

 

[Josie]

Or to begin with you could use a yellow lead on him? So people are more aware (although I’m guessing non dog people might not know what itvstand for)

 

[Nana Newfie]

First, don't hold back telling children not to approach him. He may well look like a big teddy bear but the children need to learn respect and it isn't fair on him if they rush in.

Next, I would try to find a quiet place fairly close to a play park but not so close that he is upset. He will have an invisible radius of space where anything stressful triggers his anxiety. Outside the zone is far away not to be a perceived threat, anything in the zone is a threat and triggers the fight or flight response you may have heard of. Keep him just outside this distance that he is relaxed. Reward his calm behaviour. Gradually, over weeks and months (not days) work on reducing the distance. But - be aware that if your dog has had a stressful episode the stress hormone can stay in the body for up to 48 hours so a distance he was comfortable with the day before might be too close that day. So the safe distance can change, watch his body language.

Trainers describe behaviour like this with reference to the three Ds. Distance, as above - but also be aware of Duration (your dog might be tolerant for 10 seconds, but not 15) and Distraction - how distracting the stimulus is; a calm child might not trigger any reaction at a given distance but a bouncy one might.

Alongside that you could train a 'watch me'. As your dog looks at you, mark and reward the behaviour. Ask for longer periods of watching. Then if a child approaches, after you have worked on the distance issue, you can get your dog to focus on you and not the child. BUT - some dogs find this scary as they cannot see the thing they are anxious about so you need to judge your dog.

Thanks so much for this reply I will certainly take it all on board and start work on it straight away later today. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me with this. Have a great day, Heidi