BehavioRx Case of the Month
for February 1998

Training a Dog to Bite the Family Child

This case won't take long, but I present it because we are getting so many calls for diagnosing the problem.

The Collie puppy was a male and very friendly. He was obtained at 7 weeks of age. Now 7 months old, he had "bitten" the child when she rolled on the floor and bumped into him as he lay chewing his pig's ear chewy.

From puppyhood the father and mother and 9 year old daughter taught him to Sit by rewarding him with one of the commercial tidbits. At about 6 months he was introduced to pig's ears and always had one at his disposal. He had always been 'guardy' about his food, growling when people put the food down and stood close to him.

The father noticed at about 6 months, when they reached to pet him or give him a treat, he started to raise his flews and show his upper teeth. They scolded him; and he then added a growl to his routine. (They did not appreciate that the dog was simply getting 'hand-happy,' raising his upper lip to prepare to take a goodie.) Using advice from a book, he then started evening "training" sessions in which he would offer a pig's ear, then clamp the dog's snout when he raised his flews and shout loudly, "No!" Some of these sessions lasted up to an hour. Sure enough, the dog quit the behavior with the father.

Then the child rolled into him and he swung around with a loud, mouth open "get away" growl. His teeth hit her arm. Her skin was scratched through her loosely fitting shirt and she bled. There was no bite puncture. The father grabbed the dog by the neck, dragged him to the back door and threw him down the back stairs into the yard. The dog then started holing-up under the dining room table when in the house. He growled when people approached.

The father had effectively driven the aggressive reactions to extinction with him; but, at the same time, he had "loaded' the dog for the child. The process is called 'facilitation.' When she interfered with his chew-time on the pig's ear the pent-up aggressive behavior was released.

Successful treatment for this kind of problem depends on the owner's appreciation for the root causes and dedication to regaining the dog's trust in the father. In this case, he did appreciate his role in the problem and carried out the remedial program successfully. A veterinary examination for possible neck or throat injuries was negative. The program involved getting rid of the pig's ears and tidbits, putting the dog on the learn-to-earn praise and petting program, building his confidence that hands were for positive petting, not snout-clamps or neck-grabs and painful trips down the back stairs.

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