Question:She's never had a bad experiece with kids as far as I know. We got her from the pound at 2 months old. She's never really been around kids. She gets very excited to see adults but sticks up her fur, backs away, and barks a little when she sees kids and/or babies. She's a lab-sheppard mix.
Answers:
Mixing Dogs and Kids
Later on, when the child is growing up, the first thing that needs to be done is to train children to have proper respect for the pet dog. Small children especially should never be left alone for a long period of time with the dog unsupervised. A young child may challenge or injure the dog unintentionally and the result could be tragic.
Dog owners share the responsibility for bite prevention as well. They should socialize their puppies to small children at an early age. (It helps to buy from a breeder who has started this socialization prior to the puppy purchase, for the younger the puppy is exposed to gentle children, the more tolerant of children it will become.) Socialization can be as simple as walking the dog near a playground where children are making noise, running about, playing ball or Frisbee or soccer or walking through the neighborhood while the kids wait for the school bus. The dog can be told to walk at a heel through a crowd of children, to sit-stay and watch the play or allow the children to pet his head, to down-stay until the end of the game. Constant exposure of this type will accustom the dog to the presence and antics of children.
It is a natural thing for a small child to want to play with the pet dog. However this can be a stressful time for the dog, especially if the child does not leave the dog alone. Some dogs don't like to be touched or poked all the time, and will react if they have had enough. Don't allow your child to do to the dog what you would not want them to do to another child.
Bear in mind that your children should never stare at a dog. Staring is considered a challenge in the dog world and the dog may bite to protect himself. Moreover, children should never chase a dog. Chasing puts the children in a position of subordination.
Hope that helps ;)
I personally think you should work with a professional trainer on this problem. Your dog was not socialized with children when young and is now aggressive toward them. The raised hair is a serious sign of aggression. And no one is going to want to lend you their kid to work on the problem.
Try to socialize her, but at first, take it slow, try getting her around one kid at a time, go up to them and act as if everything is completely normal. Wait for a couple minutes and see if she will come up and let the kid pet her. Before trying this you might want to take her to a place where there are kids so she sees them without having them right infront of her. She may be scared of children which is why she is uncomfortable around them. This may take awhile and she may never be comfortable around kids, but its worth a shot.
get a baby doll and have it around her. also get aolder kids to see her and slowly work tha age down. you can also take her to a trainer because thay can take care of that.
She needs to be socialized with kids just like with anything new.
Find some friends or family who have well behaved children, teach the children proper dog etiquette and in slow training sessions introduce the kids to the dog. Start with the dog being given treats by the kids. Don't expect much from her at this time...she'll probably just take the treat and run with it...and that is fine. To help with this training...plan ahead when the kids are coming over and skip her meal before they come so she'll be hungry and happy to receive treats from the kids. Work up to giving her a bigger sized treat so the kid can hold one end while she is forced to chew on the other. Than the kid can work onto petting her while it's chewing on the other end of the treat the kid is holding. Than do sit, stays gets petted than earns a treat.
Rememeber, if your dog has no experience with kids it just needs to be taught... and if your dog has ever been outside your home it's probably seen small people (IE kids) and most kids scream, and run and play etc which has already made an impression on your dog.
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