Expert: Delores Beck - 2/26/2009

Question
Tonight we had our 3 year old cocker spaniel in the house playing, he had a raw hind bone chewing on it and our 10 year old son was petting him and all of a sudden he went after him grawling and barking as if he was going to eat him alive, my husband and myself screamed at the dog and made him go back outside.  We need to know what could have caused him to do this and what can we do to prevent it from happening again, this is not the 1st time this has happened, not only with our son but other children also.  Thank you for any help you can give, we love our dog but our child comes first.

Thank You,
Debbie

Answer
It's all about the rawhide bone.  Don't let him have any more of those.  They're not good for him and they're dangerous anyway.

To give advice I need to know exactly what the situation was when this has happened before with children.

I'd also like to know what happens if you took his bone?

I'm betting that each time this has happened the dog has had a possession like the rawhide?

And how is his behavior other than this?
Delores