Puppy ‘nipped’ at child visitor

[Margaritawithlime]

God I’m in bits. Any advice would be welcome.
We have a nearly one year old cocker. She’s normally lovely and very well socialised around children - we have two aged 5 and 8. Always in the mix and super friendly.
We have taken time to train and really felt like we had done a decent job of starting life off together you know?
Anyway this eve one of our daughters friends was over as we are babysitting for a half hour and our dog ‘went for’ her out of the blue.
DDog was nestling on the couch alongside my son and me. Daughter and friend just playing alongside and friend leant over to stroke her. She’d been in the house for 45 mins and has been around the dog since she was a tiny puppy as she lives across the road from us so not the first time she’d met doggy and previously all interactions have been fine. It was so unexpected. The dog wasn’t in her crate or in the kitchen which is where she goes for space. She aggressively growled and nipped but didn’t damage skin just scared everyone. What on earth do we do?!
Yes she could be unwell. She is tired for sure after a very energetic day. But it was so unexpected. How do i guarantee she won’t go for my kids?
god I hate this.

Has she had a season yet? If recently this could be a false pregnancy, some dogs become quite grumpy and protective whilst they have it.

That’s how it starts in my experience.. it can escalate

As a spaniel owner, I’d say it’s perhaps more to do with the fact that she was nestled in her pack, caught a sudden movement and went a bit protective.
my dog is very protective of me, and it’s worse when she’s babied - allowed on the sofa and cuddled etc are all quite babying behaviour, really. We all do it cos we love them.
mine has quite a jealous streak.
the one time she nipped my son like this, she was knackered And he was trying to climb in her crate, at ten you’d have thought he would have known better 🙄

Your pup did really well at saying ‘please don’t touch me’. Thats all it was.

Chalk it up to experience. I’d have the dog with me if visitors come and absolutely don’t touch a dog when sleeping or eating. It’s not ‘rage’ and it’s not dominance or any of that. Could be resource guarding but easy to manage going forward and there is a lot of management with dogs and kids to keep both safe!

It could be a 'stress bucket' thing, you say you are in the middle of an extension, that's a lots of noise, strange unpredictable visitors/smells etc and it could be contributing. You wouldn't expect a child to always roll with whatever's going on, giving a dog a safe space away from interaction is always a good idea. Don't panic, that behaviour was communication which you can act on.

Do you own a dog and/or have children? No this is not the primary reason to have a dog and yes you should always be aware of what you're doing around them. They are animals and no matter how well trained, none are bombproof. You don't know what is going on with them at any point in time that could cause them to react differently to the million other times you've done the same thing. Children understandably can't be trusted to apply this consistently hence why environments in which they are around a dog should be considered and controlled, and never unsupervised.

OP I agree with previous posters - this is on you and luckily you've got away with it lightly. Your dog was guarding you. Dogs shouldn't be on sofas or other furniture, they are animals not humans and need to understand their place in the 'pack'. I agree with the suggestions you employ a behaviourist to train you in ground rules of safe responsible dog ownership to ensure you don't put your dog in such a situation again. Take this as a warning and make some changes to how you manage your dog and your children to ensure it doesn't escalate. Personally when other people's children come round our dogs are kept safely out the way to ensure no possibility of such an event arising. Even if your own kids are well versed in how to behave around your dog, you can't guarantee others will be.

@SErunner I agree entirely with you. As in a previous thread .. dogs are being humanised. They should not be on couches especially with children. I love my dogs but I do remember that they are animals who are unpredictable.

@Irridescantshimmmer dominance theory has been thoroughly debunked. That’s awful advice.

The child should never have been allowed to lean over and touch the dog while she was sleeping/resting. That's dog ownership 101.

Considering the circumstances I would actually say she was incredibly well restrained.

This!

what colour is she?

cocker rage is a real thing, experienced it first hand but they were real savage attacks. Golden/reds particularly prone.

Also - o mean this kindly, get the dog off the sofa. that funny age they need "authority" and know their place (i hate caesar milan before anyone jumps on me!) but she needs to understand she isnt the boss

No, you’re quite wrong, dog psychology has come a long way since the 1970s

100% agree.

You put a hand out to let a dog sniff as an offering of contact and IF it proceeds to contact the hand in a mild manner then that’s an agreement for contact.

Going straight to petting it crossing a personal space boundary. People including children need to understand this and have that communicated to them.

The dog was only looking out for itself and enforcing a boundary. Unfortunately the dog usually gets blamed when it’s human error. Read the non verbal cues and don’t allow fast movement like that again.

Chat to dog trainers for their 2 cents - always healthy to expand your knowledge and understanding from a professional.

It's a spaniel thing, surely. Resource guarding (either you or the sofa or your child). An 8 month old spaniel viciously went for my dog when she mistakenly believed my dog had an interest in her ball. I was so shocked to see a young waggy dog turn like that. A family with young boisterous children owned her :/ I don't think spaniels and young children are a good idea, but you have one now so no sofa and crating when there are guests sounds sensible.

I don't think spaniels and young children are a good idea
Spaniels are up there with having the best temperament and safe to be around children.
Any dog can turn.

Could she be coming into her first season? Our dog once snapped and nipped at my husband out of nowhere whilst she was in season, just a warning nip, no bite in it. She was much more agitated and quick to snap at other dogs whilst in season too. We had her spayed and there's never been any other incident.

My springer spaniel used to have rage issues particularly when startled.
Keeping him off the sofa made a difference but the real break through for me was speaking to a gun dog owner who had 10 spaniels.His view was that they were a high energy breed who exhausted themselves. His dogs were put in a boot room at 7.00pm every evening and slept until the next morning.
Try and think this through logically, your dog obviously needs it's space and this wasn't happening.Think of it as a warning and take note.I wouldn't want any child touching my Spanish, they're not a plaything.

Your advice is about 40 years out of date 🤣

That's your opinion, you're welcome to it, but cocker spaniels are more likely to resource guard than most breeds which imo makes them unsuitable to live with young children who don't yet have the maturity to avoid possibly triggering guarding behaviour. It's not uncommon for cocker spaniels to be rehomed because of biting.

Not just my opinion no, a quick Google from reputable sites say the same.
It's not just mostly cocker spaniels that resource guard it's also labradors and retrievers.

Quick Google any dog and you'll be told what amazing family pets they are.

I have working cockers and I also have children so I can make that decision myself.
Stating spaniels and young children are not a good idea is a ridiculous comment based on the fact they have the same risk as any other breed.

Sounds like resource guarding.
don’t tell the dog off for growling and warning, or it will stop and just go straight to the bite.
muzzle train and then at least you can have peace of mind when guest are round.
we muzzle our dog when guests come as he doesn’t like people walking around out of the ‘herd’

What absolute bullshit.

Keep the dog always away from or at arms length from the child. I have to be very proactive and hypervigilant with my dog and DGC. Small kids can be very unpredictable to a dog. Get a stair gate and put dog in kitchen until you can watch them at all times.