No fast moves

[imported_Amy Stein]

About a year ago we adopted Lizzie (J Russel/Am Staffie mix) from petfinder.com, all guestimates said she was about 1 year old. According to her foster mom, she had already had a litter of pups prior to being fostered.
We do not have children, but our close friends do. Lizzie has shown that she does not like certain actions - like when kids are being tickled & squirm about. Lizzie doesn't like it & quickly goes over to the child and puts her chin on the child as to say "stop that". One time our cousin's son (3 yo) was twirling a dinasaur by it's tail - Lizzie went over to the boy and put her mouth over his arm. NO blood or even pressure marks. Scary enough though. Since then, and understandably, our cousin hasn't been back to our house.
I've thought about getting a muzzle (similar to the ones used for racing greyhounds) for when they come over - but it's only a temporary fix for some apparent underlying problem.

Any suggestions?

[Alberta Hanko]

Hi - Congratulations on your Lizzie--she is lucky to have you. I am not a trainer but a person who has an aggressive dog. Is Lizzie crate trained? If so, for the time being, when your friends children are around, Lizzie will do better to be in her crate, safely out of the way. If not while the kids are running around burning off energy Lizzie will be better off in a room away from them. They should be calmed down, when she does see them, and a muzzle, if you can desensitize her to it, surely would keep the kids safe while she is getting used to them. Using advice from Doggy Door, I worked with my Linus slowly getting him used to a muzzle, and he can't wait to put it on. I use a basket muzzle, so I can pop treats in it. I am sure in my paperwork, and maybe on my hard drive I have an article on how to get your dog used to a muzzle if you are interested. She is definitely nervous around the kids, and you sure want to prevent a damaging bite. She was giving a warning--my Linus did exactly that to me when I touched his collar, so he and I worked on that recently. Is Lizzie on Nothing in Life is Free? Simply put she works for whatever she gets, sits for her dinner, sits and waits before she goes out of doors? I have found that to be very helpful--I jsut need to keep DH practicing it :wink: . I am sure you will get some really good advice as some of the DD trainers come to this site.

Alberta & Linus