Growling!

Question
Hi I have a 7 year old boxer and a one year old son.. a couple of months ago our son grabbed Blue(our dog's) ear and he growled, but it was more of a painful growl than a warning one. Then a couple of days ago our son was walking around him and it was fine for about five minutes, then all of a sudden he looked down at him and growled at him. Is this a problem? Our boxer has had numerous operations due to tumors and hes losing hair on both of his sides. He does have flaky skin and it looks like cysts are forming and then scabbing over. He is malting ALOT!We dont know whether he is now a danger to our child.. Please help!

Answer
Hi Laura. It worries me that the dog is acting this way. I'm in no way saying that he's a bad dog, it's hard on an older dog to put up with young kids. I have an almost 13 year old Boxer myself, and an almost 4 year old son. Older dogs have aches and pains that we don't know about, and don't appreciate a toddler pulling and yanking on them. For now, I wouldn't trust dog and baby together. Try your best to keep them a apart. And seriously think about having your dog checked out to see if he has any other medical problems that could be causing him pain that you don't know about. That may be what's going on with the dog. The baby hurt him once, and maybe the dog puts the baby and pain together. You may have to end up keeping baby gates up to seperate them from each other. At least until the baby is plenty old enough to understand how to properly treat dogs. On one hand, no dog is ever worth a child getting hurt. On the other, older dogs should be allowed to live in peace. I'd take the dog to the vet to see if something else is going on, and use the baby gates.