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Permalink Reply by Chloe's parent Liz on August 22, 2009 at 1:03am

Indoors, One thing to try is have your dog leashed for your control, and have your granddaughter do tricks like shake if your dog does that. It helped my niece, 4 with my 10 month old then puppy to have her blow bubbles for the dog in the backyard, let the dog chase them. My niece felt so big, and Chloe had fun.

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Permalink Reply by Beth on August 22, 2009 at 7:44am

Hmm. Do you have an opportunity to socialize the dog first with a different child who is used to dogs? One who won't react fearfully? That way you can work on getting the dog's response better so he is not so intimidating to your granddaughter. And the granddaughter, is she used to other dogs? If not, and someone has a bomb-proof calm dog that she can meet, maybe she can learn proper dog greeting procedures and then transfer those new skills to your dog?

Socialization always goes best initially when at least one of the living things is calm and collected. Just a thought.

If that is not possible, or if both are ok with other kids/dogs and just not each other, you might want to try reintroducing them on neutral ground where your Corgi won't feel so protective of you.

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Permalink Reply by Sam on August 22, 2009 at 12:22pm

Here is where an obedience class may come in very handy for you. Radar needs to learn to start and stop his actions when you ask. He should cease the barking when you ask him to. An obedience class will help you teach him to do it. May I also suggest that you start including your grandaughter in controlled and calm activities with Radar. Take a walk together. If he likes riding in the car go for car rides together. He may enjoy being pulled in a wagon pulled by your grandaughter. Perhaps you can teach her to help him learn some new tricks. You could also consider purchasing an x-pen so he can be in the middle of the activity and get used to her movement and noises. Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on August 22, 2009 at 12:38pm

Sounds like some teaching for both would be good...is your grandaughter used to dogs? My 3 year old grandson just came out to stay a couple days and he has not been around them so it took some "rules" of the house and how to treat animals. We started with having them in the other room and slowely introduced them...let him give the dogs a treat and throw a ball to them...and yes he needed correction as to how to treat a dog... by the next day he was fine end the dogs were too...BUT at that age I would keep a close eye on both as my 18 month old grandson sometimes wants to climb in the kennel with the dog...he has climbed in with them in there..or chase them...and they do not want to be between the wall and the child...at 5 children can make decisions that may not be exactly what we hope for so if you can'r be right there I would crate the dogs just for every one's safety. I don't know if this helped at all but hopefully .

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Permalink Reply by Linsey & Grissom on August 22, 2009 at 4:31pm

You're right, it's his job as your companion and watchdog to protect you and his space, but a truely trained watch dog will let someone in once YOU assert it is okay, and stop barking when YOU tell him to. Going back to basics with obedience training can really help with that.
Also, have you tried socializing them on neutral ground? Somewhere other than home? Even the best trained watch dog will naturally be more protective of you, your house, and himself when he's on his own turf. Try introducing them someplace neutral that he has no instinctive protectiveness over, like a park, or even at your granddaughter's house.
I had a problem with my highly trained German Shepherd Mix and my neighbor. He is trained to alert me someone is on the property, and not let his guard down till I greet the person and tell him to "relax" at which time, he completely changes from business-like guard dog, to happy-go-lucky goof ball. If I am not home, or do not greet the person, it's his job to convince said person to leave. He does not, and never has bit while on guard, but he has put a few salesmen right back into their cars. For some reason, though he'd stop with the barking and alerting, he would never really "relax" with the neighbor around. He's pace, circle me, etc. We took him to a vacant corner lot about 3 houses down from mine and had my neighbor play with him there. After a couple time of that, he seemed much more comfortable with him at home.

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Permalink Reply by Mary M on August 23, 2009 at 6:17pm

Thank you everyone for all the advice! Radar & I have some work to do with my grand daughter as she is not use to being around dogs on a daily basis. A relative hers has pit bulls and I asked her what they do whenever she is at there house, apparently they walk away from her. I like the idea of putting him on the lease for control and finding some neutral territory
for us. Possibly, the 3 of us could go for a walk together...
Whenever we did obedience training there were older children in the class. He always enjoyed it when the kids would come up and pet him. Our youngest grand daughter 20 months old shows absolutely no fear around Radar. She reached out last week to pet him and giggled at him. The 2 girls are night & day difference!

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Permalink Reply by Mary M on August 25, 2009 at 12:37am

Thanks everyone for your advice. Today my granddaughter asked to spend time with Radar. I explained the rules to her about what we would do with him. The 3 of us spent an hour together walking him on the leash, doing some tricks, and giving him unsalted oyster crackers for treats. This first step went well and I plan to continue socializing them using the leash until I am satisfied they have accepted each other. Radar did sit with my granddaughter on the sofa and let her pet him
briefly. After she left for the evening I had one tired Corgi on my hands :^)

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