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Definitely without a doubt a knowledge and management issue mostly. We are talking about a Malinois and Children that were not taught or not able to comply yet with the fact that dogs, particularly ones that were bred to stand up to humans do not like hugs, but will sometimes tolerate them if they have the correct relationship.
This is a potential disaster and it wont be the dog’s fault.
Not to discourage Thomas, since we are all here to keep an open mind and learn, but one of the many reasons why cesar milan style neck jabs (level 3 – attitude) are not used in the standard of this style is that it may trigger a bite from the dog – especially if a 5 year old that the dog doesnt respect trys to mimic mom and dad.
Even if the dog is taught to fear a correction from mom or dad if she growls at the kids – it wont do much good if mom or dad is out of site.
This dog’s owners have to look at pack structure and boundries first, then educate the children, and then have strict management criteria in place such as not leaving children unsupervised with the dog.
It is not a bad dog if she is giving plenty of warning, but may be a bad situation for her. Malinois are great dogs, but there is a reason that almost all of them are working dogs and owned by experienced working dog/ sport people.
I like Thomas’s suggestion of having the children be involved with some of the dog’s daily routines. This has helped a lot for me with some of my client’s dogs, but usually the children were a few years older.
