re: Dog just snapped at daughter

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I have a 7 month old lab that I paid $800 for.

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Please answer honestly: How much time have you spent training/working with the dog?

Doesn't matter what she may have done. Dog needs to be put down.

I went through this with a German Shepherd. One of the saddest days of my life- but can't own a dog that growls at my child.

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Male labs can be such block headed assholes when they're young.

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And again when they're old. At least that's my experience

Dump it. Young enough to catch on with someone who will hunt the dog.

Probably just bad luck. I've found that a dog's personality doesn't change all that much from about 6 months onward. If anything, when they get older and crankier, they lose patience. But, if a dog isn't get with kids at 6 - 7 months, they really won't be good with kids at 2 to 3 years old.

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I went through this with a German Shepherd. One of the saddest days of my life- but can't own a dog that growls at my child.

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Now, it will vary from dog to dog, but getting a well-bred "protective" breed, like a GSD, can pay dividends. We had one of those fancy, overbred (for temperament mainly, I mean his dad was a champion, but we never showed him because he wasn't all crazy angular as was the popular style) GSD and he growled exactly once: my sister had a reckless, high energy Boxer (aren't they all?) who was bouncing around the backyard with my kids. Now, my son was pretty much a pansy then at age 11 or 12 and he was trying to manage the 2 dogs that were his size or bigger and both much stronger to try to get them some water. My girls were out there, too. Anyway, my sister's dog bumps into the boy pretty hard and he says, "Ow!" Our GSD then let out a low, strong growl at my sister's dog. The way it was described to me was, the girls, the boy and the Boxer all froze in place like someone hit the pause button. They all got along fine after that.

That was the only time our GSD ever growled. Now, he barked, whimpered and cried a lot. He got pushed around by a Chihuahua. But, that Boxer that was not in his immediate family was not going to make his kids say, "Ow!"

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He got pushed around by a Chihuahua.

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If those things were as big as their ego we would all be in a lot of trouble!!

.22

Since this is the OB, I will answer properly.

The dog is a puppy. Train the dog. Labs are good loyal dogs. It just needs to be raised properly.

Any Lab I've ever owned tested it's boundaries the first few months being with us. Any sign of aggression was met with me holding their mouth shut and telling them no. Aggression with food or treats was met with them having to calmly eat said food or treat out of my hands or they didn't eat. After those behaviors were correctly I never had issues with any of my dogs. They just need to know who the boss is and they will fall in line. I have a golden now that I would trust with my kids over alot of people. She would protect them with her life.

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Now, it will vary from dog to dog, but getting a well-bred "protective" breed, like a GSD, can pay dividends

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I should have clarified - was typing on phone the first time.

Our GSD was extremely protective of our family for 7 years. He was extremely intelligent - would literally stop at our property line when chasing a ball or frisbee.

Our issues occurred when he had developed hip dysplasia, and our youngest (barely able to walk) would throw himself onto the dog's back like he would a toy. The poor creature couldn't get up and move without experiencing pain, so growling at our son was his way of telling the child to back off --- but the child couldn't understand any of this.

Since we couldn't monitor the child's location and activity every second, and since the vet (45 years ago) didn't have anything to stop the dog's hip pain, I had no option but to have the dog put to sleep.

Prior to the onset of hip dysplasia, he was the gentlest dog you could ever meet. The neighborhood children (ages 3-7) would literally ring our doorbell and ask if
"Cuz" could come out and play. Or they would come into our house and play with him.

This dog was like a member of the family (he literally slept under the older son's crib starting the first day we brought him home from the hospital). But his status was still below that of a toddler. I could barely see well enough to drive home after taking him on that final trip. I still tear up thinking about it.

Hopefully there are treatments now for this condition. Cuz should have enjoyed a life span about double what he actually had.