German Shepherds and Children Part 5: The Little Girl in the Pink Pants

Having had only positive experiences with German Shepherds during my own childhood, I expected Prince to love children...especially since he seemed to love almost everyone else so much.  At first, it seemed he did.  During the first year I walked Prince, we actually met a small boy in the park that Prince was delighted to meet.  Therefore, the first time a small child happened to wander past my yard unattended, I actually smiled in anticipation of the delight that she and Prince would find in each other.  As she toddled past my back yard fence, I calmly waited for Prince to notice her, and smiled as he rushed toward her, coming to a stop in front of her inside the fence.

I can still remember that long moment as her tiny head turned toward him, and his giant head loomed over her.  For a second, I thought she was going to smile, and maybe Prince did, too, because his tail wagged the slightest bit.

Then she screamed.

I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that she was terrified by the sight of an animal 10 times larger than herself, but Prince took her reaction very personally.  He began to bark at her...loudly...and since he was standing immediately before her, the noise must have been deafening.  The poor little thing turned to flee, still screaming, and suddenly (and unfortunately) Prince turned into a herding dog.

Every way she tried to run, he was there, his hindquarters up and his head down, barking in her face.  When she turned right, he was there.  When she turned left, he was there.  Eventually her mother heard her and came racing up the street to grab her, paused when she saw Prince, and then, in an act of heroic bravery, dashed forward, grabbed her daughter, and fled.  All the while, the little girl was still screaming and Prince was still barking.

Once his daughter had been rescued, her father came marching toward my house in a fury, probably to chastise me for my dog's behavior.  The only amusing part about the entire incident was that when he saw Prince, he turned on his heel without breaking stride and marched back to his house without saying a word.

Disappointed by Prince's reaction (Prince loves almost everyone!), I discussed it with my sister.  After she discussed it with a friend, she relayed that it was probably the screaming that had gotten Prince so excited, and that was why he had barked at her so much.

At the time, it seemed like a reasonable explanation, or at least one I found vaguely comforting.  As with so many things about Prince, however, it turned out to be an erroneous assumption.