My dog bites

Question
QUESTION: My golden cocker spaniel is nearly 2 years old and it is a male.  He is also spade.  He first bite a child, then a senior friend of us that he did not know and today he bit a client of mine(she is a elderly women) She does not like dogs.  Why did he start biting.  He was very sick a while ago and been in animalhospital for 3 days, he have eaten meat with bones, and since then he start the biting.  Please help if you can, because i love my dog very much

ANSWER: I'd like to know, Cathy, if these incidents were all after his hospitalization?  And after you began feeding meaty bones?

Did he ever do this before?  Were these incidents connected to him "protecting" his bone?  Tell me what was going on at the time he bit in each case.
Delores

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: The biting start after hospitalization and after that no bones were fed again. He were not protecting a bone.
1st case:  The unknown child came with a friend and frikkie(the dog) ran to wellcome him, but the boy were afraid of dogs and start running. So Frikkie bite him in the bud.It was bleeding.
2nd case: The couple came to visit and when they come in frikkie ran to the elderly man and then the man wanted to touch frikkie and then he bite him.  Bleeding again on die arm.
3rd case: the elderly women came to the door and i invited her in and ask her if she was afraid of dogs, because then i will lock them up. She said no, but she hates dogs. So frikkie came into the room and wanted to greet, because he jump up to her and she must have pulled her arm away or something, because the next thing i new was he bit her and her arm was bleeding.


Answer
Okay, Cathy.  What do these all have in common?  All strangers !

His last experience with "unknown people" was scary and unpleasant.
And all these 3 incidents were strangers making unexpected moves.

I take it this has been a good boy for the whole time you've had him and this is new behavior?

So what I'd do is this:

Keep Frikkie on leash when around people he doesn't know.  Make him Sit and ask strangers to ignore him.  If someone is arriving at your house - have him on leash - ask them to walk right by him with no chat, petting or even eye contact.  This will make them much less threatening to him.  Go sit down (or whatever) - keep him on leash under your control and IGNORE HIM !  No chat - no petting !

Do not fuss or soothe him around strangers.  You'll need to train him that he is not to greet - he is to sit and stay.  The less strangers attempt to interact with him, the less scary they are.

I think this is fear aggression.  So leash him - do a correction if he strays from a SIT - and let him know his fears are unnecessary
and unacceptable.  When he's on leash he knows you are in command and that will make him feel safer.

Best of luck,
Delores