4 year old needs behavior help

[Hodoubleg]

I got Kooper when he was 6 months old from a family who owned mastiffs but one got kicked by a horse and needed to find a home for Kooper in order to afford/care for his mother. They told me to discipline him the would hold his head down to the ground. Of course I didn't agree with this method, but what could I do? When we brought him home he was wonderful, very timid though. Wen we would take him on walks he would lay down when a car drove by, seemed to me like he was frightened. He slowly began to steer in this direction. He started to not like new people. Mainly men. Also over the years I noticed he doesn't like people who seem to be scared of him. He has never bitten anyone, mostly he just gives a "warning growl" currently he likes my siblings, my wife her siblings my mom and her mom and my best friend.THATS IT! I cannot take him to the vet, when he stepped on a price of glass and needed stitches I have to lay on top of him (I am 6' 4" and weighed 260 at the time) to put a mussel on him and I barely was able to hold him while he was put under anesthesia. I have to avoid people and dogs on walks. I also have a miniature golden doodle who is 2 and they get along great.

Now here is the problem, I have a 15 month old daughter. We have kept the dogs away from her from the most part occasionally letting her explore the GD. The few times I've let her and Kooper together Kooper has accidentally knocked her over, just by not knowing his surroundings and bumping into her. That is the main reason they are separated. My daughter, klaire, has approached Kooper and was "snapped" at twice. The is very scary to me because of the sheer size of his mouth. I would love to be able to solve the problem, but it doesn't look promising. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

ray:

 

[Geisthexe]

Advice on here is truly not gonna solve your problem.

You need to hire a trainer .. Not a fake PetSmart person but a actual dog trainer.

The dog snapping at the child needs to get nipped in the butt now!

I am not sure where you live but if you need help with finding a trainer please let me know

 

[DennasMom]

I'd say the first thing to do would be to be holding your daughter and have Kooper approach you. Much less intimidating or scary to the dog, and gives you much more control over the greeting. Kooper should approach slowly, and sit and wait (you may need to work on all those commands before moving on to the rest of this train of thought)... then you could stoop down and let your daughter just hold her palms out for sniffing... then have her put a treat in the palm of her hand. She needs to move very slowly to not put Kooper on the defensive fight/flight drive. If Kooper takes a treat from her palm - great! game over... separate the two again. Try again the next day, and again the next after that, until Kooper knows that seeing the daughter means "approach calmly and wait for treat".

Eventually, you should be able to have everyone in the same room ignoring each other - the daughter basically being an extension of you... and therefore with 'family' status. Then, as the daughter gets older, have her involved in feeding time and training, too. That will help elevate her to leadership status, not just pack-member.

It's a process, but by no means is this an unsolvable problem - but it will take time, patience and consistency on your part.
As Deb suggests, a good trainer would be a great help, too - and will probably have better recommendations than mine!

On the liking other people part - we've had both ends of the dog spectrum. Our first guardian breed was a very confident 190lb rott/shep/pryn mix. If someone was afraid of him... he wanted to run over and convince them otherwise (a 190lb dog running toward a scared person normally did NOT convince them otherwise... but he did try...).
Later, we had a 100lb great dane/lab mix who was afraid of some strangers, and if those strangers were also frightened or even just unsure of him... that was enough to convince him that he wanted nothing do to with them... and the scaredy bark/back-up dance would emerge for those people.

Good luck!

 

[musicdeb]

What kind of mastiff? Is it a Fila?

Sounds like a lot of fear aggression. Titan hates men and male dogs. When we walk, I have to avoid all men and dogs. I'm aware of it and take appropriate measures.

I agree with Deb, find a professional trainer now. Deb has helped a number of other forum members find a good trainer in their area.