Hi everyone,

My wife and I just got a 14 week old Boston named Spencer. He is very friendly and playful with everyone except little kids. The first occurrence was when my year and a half old nephew got close to his face and made a high pitched sound. Our boston just growled for a couple of seconds and snapped at my nephew. This seemed weird because at first they both seemed to play well together, and the dog didn't show any signs of being scared. This incident happened the second day that we got him, so we didn't think much of it. Well, couple of days ago we visited another 2 year old nephew of ours, and same thing happened. Don't know if the dog is still adjusting because at home he seems like the most harmless little thing we have ever seen. Does anybody else experience the same thing? Anything that we should do to make him comfortable around kids?

hi! children and dogs should not be able to get into each others face. children are not dominant in a dogs eyes until their about 14 years old. your puppy warned the baby that he didn't like the situation. because the baby can't read the bodylanguage of the pup and there fore didn't leave the puppy acted the only way he knew how. a correction. dogs give eachother such a correction in nature. that the baby yelled is also a nasty sound for your puppy. your puppy has had a bad experience with children. don't let the child near your puupy. you need to protect your pup from the child aswell as the child for the pup. you should introduce your pup on a positive manner by giving him a treat when the child is near. don't let the child go to the pup but wait until the pup goes to the child. then praise him. your puppy acts normal and it's up to you to guide the association with children. never scold the pup when he acts like this this will enhance the behavior! he only acts like this because he can't go away.......
very normal behavior!

Thanks for your help. Last evening when my father in law came to visit, Spencer growled and wouldn't leave my wife for a second. It seems as if he got really comfortable with us in our house and is afraid of everybody. My father in law was the first person to pick him up the day we got him. Spencer was really friendly with him that day. I really hope to correct this behaior before it gets out of hand.

where did you get your pup? how was he kept? has he seen a lot in his 8th till 12th week? you need to go everywhere with you puppy! take him out let him meet peaple. was he kept in a dark place? was his mother present? was she scared or agressive?

Bostons are supposed to have great dispositions even around kids. I bought 2 of mine and brought them home on the same day. Both had very different personalities. Buster is afraid of his own shadow (till this day lol and he's 5) and Bandit will lick you to death no matter who you are. My daughter was 10 when we got them and I swear that kid literally tortured them with love. She thought they were her dress up dolls. Buster has a video wearing a bandana on his head and dancing to "brass monkey". If he was a shephard, my daughter would have lost her face already. Both dogs (and now the new puppy) sleeps with her in her bed and they cry and sit by her door when she is gone to school. Not sure why you dog responded that way but perhaps as Esther said, it has to do with how it was treated before it entered your home. Perhaps you should keep the dog away from kids until it gets comfortable in its new home.

As good as my dogs are, we still keep an eye on them around strangers but so far, as I said, the most they have done is lick them to death...we are so blessed. I now have 3 kids and 3 dogs....no more for me!!