Charlie Girl just got terrified or even rolled on her back. Didn't even growl. The most totally non aggressive dog I've ever had. I had been told Cavvies were non aggressive before getting her.

But the whole question here is for me (as I stated to begin with) a no brainer. Dog aggressive towards a BABY? Would not be in my home very long. I've told before about the dog I took back to Battersea because it GROWLED in a nasty way at my then 18 month old son. Absolutely no way would I be keeping that dog in the same house as my kids (or anyone else's kids).

I've never owned such dog and I hate the mentality. It does cause a lot of problems here. People have a dog that they think will never react and suddenly when the dog does... they get caught unaware babbling about how the dog has never done that before.

It's not a good idea to assume that a dog that has never reacted is a "stooge dog". Maybe dog trainers have the right to use that, but I'd NEVER tell a random pet owner that they have a "stooge dog".

Regarding your last paragraph , no one made the assumption in your first senstence and no one said the last sentence either , the stooge dog suggestion was made in terms of structured dog training

re your first paragraph , everyone thinks that , and that has nothing to dddo with stooge dog

Hate the mentality of what

Not sure what you are on about to be honest, who has said they would tell "random" dog owners they have a stooge dog.

I think you are misunderstanding the nature of a stooge dog

I don't like stooge dogs, I prefer teaching dogs, stooge dogs don't teach another dog anything, a teaching dog teaches them how to be a dog and speak dog so any dog they mean in future they can communicate with. These dogs turn into really nice, confident dogs who then help other dogs, or most of them do.


When a baby cries it sounds like a prey animal in trouble to a dog and many dogs will go in and attack the baby, that isn't the dog's fault but the owner for leaving the dog in a position were he can attack the baby.

Many dogs are also frightened of toddlers which your 18 month old would have been because they are unpredictable, they are often falling over, poke and prod things etc. again it is up to the parents to make sure the dog is never in a position were he feels the need to growl. I know from my own sons that children this age can be taught to respect dogs and not interfere with them.

I agree, I used to have a dog that wouldn't attack another until one day 2 Weimaraners attacked one of mine, both her and my other dog went in and took a dog each, she just kept the dog away from Joe while Tommy sorted the other dog out, she then came and took the dog off Dixie and sorted that out. This is the incident were Joe started to have panic attacks which lead to seizures later in the day.

Dixie never even growled at a human but one day my adult son accidentally stood on her, she bit his foot. No dog is 100% but many people think their's is and when it reacts to something they are surprised and many are even pts.

I was told that Dixie would make a good stooge dog by other dog owners on quite a lot of occasions, I would NEVER put her in that position, Tommy did teach dogs how to be a dog when they stepped out of line.

Mattie
I can hardly believe you are serious here. OP's baby neice wasn't crying she merely put her hand on the arm of the chair where the dog was sat on someone's lap.

As for my 18 month old - he wasn't crying either. I don't know if you've got children of your own but there are limits to what you can teach an 18 month old. Most of them aren't even toilet trained or talking at that age.

How would anyone know they'd put the dog 'in a position to growl' if the dog is dossing on a sofa and the baby toddler merely WALKS INTO THE ROOM?

You have a lot of good advice to offer people but a lot of it seems to me to be nigh on impossible for people who have busy family lives with kids, babies and other animals to follow to the letter.

*I should add I've had dogs for 40 odd years and that is the ONLY dog I ever had that showed aggression towards a small child. As I said - not worth the risk. I had two small children at the time and much as I love dogs they come first with me.

They subsequently grew up with GSDs, no problems AT ALL. I think you should accept that you have to 'be there' sometimes to be able to gauge whether a dog is aggressive or not. Or even whether a dog is non aggressive.

No way would I rearrange my whole family's lives around an unpredictable and aggressive dog so that we could keep it.

And I do not believe EVERY dog is able to be trained not to be aggressive or unpredictable. You might. I don't.

