New baby help

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New baby help

dyan

Posted : 10/2/2008 3:24:59 PM

Hey Guys...shifting gears here a bit. My friend Vicki has a new grand baby...actually her first one. And they have two English Spr. Spaniels, Beckham and Mason.
The baby is just home a couple of weeks. The father is in law school and only comes home on weekends. The mom is by herself and the dogs. She has been coming with Vicki a lot because she seems to be going thru "after baby blues!" Anway... Beckham is the problem....he is about 3 maybe 4..not neutered...neither of them are. Vicki described it as: What Beck does is come near the baby and lurch very HARD at the baby. She said that Beckham does NOT do it when either Vicki OR her husband hold the baby...but does when the mom or the dad holds the baby. He licks the babies head when V and her DH are holding her. I don't think they spent any time getting the dogs prepared for this...but not sure. The husband says he is not getting rid of his dogs...( thank goodness for that ) but the mom isn't very patient with the dog...getting mad at him and shewing him away. The fact that he does this only when the babies mom and dad are holding the baby and not others seems to mean something to me...but not sure what. The Mom doesn't feel great now... doesn't have a lot of patience..and the dog is adding to it I guess. Vicki is trying to help....so she asked me if I remember anyone on my forum that had this problem. Does anyone have any suggestions for me to pass along/?

spiritdogs

Posted : 10/2/2008 3:42:15 PM

http://dogsandstorks.com/

Liesje

Posted : 10/2/2008 3:42:55 PM

Mind you I don't have babies (yet) but I know that often when things are carried, they become more like prey to dogs. My dogs are very good about leaving my cats alone, but when I pick up one of my cats, suddendly the dogs are *very* interested in the cat. I've heard of dogs nipping toddlers as they are lifted, or grabbing kids on swings.

I think the dogs need to be trained what TO do. If it were me, I'd start by training a "go to the mat!" so I could have time holding the baby without the dogs being in my space. I would praise and reward anytime they SIT patiently rather than lurch at the baby. Use baby times to proof down-stays (ie, the dog holds a down-stay in a corner of the nursery while mom changes a diaper or nurses).

Start doing more NILIF with the dogs in general. Sounds like maybe they've had their run of the house until this point? They just need some structure and need to be trained a good alternative, not just scolded and corrected.