We (well my mum) rehomed a collie cross lab 6 weeks ago- from my friend who has had him since a puppy, he's four now. He is perfect in terms of recall, calm nature, gentle play, good with other dogs. We thought we had landed such a lovely dog- and with adults he is. But two weeks in, my two year old nephew- whom the dog had met on walks and been stroked by etc, and was very gentle with him- dog was sitting next to me at mums house and I was stroking him, and nephew came up slowly among side and reached out slowly and gently to stroke dog. Dog then suddenly turned round, growled and grabbed nephews arm(thank god did not draw any blood or even leave a mark, we think it was a warning bite). I was so shocked and since then we have not left any of the nephews alone with dog. But tonight dog has met nieces who are 4 and 6, and 6 year old was sitting on the arm of the sofa, I was next to dog on the sofa. Niece was stroking dog gently on the head and then suddenly dog did exactly the same as he had done with nephew. Thank god I was right next to them and managed to grab dogs head before he even got to nieces arm. So she was unharmed but just upset by the growl. But we are at a loss and so upset. He has such a good life with us, hes not bored or frustrated, loads of toys and 3 hour walks daily. We feel so upset as it just comes out of nowhere. He must be scared of the children as he has never been around them before us rehoming him. What the hell do we do? Can this be trained out of a dog? Is it inbuilt? Shall we rehome him to adults only home? My nephews and nieces are only round every 2 weeks or so but we want them to be safe. Hes absolutely fine with them out in the walks -this has happened only at home. So upset.
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What do we do re dog and child? So shocked and upset
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Mojitomogul · 18/02/2020 18:41
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