Biting my daughter

[Ticktockk]

Our male cocker is about to turn 2, and I think trying to establish who is top dog. Twice this week he has bitten my 6 year old daughter on the hand. Once when she was playing with a noisy toy and once when she tried to move his bowl (we’ve spoken about that).
He’s previously been very chilled out and I’m not sure how to tackle this. He gets a firm ‘no’ and is put straight outside.
I’m worried as we will soon have a toddler
staying with us.
Any advice gratefully received.

You need professional advice. This is guarding and punishment will make it a hundred times more dangerous.

Separate them at all times and seek help from a reward based trainer now if you want your dog to live and your children to grow up without scars.

It’s not dominance. It’s fear. Nothing else.

You need a behaviourist OP. Has he broken the skin or caused a bruise? If he's guarding the bowl put part of his dinner in it then walk past and drop some more in and shiggle the bowl. He needs to see people touching the bowl as a good thing.

Can you tell us more about what happened when she was playing with the noisy toy? Was he trying to play with her and get the toy? Or was it an aggressive snap? If he went up to her and snapped I think you're done with this dog. Either way you're going to need a behaviourist to help if you want to try. And you really cannot have a toddler in the house with this dog.

It’s not dominance, dominance theory was literally proved nonsense decades ago.

The moving the bowl is resource guarding, which is incredibly common in cocker spaniels.

Dont punish the dog, it will likely make the guarding behaviour worse. Get in touch with a good behaviourist (not a trainer)

Thanks all. I’ve just had a look at the APBC website. Behaviourists seem to be eye-watering expensive, understandably.
I’ll keep hunting and see if I can find one less than £599 for the initial visit!! As pp said, I’d like to keep the dog alive and my kids unscarred… in general he’s a very lovely and loving chap.

Yes he ever so slightly broke the skin on her finger.
I’ll start the bowl jiggling/feeding as a starter - although I don’t think he’d find it an issue if I took his bowl, but I think he views her as ‘another puppy’.

With the noisy toy, I think she was possibly annoying him. She said she was ‘trying to show it to him’ but this very probably meant she put it in his face. We’ve had a long chat about him being an animal, not a human. Although I’d likely snap at her if she put a noisy plastic bird in my face too! Not an excuse for the snap, but a probably reason. I’m now keeping them under very close supervision.

He’s fine with my eldest, who largely ignores him (has special needs).

@Ticktockk

how much????

FMD that's daylight robbery!!

How long is this 'initial visit' ??

many many years ago we had a cocker spaniel, she was misbehaving and we took her to see a dog physchologist. I remember my Dad saying he couldn't believe we were taking our dog to the shrink! & maybe he should be going instead for doing it. 🤣🤣🤣 it was not common in the 80's.

looking back I can see why she was doing what she was doing, but things have moved on a lot.

Best of luck, they're lively digs. They're 'my dog'.

@Ticktockk

Another thing I'd consider getting done is an eye check.

same dog as before had a few issues and some of them I think were probably caused by an undiagnosed cataract problem.

im sure between DD & the vet it's fixable!

If you have good insurance, the behaviourist cost can be claimed back.

Check with your insurance and make a vet appointment for the referral.

Your dog is not ‘asserting’ himself. He is fearful and trying to protect himself/his food.

Dog and child separated with gates at all times from now on.

I’d be extremely wary of informing your insurance he has bitten. They could then exclude you from third party cover.

If you don’t tell the vet, they you’ll have to pay the cost of the behaviourist yourself. Then you won’t be able to obtain any pain meds etc required. (Pain is often an underlying reason for aggressive behaviour in dogs).
Do tell your vet and claim. This is exactly what insurance is for!

Drat. I phoned the vetfone advice line provided by the insurance, so presumably it will now be on record.

Ok, good, phew! Thank you!

You don’t necessarily need a behaviourist but you do need a trainer who has behavioural qualifications IYSWIM. The APDT are worth a look too. I know lots of their trainers who deal with guarding using reward based sub threshold methods. What you do need is someone qualified and registered. I’d not do anything at this point other than keep them apart.

(I am a trainer who has a degree in behaviour)

Have a look at the DTAS Facebook group as they have lists of people they recommend.

Please please do get professional advice. Start with a vet check. Ear pain or any pain can make a dogs behaviour change suddenly. You need to rule out physical issues then get your vet to refer to a qualified behaviourist.

DO NOT Start the bowl jiggling thing at all ever with a resource guarding dog (or any dog to be honest) Ruggles is not a qualified behaviourist!!!

A resource guarding dog is a stressed dog - all resource guarders are stressed dogs. You can NOT train a resource guarding dog to stop RG. However if you change the emotional response the dog will not need to resource guard.

RG behaviour spreads like wild fire, so initially they rg their bowl, then their toys, then a room, then a space etc etc . £599 may seem a lot but in the short term it is an investment.

A qualified behaviourist will charge for an initial appointment but you will not need a lot of appointments. They will give your a behavioural plan to follow.

If you go to anyone unqualified or anyone that tells you to teach a drop and leave it command you will be wasting your money and the behaviour will get worse.

You only need to say to insurance that your dog rg and you need professional advice.

That seems much cheaper than the compensation pay out for a dog bite, even 25 years ago it was around £25k

If you're concerned this might be a possibility OP, dogs trust membership includes 3rd party liability as a bonus of being a member with them

https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/support-us/membership

I'm not sure if there are any exclusions to this.

Is dog neutered? If not he is at the age where hormones are kicking in so he will only become more volatile. Should neuter now if not already done. Lots of videos on youtube about resource guarding some involve training the children as well as the puppy! Need to have child do sit/stay/leave training so dog no longer sees them as puppy. Also have them feed so dog see's then as source of good things. Will still have to keep him separate from the new toddler until he is more mature.

Do not get children to fed a resource guarding dog.

Neutering an already anxious dog a RG dog will be an anxious or stressed dog will make things way way worse.

OP this is why you need to get professional advice this thread alone is giving out dangerous uneducated advice which could have the wrong consequences.

Just keep them apart and get advice. Don’t try anything anyone has posted here. It’s so easy to get wrong and make things much worse. There are often multiple factors in play with resource guarding.

Thank you all for the very helpful advice. I have now contacted a professional with a Pgip in CABC, registered on the APBC website. I also have a vet appt lined up, although not until the 4th unfortunately.
In the meantime, we’ll keep them apart.

The more I think about it, the more anxious behaviour I’ve been seeing recently, so in a way I’m glad we have had a fairly minor (in the grand scheme of things) catalyst to get things sorted now before he gets worse.

I wouldn't keep a dog if it had bitten my child once let alone twice.

I hope someone can help.

I would however take notice of the posters saying things like:

Keep them apart if you can't supervise them being together.

Don't let your DC feed the DDog

Use stair gates to separate them, if you can't supervise

And get some help.

Does your DDog have a safe space they can retreat to? My DDog hated a cage but will hop onto a bed if she wants some time alone and the DD know not to bother her if she's on one of her beds.