My Dog Is Aggressive When A Child Cries. Help!?

Question

When my nephew cries my dog seems really interested and then a small growl or bark comes from him. Is this normal or what is a training technique to stop this. And it is hard to put him in a kennel or in a different place because he is a 160 pound Mastiff. I just adopted him from the ASPCA and they really do not like if you return animals and you can not adopt from them anymore. He is really sweet but if a child cries or when I wrestle with my nephews he gets mean. Please if you have ANY advice feel free

Answer 1

When a child cries, likely he is responding with prey drive rather than pure aggression.  A high pitched cry sounds like prey to a dog.  This is instinctive and training may not help this problem.  The wrestling may also trigger this instinct in this particular dog.  

Whether you return the dog should depend on whether your nephew lives with you or is just an occasional visitor.  If he lives with you, that's a significant problem.  If he just visits, I'd suggest confining the dog to a crate or another room during his visits until he is older and past the high pitched crying stage.

ASPCA is going to understand if you return a dog when the dog is aggressive around a child that lives in the home or is there very frequently.  The vast majority of shelters will allow you to adopt again under those circumstances.  If you returned the dog because it shed on your sofa, they probably would not adopt to you again, but in cases where there is a legitimate behavioral problem that puts a child at risk, they won't hold that against you.

Answer 2

It's probably just a nervous reaction. Mastiff are very gentle giants, he's most likely unsure or "fearful" of the sound.

Find a good trainer, take some obedience classes with the dog and he'll get over it, it's also a great way for you to bond with him.

thanks for adopting!

Answer 3

He may not be use to little ones and this is his defence. When he comes near when your nephew is crying and he starts either growling or barking tell him "NO!" and put him outside or in another room until your nephew calms down. No this is not normal but dogs must be socialized around kids or they will be aggressive/scared ect. However dont give up on him yet. If he's been adopted there's probably alot more he's getting use to and he may feel anxious as it is and a screaming child is prob just adding to this. Either way he needs to learn that it is NOT ok to growl or bark at anyone in your home! If traiing him yourself doesnt work I'd get a prof. trainer. By giving him back to the shelter and not tryin to fix his problem your just adding to the problem and he's intern getting a life long sentence to shelter life or possibly end up getting up to sleep. Try putting him outside when your nephew comes over or like I said putting him outside or in another room when your nephew gets upset. Dont just give up on him.

Answer 4

well the wrestling part is obvious. dogs generaly dont like wen ppl fight. they feel like they are obligated to protect one of u, mostly the owner. so he thinks ur being attacked. he's just doin his job. but the cryin is a little different. he probably doesnt understand wats going on. he might think of the crying as a threat? im not sure. wat u can do is make a loud sound at ur dog or push him or just yell at him. that will tell him that its not ok to bark during that specific moment. get ur kid to pretecnnd to cry to practice the obedience. wen the dog starts to react badly, yell at it or gently tap it and say no or watever command u say to discourage him.its easy to fix, but u gotta b consistant. dont forget to do this EVERYTIME! otherwise he wont understand why he's gettin yelled at. it takes a while b4 they understandd the pattern of "if i growl while he cries, i get yelled at" good luck. dont ive him back, dogs deserve better than to b stuck in a cage all their lives.

Answer 5

hes worried about him

Answer 6

Mastiff breeds do not like people to be hurt in anyway.  When your family cry's they tend to want to do something about it. The bullmastiff would ensure that they try to help the person or make you help the person.  I don't understand why but they just don't like people crying.  This is unique to the breed.  You failed to mention the breed.

If it troubles you:

1)  put the dog in the other room

2)  explain to you family no crying

3)  throw water over your dogs head and say NO!.  

Answer 7

You say when a child cries or you wrestle he gets "mean".

When you say mean, is he baring his teeth with a deep low growl or is he trying to stop the action.

Mastiffs do NOT like wrestling at all. They will typically insert themselves into a wrestling match to break it up. If they feel real strongly about it, they may even pull one of the wrestlers away with their mouths.

Mastiffs and get very protective of children, so when one cries it will go into to protect mode, even if there is nothing to protect it from.

Now here is the problem, you recently adopted this dog by the sound of it, do you know anything about it's history? Has it been around children before, is it comfortable with strangers or is it fearful or aggressive..what I'm getting at is how well socialized is this animal.

160 pounds is a lot of dog, but you need to take charge of the situation. Just because he is large is no excuse not to have him do something you desire. Mastiffs are very sensitive dogs, they live to please their owners, I would do a couple things here.

1. Enroll immediately in Obediance Training

2. Start to postiviely reinforce your commands, sound excited, get his favorite treat and lob it into the kennel or place you want him to go.

If a Mastiff is confused or feels threatened, they will sit down and are impossible to budge, this is your clue that you are doing something wrong and need to back up and try a different approach. Yelling and screaming will do much damage.

More information is needed as to what you consider "mean" and if we are talking about a dog that is aggressive or just being it's protective self, that he was bred to be.

Its a rare mastiff that is outright aggressive, but it does happen, and if this is the case, you are not equipped to deal with the problem, take him back.

Okay, thanks for the addtional details.

Mastiffs were bred for guard duty. If they are properly socialized they will protect without being aggressive. There is a difference and you must understand, a mastiff inserting themselves into a wrestling match is typical of the breed and to be expected. If you want to wrestle, before you start you may want to put the pooch in another room or you will have a 160 pound referee calling and end to the games.

My female is extremely protective of our grandchildren, if one cries she is over there in a flash trying to love the child up with drool, she will whine and get anxious when this occures as well, but she never growls at the child.  Growling may be occuring as part of your dog being confused as to who or what is causing the boy to cry..you need to determine if he is growling at the baby or if it is an anxious growl and there is a clear difference.

As I said before, if it is aggression you have, you are not equipped to deal with 160 Mastiff that is aggressive.

if it is his protective nature showing thru, there is no getting around it, any decent mastiff will be protective.

One more thing, I would suggest taking this question to a mastiff forum such as the mastiffonlinecommunity.net and asking this very same question to get a lot more Mastiff owner's opinions..mine is not the end all.