Our dog dislikes one child in the neighborhood and growls and snaps at her. Why?

Maybe he just doesn't like her. Aren't there some people that you don't like ?. Just tell the kid to not come back

There could be something that the dog is smelling that is creating that kind of aggression, but I would doubt it.

My experience has been that when a usually social dog has a really negative reaction to a person, listen to the dog. I have got to think that at some time that child hurt the dog - perhaps no one saw it, but something happened.

I would do two things. First, I would keep the dog and the child separated. When the child is going to be over, put the dog in a room or in the back yard and instruct the children to not go there.

Secondly, I would consult with a reputable dog trainer. The trainer would likely have ideas on how to deal with the problem with the child. Also, all dogs (and their owners) benefit from basic obedience training.

Either your dog is unsocialized around all kinds of children, or had some bad experience with a little girl (either years ago or this particular one - maybe she did something no one saw). Growling is just a warning - keep your distance, I don't trust you, etc..

If you are worried something will happen, put the healer in another room when the other children are in the house. Or you can use positive association- have the girl come in the house, throw a treat at the healer, and ignore it.

The owner of the dog needs to know how to "operate" the dog, same way you can get into a car that's in perfect running order but if you don't know how to drive you won't have much luck making the car go anywhere. If the owner doesn't know how to maintain the training, the dog will soon become untrained again. Read more here https://tr.im/xSjHF

People seem to think that once a dog is trained, that's it. Not true. You must reinforce the dog's training every single day in some way. It's best if the owner and the dog go together to get trained. As a professional trainer once said to me "We can train any dog in 2 days. It takes longer to train the owners

My first thought was that maybe the girl had hurt, hit,kicked or done something to your dog, but if she hasn't then maybe the dog just doesn't like her, dogs have a sense to them and some animals just don't like some people. It could be the scent of her dog at home but very doubtful. I wouldn't get rid of your dog because of this I would make them meet in an extremely controlled environment, you know the usual put your hand out, move nice and slow talk to the dog with you right there holding the dog so that if it does decided to lash out at this child you can prevent it. If the dog cant learn to control himself around the girl then keep him put up when she is around, you don't want to risk him biting the girl because then you will have to put your dog down and possibly have a law suit. It's not worth it. Lock him up when she comes over and make sure she knows not to go into the yard if he is out without letting you know.

To a dog, a young child is not really human -- doesn't smell right and doesn't act right. This can be overcome by sufficient socialization as a puppy.

Did she stare into his eyes? Attempt to pat him on the head? Not every kid knows how to behave around dogs. Pretty easy to imagine he saw her as a threat.

Dog Snaps At Kids

have a baby fence and have the girl stand behind it. hjave your dog smell her. let the get used to

Is she Asian?

I had a Red Healer as a kid and it used to target asian people. It must be a particular smell they have.

kid did something

all dogs need training, exercise, socialization, grooming and vet care

all kids need training how to treat animals

supervision when around new kids