Aggression with young children

[Tammy11]

Our BC male (who is about to get neutered) is 8 months old. He is a good dog with the family (9 children in all who all live here), except one child. My second youngest is 5yrs old and Reggie does not seem to like him. More recently, my 7yr old daughter whom Reggie has always loved was petting him just showed his teeth towards her while she was quietly petting him.

 

What he does it to look at the children while they are petting him and then he begins to show teeth, growl and finally bite.

My son and daughter are very sweet, loving and kind to the dog. There is no abuse or timid behavior in my children. I have my 5yr old feed Reggie and take him outside. Reggie is fine with all of that, but Reggie will not allow my son to pet him. Reggie growls and has bitten this one son of mine 4 times so far.

I don't allow Reggie alone with this one son because of this situation. Reggie does not have the run of the house (although he seems to desire the house to be his domain to rule and acts as if he is in charge of who can enter a room). Reggie is required to stay in the living room and can roam free outside as long as someone who is 16yrs and up is with him in order to keep him in the yard.

We exercise him by playing a lot of football and fetch as well as take him on runs with the older children. Yet all of that has been decreased more and more recently due to our lack of trust with him.

The techniques I've used to get Reggie to accept this one son is to feed the dog, pet the dog while he is eating out of my son's hand, train the dog with treats, and take the dog outside when he needs it.

This all has worked with other dogs that I have had in the past, but after 3 months of this, the only change is that Reggie will growl and run to his kennel when my son (Daniel) comes to give the dog attention.

On a few occasions recently, Reggie has come to Daniel for attention only to growl after less than a minute of Daniel petting him on the head and back.

I am sure that by now Daniel has grown weary and a bit timid of the dog, but that was not always the case. Daniel does not approach the dog with fear, he tends to be happy and want to play, yet the dog seems to have his mind made up about Daniel.

One time, Reggie was playing with my 18yr old son. When they were done, Daniel tried to imitate the same play techniques used by my 18yr old son which was to peak at the dog with the wall as a barrier on his hands and knees. The dog loved it when my 18yr old was doing it, but immediately began showing his teeth to Daniel.

The poor kid can't win, but he is always trying on his own. Like I said earlier, the dog is ALWAYS under my supervision, so I have caught everything between him and my son.

I am home with him and his 4yr old brother during the day until the family comes home from school and work at 3pm. Of course Reggie does most of this while the family is home when I am the busiest, which means he is in his kennel more often because I have to be in the kitchen more often when everyone is home (but only because of how he reacts to Daniel)

Do you have any ideas? I also would like to know how to teach Reggie not to bite other children in the ankles when my children's friends come to visit. He doesn't do it much to my children, and when he has done it, it was a soft bite. Yet he drew blood on a young girl who was walking fast a few days ago (again, I supervise everything). I had to promise the young girl's mother that Reggie will no longer be allowed near her child since this happened. This of course hampers my ability to train Reggie not to bite visitors.

We are at the point of looking into selling him to an adult with no children. The children are heart broken and I really don't know what else to do.

I appreciate your time and wisdom.

Thank you