i have a red nose pit/chocolate lab mix, he is fixed and kept on a run, he is a very sweet dog and he has never bit anyone before, there are severam childern who have the run of the property and he loves playing with them and is very gentle with them,

well an aunt who the dog has never met came for a visit and she was playing with one of the kids out in the yard by the dog, the boy started screaming as children do when she started tickling him, well the dog aparently thought she was hurting the kid, anh he bit her on the knee, he didn't bite hard enough to do much dammage, most of the dammage was when she pulled away and his teeth scraped her, it looks more like a cat scratch than anything,

she wasn't mad and neither was the kids parents, they actiually were all happy that the dog was so protective of the kids, and i see their point, i would rather have a dog that is going to do something if someone tries to hurt them, than one that is just going to sit and watch, but i dont want him to think its ok to bite,

i'm not sure wether i'm just overreacting or not but with kids around i dont want to take any chances, what should i do? should i punish him for biting or should i praise him for protecting the kids?

i can sympathise to a degree with you on this one, our boy can be very protective of my daughter too, and will react to protect without any hesitation, he has not bitten to protect but will physically move himself infront of my daughter and bark at whomever is making an approach. and he has also knocked to the ground a friend that was piggybacking taylah around infront of him.

Like you i find it hard to dicipline this, because Im glad that he instictually wants to protect her, but we are now in the process of re training him, to carefully pick and choose the times when this is needed.

So, recent contact with people outside of the family that want to play the rough housing games with daughter, we put Kato on lead, and allow him close proximity to the situation but not complete access, we make him sit and reward him when he is settled and calm as daughter and friend play rough games, slowly he is getting the jist of it to the point that i think he should be right off lead, and us with him encouraging him to be calm and not intervine.

I have no doubt that once we do get thru it, that it will still not stop him from protecting if he feels that it really is appropriate to do so.

thanks for the imput, i'll try it, i'm also in the process of enrolling him in a special training program at our local facility

thanks again,
deb