Big Paws Only Dog Forums

Last week I posted about my female rottie mixes fighting. Sadly, that night, Cagney and Macey got in the most viscious fight we had ever witnessed and we realized that we needed to separate the two of them. I spoke to a trainer who said that they weren't fighting over dominance, but over territory, which means that Cagney was not accepting Macey in the house and that when they're fighting, even if Macey submitted, Cagney wouldn't stop...she wants Macey gone. Sadly, we had to choose which of our children to find a new home for.

We decided to find a new home for Cagney. Luckily some friends were looking for a dog and may have fallen in love with her over the weekend. It's been a roller coaster week!

Thanks to everyone who responded to my first posts last week.

PS...can someone please tell me how to put a picture in my profile, which, I assume is what I need to do to have it posted on the top left of my messages? I'm a technical writer...and I can't seem to figure it out. Feeling dumb!

I totally agree with what the last few people have said. I have dogs that are great with my kids because I've taught my kids how to behave around dogs and I've taught my dogs how to behave in general.

However, the Great Dane owner probably doesn't have kids and therefore, the dog won't ever know how to react around kids. I, personally, don't take my kids to the dog park unless both my husband and I are there and we are always watching for dogs that don't understand and watching to make sure our kids aren't running, skipping, or yelling. It does suck, but because both kids and dogs can be unpredictable, I prefer to let my kids be kids on the playground and let my dogs be dogs in the dog park.

If my dog did act inappropriatel y toward a kid in a dog park, I'm not sure how I would react. But, I did have a dad once tell me my dog bit his kid (not in a dog park), when I asked to see the "bite", he showed me a mosquito bite. I knew there was no way my dog bit his kid unless his kid broke into my house when I wasn't there (the dogs stay inside when I'm gone and are on leashes at all other times). In that case, I came down hard on him because there's no way I'm going to let some lying dad with financial troubles blame my dogs for something they didn't do. This is a different case because in your case, you and the owner both saw the dog approach your child.

My question is, from a mother's perspective, how do you deal with the fact that your child might now be scared of dogs? No dog-loving parent wants a kid to grow up scared of dogs!