I can tell you first hand that this bullsh@t is just that!
When a 6 pound Yorkie can growl at your child without a good “pop” on the nose or anywhere else, THAT dog WILL bite the child eventually unless you either kill it or train it otherwise.
This is NOT a humble opinion.
Yeah, I completely disagree with no physical punishment. You should have to beat your dog, but in nature, the alpha does indeed use physical methods for behavior teaching.
A pop on the nose does wonders for teaching a young puppy.
One additional thing I would add to many of the steps above: Give and take food one a regular basis when they are young. This will pay off huge when your dog gets something it shouldn’t (something poisonous or maybe your neighbors cat) and you go to take it from him.
I think the point is, don’t beat your dog if you find it doing it’s business on the floor. You don’t beat or hit a cowering dog. But sometimes you have to face down an aggressive one. And you have to face it DOWN.
Better than hitting it, is a sharp correction and then hold it down until it succumbs. They hate that worse than a hit. Have your child hold it down and the lesson will be a good one.
Remember, with dogs it’s all “pride” not the pain. The “holding down” follows the lesson through better than screaming or hitting. The problem is, following through like that takes a little work and time.
I haven’t had this problem in years, but my Akitas used to get into vicious fights. One ripped the topped off the others head once.
At times like that, rules about “not hitting” go out the window. You just have to get them apart. But then I made the bigger one lie down and let the other one sniff him. And then I took the little one for stitches. 28 of them.
But I guess I must have handled it right, because they love people, and as far as each other, we haven’t had a fight in years.
We have an Australian cattle dog. Can you say “herding”? Great dog but any running child is fair game for turning back toward the house. He is finally not chasing the bikes in the cul-de-sac now...mostly.
I found my son letting the dog sleep on top of him and told my kid that he'd have to undo that because now the dog thinks HE is ‘top dog’. What I did when the dog was young was to GENTLY hold the dog down on his back with my hand on his throat. (NO, not choking! Duh). Took several times over the course of a couple weeks, but the message got through and it stuck. You might try getting between the dog and his food too.
That dog will do anything I tell it now. Smartest dang dog I've ever seen. I have to walk him on a leash because of the law, but he doesn't need it. When we go to the dog park and you hear all those people screaming at their dogs, its sad to me. I just whistle and ‘Rock’ hauls butt right to me. Great dog. Train’em young and enjoy them the rest of their lives.
Of course its not, you establish dominance by being dominant, not by being passive.. what crap. Most dogs readily comply once they know the pecking order, others will need to be reminded.
If you have one that needs to be reminded too often, best to find another dog especially if you have children.
I call ‘um kick dogs cause they should be drop kicked to the other side of the street. It's not the dogs fault. I've told more than one that they need to watch “The Dog Whisperer.”
I've got a Carolina Black & Tan, a Curb Setter and a Golden Retriever - that has no brains.
Six-pound Yorkies should not be around kids. A dog that small is in survival mode around any kid younger than 10 years old. It is dog abuse to put little kids around Yorkies and other tiny breeds.