Well we don't all see things in the same way, I used to have 'a biter' of a cocker spaniel.
I had him before my first child was born and never considered rehoming him let alone having him pts. He wasn't overly keen on the appearance of my son into his world either but he learned to live with it. With extra vigilance we managed with no major incidents at all. We did have a few minor ones but nothing that concerned me tbh. Strangely when my second son was born 8 years later Shannon the dog was completely devoted to him. It sounds like hard work but it actually became second nature to be always on the ball. I just developed different ways of doing things to other mums I guess. My dog was my baby too and he wasn't nasty but he suffered from rage syndrome (and that's not me making excuses for him). He wasn't an easy dog but he was mine and he was 100% my responsibility.

If you look at my post you will see I was replying to your post, I put your post in a quote so anyone would see what I was replying to. You never mentioned anyone putting a hand on the arm of a chair, your words were:

But the whole question here is for me (as I stated to begin with) a no brainer. Dog aggressive towards a BABY? Would not be in my home very long. I've told before about the dog I took back to Battersea because it GROWLED in a nasty way at my then 18 month old son. Absolutely no way would I be keeping that dog in the same house as my kids (or anyone else's kids).

It doesn't mention anything about a chair.


3 sons and run a pre-school playgroup so have lots of experience with very young children, yes you can teach them how to behave round animals but you can't expect them to be 100% which is why we have to make sure that the child is safe, if we don't it is our fault not the child or the dog.

My reply to your 18 month old was:

Many dogs are also frightened of toddlers which your 18 month old would have been because they are unpredictable, they are often falling over, poke and prod things etc. again it is up to the parents to make sure the dog is never in a position were he feels the need to growl. I know from my own sons that children this age can be taught to respect dogs and not interfere with them.

If we have a dog we owe it to the dog to protect them as well as our children.

How often do we see that we should never leave a child and a dog on their own, by allowing a child to walk into a room were the dog is we are asking for trouble. It is up to us to make sure that doesn't happen and there are many ways we can avoid it like gates, closed doors etc.

I did it, 3 sons with 2 years 8 months between them, a dog and a horse as well as a job and a house to run so it isn't nigh on impossible to do. I also lived in a village were the bus ran every 2 hours, had to go into the nearest town for everything including food and carry it home. There is nothing special about me but I did put my children's safety first and made sure they were safe.


My children also came first which is why I made sure that they were never in a position to be in any danger with any of my dogs, it wasn't difficult to do.

You should be there ALL THE TIME if your children are with a dog and I don't have to accept you idea of dogs and children, to me they are not safe and I prefer my children to be safe which also means I protect my dogs as well.

I never said you had to, that is you reading into my post what isn't there, if you are not prepared to make sure your children are safe and never alone with your dog then you shouldn't have a dog.

Again putting things in that is not there and twisting what has been said. Nobody has suggested that every dog can be trained not to be aggressive or unpredictable which is why AS PARENTS WE MUST MAKE SURE OUR CHILDREN ARE SAFE AND NEVER ALONE WITH A DOG. If I can do it then so can everyone else, it depends on how much the parent is prepared to put into the child and the dog.

Toddlers are unpredictable, FACT

Children should never be left alone with a dog, FACT

Mattie, thank you. My point was crystal clear so I'm not positive how some of these people are acting as if I was speaking Spanish. It's absurd.

Though trainers may be able to call their dogs a "stooge dog" and know full well that the dog will never react, average, run-of-the-mill dog owners should NEVER assume a dog that has never reacted will never react.

I have seen so many people make this mistake, and I know better and I'm always against people thinking that a very calm dog will never react in an aggressive way.

If it hurts enough, or if the situation is wrong, ANY dog can react with aggression. It's nice that people had dogs that were never forced into this situation, but that doesn't mean that the dog will never react with aggression.

IMO, it's ignorant to assume that ANY dog is 100% safe.

ADDED: JodieUK (or however it's written, didn't go back and look) told the OP that her other dog was a stooge dog... which is where that was coming from Jackie.

Hello mjfromga

What you have just written above is exactly what we understood you meant . with this post you have just repeated the same things from the last post where we said you have got the wrong end of the stick

Just like Jackie and I said before no one said anything about recommending random pet dog owners should go round thinking their dogs are 'stooge dogs'. And jodeeuk never said that either . she said if the owner is going to do training involving stooge dogs. on reference to the OP telling us she has a dog trainer that was using other dogs .

So this is why Jackie would obviously conclude you are misunderstanding what a stooge dog is . I am also thinking the same thing again after your latest post


nothing personal.