To ask what to do about our dog?

[Paddingtonjuice]

At my wits end about our dog. He is a toy breed aged 2. He barks constantly at neighbours. He loves the children aged 10 and 11 but stalks them for their snacks. He stole 11 year old’s Easter egg then growled when they tried to take it off him. 10 year cried today because he said the dog bit him again over stolen food. There was no mark on my child at all. Child later said he thought he had done it accidentally but I worry he is fibbing for him. I can’t afford a dog trainer right now unfortunately. My partners job was and is now especially vulnerable. Kids would be devastated to give him away because they have lots of fun with him and I really don’t want to. I have had collies and mongrels before. None have been like this.

You might get better informed advice over on the dog section? I think it's called the doghouse or something like that.

Why is he barking at the neighbours? Inside or outside the house?
Inside- block his view, close the curtains, bring him away from windows
Outside- bring him in as soon as he starts barking

Stealing food- is he stealing it out their hands or off the table? How can a small breed reach it? If he’s on the sofa with them- dog goes off the sofa before food is eaten.

Dog is shut out the room when the children eat, use babygates to separate them.

Never try to take something off a dog without swapping it for something else.

Don’t set him up to fail.

This might be of use:

www.bluecross.org.uk/pet-advice/how-stop-your-dog-barking

Are you on Facebook? Join the "dog training advice and support group". You'll need to read their units on fear (for the barking) and resource guarding (food/biting issues). You can also post and ask the trainers any questions. Your best bet if you can't get a trainer in.

Thank you. It is mainly in the garden he barks. He barks as soon as he is aware neighbours are in the garden. I bring him in straight away but it feels that now the weather is getting nicer, I can not let him in the garden at all.

I do shut him away at meal times. But it’s silly things that keep catching us out. The children’s nan left them Pringles on the doorstep. My one child went to the toilet in the midst of eating them and the dog had already pounced. Child frustrated because he really wanted the Pringles tried to take them off him. Growling. Lots of tears.

Prevention is key op. That and positive reinforcement. Treat the behaviour you do one ie calmness in the garden. Make it worthwhile for him to be calm. My dog used to be similar with the garden that backs on to ours. Their dog would run up and down the fence line barking and set ours off. We couldn't enjoy our garden at all last summer and I'd had enough. Started treating every time there was a noise from the garden or their dog barked. Didn't take long for ours to catch on. Now we enjoy the garden. Theirs might still be kicking off but at least ours isn't.

How old are your kids? They need to learn if they leave it and the dog gets it then tough. Don't try and take it back. In a way a growl is good. It's their way of communicating. It's when growls are ignored that bites happen. You really need to get on top of the dog and the children or a bite is highly likely. Dog needs to ideally not be put into the position where it can steal but if it does happen needs to learn to trade for something even better but appropriate.

There will be people who come on spouting about dominance and making sure you can take food off your dog but it's proven not to be the best approach

You need to change your mindset. Rather than asking how can I stop my dog doing...? Ask how can I get my dog to...?
So, take the barking, is there something you can do with the dog to distract him? If he starts having fun everytime the neighbours are in their garden he soon isn't going to care about them because they mean fun.
Train for positives and you'll get rid of the negatives.
I have 2 commands that, on the face of them are identical, but to Resident Collie they mean different things. The commands are "leave" and "ignore".
"Leave" is for food and inanimate objects that Resident collie thinks might be food. The leave command is accompanied by a high value treat. Treats trump food and inanimate objects.
"Ignore" is for people, dogs and other animals we might encounter. Ignore is followed by praise or fuss. Very rarely there is a treat.
It sounds like he could be bored in the garden. He's learned that, if he barks, he gets attention. Redirect it. Teach an ignore or command of your choice and reinforce calm, quiet behaviour.

Hopefully this advice will work...
Attach your little dude (doggy) to you or another adult in your house.
Use a leash attached to the pups collar and loop it through the belt loop of your jeans.
This works for potty training a pup too btw(This is how I trained my Great Dane!!)
This doesn't give your pup to engage in any behavior you don't approve of because you essentially have to give permission for it.
IE...Barking at the doorbell,knocking or strangers walking by.....
I have quite a few tricks so if you have any questions feel free to ask me...I'm not a trained pro,but I have a Great Dane,a 13 and 8 year old Yorkies, 3 human kids(20,17 and 15😂),and a husband,haha!!!
All my best to you!!!!🙌❤

The barking is fairly easy to solve - only let the dog out on a lead and don't give him full rein to bark and run free. That way if he does start up you can bring him inside immediately.

