About a year ago, I put up a post about my dog's fear of children and asking for advice. At that time, I have already enrolled a behavioural consultant who uses positive reinforcement training method. It's quite a journey and the result so far is progressing positively. I did not post much but came here regularly to learn. I would like to post something back about the results so far, so people can know that even behaviour modification will take a long time, there is indeed lights at the end of the tunnel. No matter of what kind of aggression issues you are dealing with, don't give up! I know there would be doubtful moment, but keep going. Also, if you have further advice for me, please let me know.
This is my dog's story. He is a Newf, coming from a good breeder and we did all the socialization training. But then at the age of 6 months old, he suddenly was afraid of children. He would bark at them. So right away, we increased his exposure to children, took him to participate in Santa Claus Parade...and after this, the fear seemed went away. Then at the age of 13/14 months old, BOOM! The fear of children came back. This time was much harder to deal with, given his size. He would lunged at kids if he saw neighbour's kids playing in their backyard....if a kid came too closed, he would growl. To the point that it's so bad that I swore I would never take him beside a kid. We were looking for help. We have tried couple positive reinforcement trainers. They were ok, but not too effective. Then finally we got referred to our current trainer. It's like having Yo Yo Ma teaching you how to play cello. Also very lucky we scouted out a perfect location. It's a park beside a school yard with a chain link fence in between. We did A LOT of click and treat...and many things. We also always looked for opportunity that could add experience about "kids = positive things". Like about a month ago, my neighbour just got a new puppy. So I took my dog to walk with them and their two kids everyday. And this proves to be very good for him, plus the foundation works we have done for one and half years. After couple weeks, he got more and more relaxed among older children. The two kids, me and two pups just went for an off leash ravine walk. My dog would play with them, doing tricks, accepting petting. If you saw us, you would not guess this dog one and half years ago has severe fear towards children.
Now, it is still a long road ahead of us. He is better with older children but toddlers/babies are still work in progress. And I still need to set him up for success and really play attention to each encountering....you don't want to have one bad experience and outdo what you accomplished in the last six months.
My biggest learning through this is NEVER NEVER push the dog beyond his comfort zone, let him/her evolve naturally. And it will take long time, I started with my current trainer in November 09....now it's April 2011 and we just started seeing some results. It's not as sexy as watching those TV programs about how those dog kings transformed a dog within 3 hours. But behavioural modification using positive reinforcement WORKS!!