Maltese and children

[lovemymaltese]

I am wondering if anyone else has trouble with their maltese's dislike for children. My Tango is almost 9 years old and has developed a dislike for children. He growls and carries on when they approach him. I was wondering is anyone else has experienced this?

[Aspen and Misty]

Teddy grew up as a show dog and was "made" to love everyone. Then when we got him at the age of 2 he spent the next 4 years of his life around 10 or 11 kids under the age of 10. So he is weel socialized. When Tango was little did he get to socialize with small children in a good way? Or has he just recently started to act like this? Well if he just recently started to act like this then it might because heis getting older. If he has always been liek this then mabe when he was ltitle he had bad experince(s) with children, which might have scared him. Now I am no expert but I do know alot about dogs.

[senoritaamy2001]

Even though Cody is only 4 months old, he seems to like children. He has had his moments with some of the neighbors children, but they were being loud and aproaching him with a stick. (Yea, moma was very angry!) But for the most part Cody seems to like children. We too started him off socializing with other people from the day he was born.

[Aspen and Misty]

Try gettting some of the neighborhood kids to give him treats instead of aproching him with sticks. That way a child mean treats (and free food). That way he will enjoy a child's company.

[lovemymaltese]

Tango only started this behavior around 2 years ago. I believe that when I moved to college, I spoiled him and he was not used to being around little ones. He has never had a negative experience with children. It just stricked me as odd when the behavior started. It's only for children about age 9 and younger. Is that weird?

[Aspen and Misty]

He just may not want to tolerate the behavior the little children have. They might be to active for him in his older age. Some dogs turn crankyer when they get older and don't like littel kids because they are ruff (lol) with him. I'm not sure cause as I said I'm no expert.

[lovemymaltese]

I guess that I could say that he is a grouchy old man, I think that he has earned the titile, he was a wild pup.

[Kfamr]

My grandmother has 3 maltese. Maylynn is 2, Maytag is 1 [and some months] and Kayla is 12. Grandma has grandchildren going in and out of her house and her pups absolutely love us.... in fact i have some pics of them that i'll load and make another topic to post them! Maybe it's just the old age... sorry i cant give much advise.:(

[lovemymaltese]

Thanks, I was hoping that it was a maltese trait, I have had people tell me that it was. I think that I will always have maltese's, I was worried that they all disliked children. Tango was not always like this. Has anyone else experienced this type of behavior with an older pet?

[Barbiro]

Hi! :) I do not feel this is a Maltese trait. My grandmother had 2 of them and they were wonderful with all the children in the family (about 14 of them). One of them did dislike one of the kids, but it was only because he was 4 years old and had the habit of grabbing him by the tail. Other than that, they were wonderful with all the children.