Babies and terriers- help please!

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BWa

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So my lovely little daughter is 10 days old and we have been home a week. Our border collie has been brilliant and taken to her just great without much fuss. Our JRT, on the otherhand has freaked me out. He is a very sociable dog (aged 7) and a has never, ever shown aggression towards a person. However we put the baby in her playpen and let him in for a sniff around her and he wagged his tail and pricked his ears and got a bit manic in exactly the same way he does when he is ratting! This freaked me out so he got moved over to the in laws (50 yards away, all on a farm together and he used to live with them)
We have tried again a few times and he has sniffed her closely, even gave her hands a lick and showed no agression but is a bit manic and hyper about it all.
He is also getting miserable in the other house as he clearly knows his pack is changing. And moving him out so quickly probably wasn't the best reaction but I panicked and I'm not going to risk it with my baby.
So any suggestions, how do we start again?
He is fine walking with me and the pram, shows no interest. I was thinking of putting one of her vests in his crate so he can get used to the smell, anything else?
 
can he not live at your in laws and be walked with you-personally if you have somewhere else he can live that is a good home then that is what I would do. either that or you need to keep him crated a lot of the time you can put baby clothes in crate at in laws and he can get used to baby smells on everyone and be around the baby when you walk him, play iot by ear he may improve as she gets older and becomes more part of every day life. but maybe the dog will have more freedom in the house at inlaws and you can all relax a bit.

tiny baby and a terrier showing interest are not a good combination and it sounds like you have a safe route as an option I would take it
 
Very tricky, no real advice but actually I do think you did the right thing by removing him quickly - better safe than sorry.

Perhaps keep doing what you are doing - dog walks with the pram, supervised sniffing and licking but leave him with the in-laws - it might be hard on him but if he used to live with them it shouldn't take too long for him to adjust. They are only following their instincts but I believe I read that a baby does indeed smell and squeak a bit too much like a baby rat as far as a terrier breed is concerned, so I wouldn't risk it.

See what others think - my daughter was around 4 when we got a JRT so I can't speak from experience, I do know though that if our current JRT was the size of a rottweiler he would have been put down by now due to the amount of people he has nipped/bitten.
 
Are you sure he's taking interest as in he actually wants to eat baby? My terrier bitch looks very interested around kids/ babies but that's okay because she loves them so much and knows that with children comes fluffy toys/ food.
 
I have 3 lively JRTs and was worried about them when I had a baby last year, they had never had much interaction with children and some of the noises he made were quite squeaky and it did make them get quite excited at first. What I did was to put a barrier up to the living room and to upstairs so that they heard the noises he made etc but there was no risk to him, I then introduced them gradually over a period of months always with supervision I never left them alone with him. After a while they just seemed to understand he was part of the pack and got used to the noises he made. He is now 15 months and they love him, they follow him round eating up the crumbs he drops!
 
NellRosk said:
Are you sure he's taking interest as in he actually wants to eat baby? My terrier bitch looks very interested around kids/ babies but that's okay because she loves them so much and knows that with children comes fluffy toys/ food.
Click to expand...

This.

My terrier doesn't understand little people. He thinks they're toys and wants to play with them - but has NEVER shown any sign of aggression. He doesn't know his own strength and would easily jump up and knock them over, then scramble all over them but in a playful licking way - so I keep my distance from little people. If they want to say hello, I hold him by his collar so he stays down but he only ever wants fuss - and not to eat them!

Cats on the other hand...
 
If you have a baby gate or could get one, you could put the baby in the playpen, the gate up and have the dog in the next room (obviously always with your supervision) so he can see, smell and hear the baby but not get so up close - and hopefully therefore not get so excited? Then reward calm behaviour - perhaps give him a Kong to distract him? I don't know if you watched 'The Secret Life of Dogs' on C4 recently - they were explaining how to use a Kong and a new bed or mat to teach a dog to settle down and relax. They were using it to teach a dog to relax before the owners went out, but you might want to look at this as you could adapt this technique to teach the dog to settle in the presence of the baby.

I think you did the right thing in taking him out of that situation, as it gave you all breathing and thinking space - now you can work towards having him back home again.
 
I don't have kids but if there is a baby crying on tv my jrt reacts the same way as if he heard a rabbit in distress type sound. To me he sees that sound as prey.

Then again he has an extremely high prey drive which we don't discourage as we want him to hunt and kill things.
 
Thanks guys, I do think that he isn't going to do anything bad (as he didn't when he had the chance sniffing her the other night) but hopefully he just isn't sure what she is yet. He can stay at the in laws but last night he did his escaping trick last night and took their younger border terrier on a jaunt, which is an old habit of his, so now they are being twitchy about him there!
So the plan is continue with supervised intros and get a stair gate and once baby is in a better bedtime routine he can come in once she is in bed. He is kennelled during the day and sleeps in a crate so it's just evenings when he is about in the house.
Thanks again.
 
Amymay, she is in there as it is a dog free zone! She is put in there for nap time during the day, as i am in the same room as her it seems like a good idea and as does everyone else who has seen the set up. I have a young border collie and said JRT, we always planned for her to have a safe zone when the dogs are in the house.
 
Good idea using the play pen as a dog free zone, we did just that with our two from birth.

Our then JRT took to the new arrivals really well, but we had to rehome our collie/whippet. He was a lovely dog but very sensitive and hated raised voices, so the sound of a baby crying sent him into hyper upset mode. We found a lovely home for him with a single lady and lots of cats!

BWa you sound very sensible, take it carefully and watchfully.
 
I too think you've done all the right things :)

My dog has shown no interest like that, other than wanting a sniff and to clean all the food off I've dropped on her while bfing he shows no interest (and is learning that me getting the sling out means walkies :rolleyes3: ) I don't keep my baby in a playpen, but when unsupervised to sleep she is in her basket on a landing area at the bottom of the stairs, fenced off with a stair gate so a similar set up.

I don't feel nervous with mine around her, he's a big dog and not the type, although he is squirrel focused and still obviously a dog so I won't be getting blasé. My sisters terrier type seems ok with, not that interested on the couple of times they've met, however my mums dog (gsd x) did show the same interest as your jrt so ill be careful about that before any visits to grandmas if I'm not there.
 
Put a muzzle on when introducing to babies if you are not sure, stair gate to separate them when not muzzled. After witnessing an awful scene regarding dog and baby I would never take the risk.
 
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