Worried - dog snapped at my child

[SoiPup]

As per previous posts, we live in Bangkok and adopted a dog from a shelter. Turns out the dog is 16 months old (not 9 as we thought). In the shelter, the dog was super confident, outgoing and friendly. Turns out she is an axious and fearful dog. She is super nervous on walks and also scared of any visitors - barks and growls at them and takes a long time to accept them.

Anyway, we had a trainer come over and she really helped us with the walks (the dog has improved amazingly) and gave us some tips on how to handle visitors.

However, this morning, the dog growled and snapped at my 6 year old. DD was in the dog's face and the dog had just come out the kitchen with some rice from her bowl (leftover from her breakfast) plus our cleaning lady had arrived which stresses the dog too. I didn't see exactly what happened. But she did snap at her which is clearly a red flag and a concern.

We do need to get 6 year old to give the dog some more space and to be more respectful of her, that is clear. Our previous dog was a confident big breed who would tolerate anything so that was her previous experience and obviously this dog is a completely different temperament.

Of course it is still early days with the dog (we've had her 10 days now) and the last thing I would want to do is rehome or send her back to the shelter, that would be awful. But I must admist I'm worried. Next week we're starting socialization and obedience classes as recommended by the trainer so I will discuss with the trainer then and see what she thinks. In the meantime, we are being much more careful with how DD approaches and interacts with the dog.

WWYD? Any advice on the best thing here?

I don't understand. Why would you keep an animal around your child that snaps?
Rehome it. It's an animal not a child.

@Oreservoir

That sounds positive op. Is your dd throwing treats to the dog. My dil got our dgs to throw small treats in return for a sit or lie down. Eventually the dog saw dgs as a giver of food not a taker.

Yes, DD is promised training sessions with the dog every evening if she follows all our directions at interacting with her during the day. Both of them enjoy it! So far we've got sit, paw and bow (trying for down but she's not quite there so went with what we could get ) in exchange for plenty of treats.

@SoiPup

Update on us:

Another couple of good days. Zero aggression - growling or snapping, we do have some barking - around anything. I'm really starting to think that she really was just overwhelmed.

Still hates going down to the car park but once she's there, she will sniff around for a bit so she is interested and not shut down although is much happier coming home!

Still barking at strangers who come in (cleaner, oldest daughter's boyfriend, anyone else plus the TV) but she doesn't seem as fearful as before (when she would hide under the bed).

That's good news OP it all sounds v positive

I with a soi dog a few years ago who was very similar. Totally overwhelmed and would snap when scared it sometimes very excited. We did a lot of work on relationship building and minimising triggers, plus teaching her to focus on her owner when out and about and reinforcing calm quiet behaviour. I still get updates - she a different dog and hasn't snapped at anyone /shown any aggression for 4 years (lives in a big city)

These dogs are much more reactive that western breeds because their communication is much clearer - they will growl and sometimes snap to communicate their discomfort clearly - it's not a sign that they want to hurt you, but it does mean you have to pay attention to minimising that discomfort and building trust. Once they trust you, you can do anything.

I just wanted to share my story quickly. Our dog, at around 7 months old became very nervous of DS (11). We had a few incidents of growling and snapping over the space of a month. I came on here for advice and a few posters replied with rehome and even PTS (a 7 month old puppy!!). We also had practical advice and consulted a behaviourist.

Our dog and DS now get on great. He's now 17 months old. I will always be cautious of him around children. I think a lot of dogs struggle with their noise levels and unpredictable movements. When lockdowns over and DS can have friends in the house we'll keep the dog separate as I wouldn't want to put him in an environment that he's fearful of.

We've all learnt so much, we all respect the dogs space and will continue to do so but I'm very relieved that we did try and have him PTS.

@Chevron383 Thanks for that positive message. We'll definitely also watch our dog around children, especially any of DD's friends who may visit. It's a shame because she's desperate to show her off but she'll have to make do with doing it over Zoom :)

Quick update from us.
All is going well. As the days pass, the dog seems to be settling and becoming more relaxed. I took her to the training class and she had a great time. There was a dog park there so i could let her run off leash outside for the first time and she loved it and had fun playing with other dogs. She still doesn't like to go down to the car park or street walks but she's making progress. We're at the point where I can keep stuffing her with treats all the way down to the car park whereas before she was too stressed to even take any.
No aggression at all with the family. Resource guarding has mostly been resolved by doing the swapping with treats.
We do have an issue with her barking at and being fearful of guests in the house (but she's quite OK outside) but maybe this will also get better over time and if we work at it.
All in all, things are going really well - we're very pleased!

Growling is a good sign, it’s a warning of ‘if you carry on I’m going to snap’
To snap straight after a growl is worrying.
Most shelters in the uk won’t rehome with children due to not knowing 100% the dogs background.

My Romanian rescue has been with us 3 months, she’s about 9 months old and came from a kill shelter. Zero socialisation, interaction or training. When she arrived she was so nervous she would wee herself at any noises, meeting with humans or dogs etc. I took everything extremely slowly, walks only very early in the day or late at night, minimal noise and gradually she came to trust us. It’s been incredibly slow work but today she actually happily sat and watched people at a village event without any signs of fear!
Guests are told to completely ignore her, she will make an approach (or not) completely in her own time. My DGCs will be visiting in a few weeks and I will be keeping them completely apart apart from some walks when pup is more likely to be more interested in her surroundings than them!
Good luck OP, I really hope things go well for you.