please help

i have a almost 2year old australian shepherd female who has always been
very sweet passive and playful, we have 2 children. We moved and have
neighbors and my dog barks like crazy and has actually tried to bite
these kids if they come in my yard or even if they are riding there
bikes. its only these kids she does fine with any other children even
strangers, I am so afraid she will bite them. What could have
possibally made her change like this, these kids are very nice and the
only difference is they are black and she hasnt hardly been around
black people alot. I just want to know how to make her stop acting like
this. Her personality changes completly when she sees these kids and my
children like to play with these kids.

montana wildhack...

Your dog does not know how you want her to behave and by allowing her
to be loose and unsupervised in the yard, she is making up her own
rules of behavior.

She may have known how to behave before, but now she's in a different
place and dogs frequently don't understand that the old rules apply in
the new place.

If the old rules applied, then surely you would have reinforced them in
the new place. I'm assuming this didn't happen because you trusted her
previous behavior. So you let the training slide and you let her figure
things out for herself.

So, as flick mentioned, quit letting your dog run loose outside
(although I would suggest that until you do a lot more training, you
never let her run outside by herself). You need to introduce her to the
neighbors and you need to direct her interaction and behavior with
them. So that means keeping her on a leash and in control. You seem to
indicate that the bikes are an issue, so there are training methods
that will help your dog get over the excitement of seeing the spinning
wheels.

Aussies are very active, smart, busy dogs and they need physical and
mental exercise.

One way to begin to deal with this stuff is to physically exercise your
dog and then work on obedience training.

Training can help you, your family and your dog (and the neighbors).

flick...

I'm undecided on whether or not skin color makes that type of a difference
to dogs, so I'll leave that one be.

First thing you need to do, quit letting your dog run around loose when your
kids have company outside. Put her in the house.

You'll stand to lose her and see her put to sleep if she bites somebody,
maybe sued and maybe even charged criminally, so put her in the house. Put
up a fence with a gate you can lock. Don't leave her outside even in the
fenced yard if you can't supervise her. If your kids' friends come in the
house to play, put this dog in a crate so she can't hurt anybody.

Then, best thing to do would be to consult a good trainer and solve the
problem. In the meantime, don't give the dog the opportunity to bite
anybody. Please. She might pay with her life.

flick 100785