Sunny

Thanks again for the replies! Everyone is being so helpful! 😊 aw no macoduck, that’s a horrible thing for everyone involved! So sad when stuff like that happens.

Thanks again for the replies! Her name is Luna. 😊 she likes to dance around with the squeaky toy and will drop them at my feet and wait for me to throw them. Do you think I ought to stop doing that? Seems a shame as she loves it and always gives up the toy straight away if I say drop it. She does have her bed where the kids are not allowed. It’s as out the way as we can manage in our tiny house. The kids do go near it (it’s unavoidable) but never on it. We tried other places but Luna just wants to hang out where we all are so it’s tricky. She has the run of the house (just not the kids bedrooms) so she can take herself off to a quiet room if she wants, but she never bothers. She does know drop it for toys and also knows leave it for things the kids drop on the floor (like food) that she can’t have. We practice both every day and the 5 year old helps with things like feeding (with supervision of course) and training but I think it sounds like a good plan to have a ‘no taking things from the dog’ rule for the kids!

Thanks for replying! I know dogs live in the moment and she’s happily moved on, it’s my stupid overthinking brain! I just can’t shake the worries at the moment. I’m glad you think we’d know it by now if she was sleep aggressive, but I suppose my concern is, I thought I’d know by now if she was going to be toy aggressive too but it seemed to come from nowhere. You’re right, perhaps she’s feeling a bit unsettled with the baby and Xmas and all that stuff. Just want to make sure I’m doing the right things to keep everyone safe and happy!

Hello, I’m looking for some advice. We adopted our 5 year old ex-racing greyhound about 2 years ago. She’s been doing really well. Settled in without too much fuss, clean indoors, walks nicely on the lead and isn’t too cheeky (apart from the odd counter surf and chewing toys if the kids leave them lying around! ) we have 5 year old and 10 month old kiddos and we all adore our lovely hound. The other night our dog was lying on her bed, squeaking a new toy and I stupidly reached out and squeaked it for her. She bit me on the hand hard enough to draw blood. It was my fault, stupid thing to do and I can totally see why she did it. She’s never reacted like that before though and I guess I got careless. So I’m not blaming her at all but obviously it’s not great and now made me a bit nervous about her and the kids. I was surprised she didn’t growl or nip first and now I worry that she might suddenly become unhappy about something else that’s never appeared to bother her before and go straight to a bite, rather than warning us. We are very careful with her interactions with the kids and always supervise and stress that they leave her alone when on her bed or eating. We don’t allow the baby to crawl near her or either kiddo to get into her space, but we live in a small house, so they do have to walk past her and get close sometimes. She tends to ignore the kids rather than want to play, but I figured that’s fair enough- not every dog wants to hang out with kids. I’m going to try to work on desensitising her to people touching her toys, with trading for treats and that kind of thing. But I am a bit of a worrier and I can’t get the concern out of my head that she may snap again unexpectedly! Any advice? Am I over/under-worrying?? Should I get a behaviourist in to have a look at the situation? I’m sad, I feel like I screwed up and now our bond is a bit broken. 😢