The growling and biting over food is something called resource guarding and shouldn't be dealt with without the help of a professional. If your dog is insured this may be covered via the insurance company if money is an issue.

But, in the mean time, don't wrestle things back off your dog - as you can see it will end in a bite and in tears. You need to get a treat or a toy and teach your dog to swap. So in the case of the Pringles, DS could have gotten the dogs favourite ball or a slice of ham and used it to tempt the dog away to another room before going to get his pringles back.

This is not rewarding the dog for stealing, it's diverting their attention away safely and rewarding them for leaving the coveted item alone. Please don't attempt to take things back of a dog that resource guards - it could end up being really nasty for whoever is on the receiving end of it.

Good luck

You need to train the kids as well as the dog. They need to not leave things within reach of the dog, when they leave the room. Pringles are one thing, but next time it could be grapes or a bar of chocolate, and an expensive trip to the vets.

What training are you doing with the dog? We've got to the point with our 2 year old dog that if we put a plate of food on the floor and tell her to leave it, she will leave it, but if we're not looking she will still occasionally help herself, so there is still work to be done. It took a while to get to where we are, she needed to learn sit, stay and leave, so not so simple as it might look. We're constantly reinforcing good behaviour, lots of high value treats and fuss when she is good. Occasionally a firm 'ah-ah' or 'stop' if shes making the move to do something naughty, but we never have to shout or tell her off. But it is constant training and reinforcement. We have pots of dog training treats all over the house, so there are plenty of chances to practice.

Food aggression is a very bad trait .
In future ,shut dog in a room when kids eat dinner or have snacks as a short term solution so it doesn’t get the opportunity.
You can train them yourself but if you don’t know what you’re doing you can make it worse or just be wasting your time .

The children’s nan left them Pringles on the doorstep. My one child went to the toilet in the midst of eating them and the dog had already pounced. Child frustrated because he really wanted the Pringles tried to take them off him. Growling. Lots of tears.

This is dogs for you - well, many dogs. I’m afraid I was quite harsh with my kids and said “If you leave food where the dog can eat it, it becomes the dog’s”. NEVER, ever let your child take food back off the dog like this. Your child will end up bitten. This isn’t because you have a bad dog, it’s because you have a dog! The dog, once he has the food, thinks it’s his because this is how dogs work. He will resist strongly someone trying to take it back, of course he’s growling.

What you should do in this situation is you (not the children) should swap the pringles for a higher value treat. If you offer a piece of chicken in return for dropping the pringles and teach your dog a “drop” command by doing it this way, I guarantee the dog will drop the pringles.

You need to train your DC as well as your dog. Get a stairgate to each room (we have), dog out of the way when the children are eating. Leaving human food where dogs can get it can be dangerous for the dog and it’s worth reiterating this over and over. Your DC are quite old enough to get this.

Watch the dog training programme I think on C4. He covers both the issues you're having with your dog. Essentially, you need to train the humans, the train the dog :)

It's dogs behaving badly i think...

Same here musicposy

You leave it on the dogs shelf, don’t be surprised if it’s gone.

Lots of really good advice here, all focused on positive training and using treats, etc. to get the behaviour you do want.

Someone mentioned the dog being bored in the garden and I would echo this - dogs need frequent, short bursts of training (they really do enjoy it and it focuses them on you, which helps to get them to respond to your commands in general) and they like to be played with. Dogs get bored very easily if left to their own devices and barking - as someone said - gets your sttention.

We play games in the garden with our dog (we've only had him a few months and he's an 11 year old rescue Staffy) - he especially enjoys 'piggy in the middle' with his ball. We also play 'hide and seek' with him - we each have small biscuits in our pockets and take it in turns to hide in the house and garden. He absolutely loves it.

There are lots of ideas for games and training online. have a look and try to get the kids involved (hiding things for the dog to find, for example).