Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi everyone,

We have a 6 year old retriever mix rescue, who is very sweet. He has been our only child for four years. He sleeps on our bed. He is good with children and toddlers - mostly he ignores them, otherwise he is gentle with them if they try to pet him. But we have never tried him with babies/infants. He is good with other dogs, but competes for attention if other dogs try to get close to his mommy. When he thinks other dogs compete for attention, sometimes he snaps at them, but he never attacked nor bit other dogs. Generally he is the non-confrontational type who runs away when a tiny dog barks at him.

Now, we are expecting a baby in a few months. I would like to prepare him for this newcomer. Any suggestion on when to start, what to do at various stages, and maybe book to read?

Thanks in advance

Here is a link to my article Before the New Baby Comes Home:

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=1409&S=1&SourceID=47

Also, at the link with my signature below, there is a long table of contents of alphabetized article titles (including that one). There are also three articles about Children and dogs, one with the title Choosing a Dog for Children, but the other two have child as the first word--they are right together in the list.

You will need to keep other dogs away from your dog around the child. This is often not a matter of training, but of handling practices.
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Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition, and the free Canine Behavior Series articles at http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=SRC&S=1&SourceID=47

Thank you so much Kathy for the useful advice and reading recommendation!!

Juliana

I've seen a show in which a trainer prepared a dog for how a new baby tends to pull fur by gently tugging on the dog's fur and ears and immediately giving it a treat. This helps the dog get used to being pulled on and helped him not to see it as a threat.