Tyson Growled

Dodgn_AK · #1 26th June 2001, 12:55 PM

I took Tyson over to a friends bbq with me a few evenings ago. Another person at the bbq has a 11 month old little boy. At first Tyson got all excited about this little guy (i think he thought he was a puppy) and wanted to play and give kisses. Well later on, Tyson growled at him when he started to crawl in his direction. I scolded him for growling. He has never growled at anyone before. Will he always be like this? I have no children and neither do any of our friends, but down the road, some of us may and I don't want Tyson to be aggressive to children. Anyone else go through this? Thanks

Tara

Julie Davis · #2 5th July 2001, 10:48 PM

Maybe it was just a fluke that happened. Boxers are generally very good with children, especially very young ones. I'd try to get him to socialize with children often, and that way not only can you get him used to being around kids, but you can monitor his behavior and see if this growling thing happens again.

Aimee · #3 6th July 2001, 06:20 AM

Lexi will sometimes growl when she wants to play. I used to think she was being nasty but I have now realized she means no harm by it...

wally flores · #4 6th July 2001, 09:16 PM

I don't think he was growling in a mean way.....we too have an 11 month old daughter & a 3yr old son...our fawn boxer Jake growls when he wants to play or get out attention. I am CONFIDENT he would never do harm to our kids. In fact Jake is one of those boxers who very, very seldom barks...well one time he was barking at my wife (his mom) ...ends up she was play wrestling with our son...Jake was barking to just make certain they were playing & no harm was being done to our son..we could tell it was the unsure type of barking..like to say is everything alright?? I play with our dog all the time in our backyard & he growls because he is excited...soon as I say NO he'll stop on command

janice381 · #5 11th April 2002, 03:35 PM

Yes our dog Casper does the same. We have 3 children and he is the best dog you could ever want for our family. However, when he was only 6 months old we saw he growl at a small child going past the front door, as his heckles were up we gathered this was not playing. Then Our friends came round and their 2 year old was being followed by Casper and I had to put him outside in the end, it was as if he was stalking her and growled a little with heckles up again. He plays so well with our children he growls loudly but NEVER with heckles up. I would like to know why too, but we never take the chance with another child, just in case.

VTbxrFan · #6 11th April 2002, 04:46 PM

I hope others are right and he was just trying to play, but I wanted to mention that I've read and been told my trainers not to scold a dog for growling -- that is there warning that are not happy about a situation and it's a precursor to biting -- you want to know the dog is thinking about biting before he does. A dog that gets in trouble for growling will stop growling and go straight to biting when he is uneasy. Just something to keep in mind.

douma · #7 12th April 2002, 11:06 PM

I hope too ,others are right and Tyson was trying to play,but i have not little children and when Avra was 6 months old and 2 little girls came into house she growled to them and i gave them treats to give Avra and from this time i have been very careful and i always have treats in my pocket and when i see children i ask them to give treats to Avra.
Lots of socialize and now she is getting along with children ,playing and running at the park very nice.
The other thing that i did ,it was that i trained her to pet and pat pat her on the top of her head (the most of the children do this)