Toy aggression towards a child

Ruby is a little rough around the edges but up until this point there was nothing serious. However, over the last few days she has started a very frightening defensive growl with teeth bared when my 4 year old gets too close to her treat or toy. The first time was out of the blue and we took her toy away, used the growly "NO!" and put her on her back until she was submissive. We have tried twice since then by having her restrained and bringing my son close to her and she reacted the same. How do we nip this in the bud immediately? We will NOT tolerate any sort of aggression towards our children!

Well, putting her on her back isn't going to solve your problem. That is SO old school and not only scares the crap out of the dog and can make the problems you have worse. Have you done NILIF with her? If not I would start now.
http://k9deb.com/nilif.htm

What kind of training are you doing with her? This is the sort of thing that it is important to address right away. Has she had any obedience training or classes yet?

It is not aggression, it's resource protection. And I know this sounds wrong, but in some way you DO want your dog to keep her natural instinct to give warning. If you keep ignoring her warnings, or teaching her to suppress them, she will very likely conclude that she needs to make her warning more clear and skip the growling and displaying of teeth and go straight to biting.

So you do not need to teach her that protecting is wrong. What you need to teach her is that it is not needed.

Best way to teach her that she doesn't need to protect her food/toys, is to offer a trade. Trade one toy/treat for another toy/treat and she will soon learn that you (or in this case, your kid) is not out to steal anything and actually it is beneficial for her to let go of something she initially thinks needs to be protected.

Since you are dealing with a kid here though, I would also make it an unbendable house rule, to never disturb the dog when she is eating. Both for the sake of the kids and for the dog.

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Originally Posted by Varga

It is not aggression, it's resource protection. And I know this sounds wrong, but in some way you DO want your dog to keep her natural instinct to give warning. If you keep ignoring her warnings, or teaching her to suppress them, she will very likely conclude that she needs to make her warning more clear and skip the growling and displaying of teeth and go straight to biting.

So you do not need to teach her that protecting is wrong. What you need to teach her is that it is not needed.

Best way to teach her that she doesn't need to protect her food/toys, is to offer a trade. Trade one toy/treat for another toy/treat and she will soon learn that you (or in this case, your kid) is not out to steal anything and actually it is beneficial for her to let go of something she initially thinks needs to be protected.

Since you are dealing with a kid here though, I would also make it an unbendable house rule, to never disturb the dog when she is eating. Both for the sake of the kids and for the dog.

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Agree 100%. It really works & it's so much easier & calmer to teach your
dog this way.

Thank you for the input. We will work with her and make this behavior a thing of the past!

Totally agree with the advice Varga has given. I will also throw in, as someone that has a child and cats/dog, that there IS a very important second level of training that must go on with the child/ren. Varga said it very politely. I, and I don't direct this at YOU, specifically, but in general, stress the heck out of child training.

All children must be taught, at an early, early age, and IMO, disciplined as least as equally as the pet, if not more so, what the proper handling/playing 'rules' are with pets. Children must be taught what the warning signs are, what tail positions mean, what the lowering of the head means, etc. J is 7, and I can't tell you the number of times he has cautioned another child about this child's pet, "Hey, don't you see....., leave her alone".

All dogs bite, it is just a matter of when. I believe this, and I teach this to J. It isn't much different than the stove, the street, or around a pool of water. *Most* of the time, these are 'safe' areas, but as a matter of routine course: don't touch the stove, don't enter the street, and don't go near a body of water.

Kids should be viewed by animals as the giver of yummy treats. Kids should be taught to feed a dog, but never approach a food bowl otherwise. Dog toys belong to the dog, and kid's toys belong to the kids, and never the two should meet.

Varga's advice is excellent! I don't have much advice to add to that, but I did want to point out a couple things.

By disciplining her in this way, she is learning that the child presents even more of a threat. She is not making the connection that she is being punished because she gave a warning growl. She will see it that the child is even more of a threat to her established place.

By restraining her, you actually increase her defensiveness because she is restrained. Most dogs are more likely to resort to aggression when leashed than if they have an option to back off to a perceived threat.

I don't feel she needs to be taught that anyone can make her feel threatened and she has to suppress any response even if she is anxious (and for a dog, losing a toy or item IS a stressful situation for them; especially if simply taken away and left with nothing). I feel what Ruby needs is to learn there is no threat, which is what Varga's and Cataholic's posts address very well.

I hope you are able to work it out and have more peace of mind soon.