Tips for living in harmony with big bouncy dogs and a baby

Do you know what? This dog forum never ceases to amaze me with its width of knowledge and folk who are willing to give up their time and energy to help others........... what a nice bunch you lot are!




PS: CC or Cayla expect a 30kg wriggling box in the post anyday now! :)
 
lexiedhb said:
Do you know what? This dog forum never ceases to amaze me with its width of knowledge and folk who are willing to give up their time and energy to help others........... what a nice bunch you lot are!




PS: CC or Cayla expect a 30kg wriggling box in the post anyday now! :)
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Lol, you can add me to the visit list but you are not allowed to post:p
 
Bonus about all this dog training is that you can transfer your new command skills to baby...:p my son sits to command, waits for his dinner and walks to heel ;):D Not quite there with the pee on command but he's working on it definitely clean in the house. However we are still working on his getting off the sofa skills (thinks its a trampoline!) and when baby becomes a toddler they can help with the dog training too, they make fabulous dummy throwers and helping with dinner is a laugh :) His hand signals are definitely clearer than mine :eek::rolleyes:
 
You can also fly into one of our delightful and well-equipped sheds...sorry, airports.

I did actually mutter to a woman on a work trip complaining about her three year old child being hyper when she came home from work, that she should stick him in a crate for a bit to calm him down. In my defence I was half asleep and dribbling on a train window and I don't think she heard me.
 
CaveCanem said:
You can also fly into one of our delightful and well-equipped sheds...sorry, airports.

I did actually mutter to a woman on a work trip complaining about her three year old child being hyper when she came home from work, that she should stick him in a crate for a bit to calm him down. In my defence I was half asleep and dribbling on a train window and I don't think she heard me.
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LMAO re the shed:D:D:D:D

Funny when I have worked with someone trianing their dog they near enough always say *do you train kids*:confused: a lady on the phone asked this tonight when was givingher advise................ERM.....No! would be the answer!
I also get the *if you had a kid you could put it in a crate* :D....Obs I would:p but it would b a baby crate or what ever they are that form a hexagonal prsion on the living room floor (good for me) means the dogs can still lounge about without the kid pestering them :D:D easier to inprison 1 kid than 9 dogs:p
 
My friend recently had a baby and thought what a great opputunity to introduce Dylan and Teal.


Well they were not worried about baby although Dylan whined a bit when baby cried and I think genuinely looked a bit worried at the new baby noise. We just told him "on yer bed" which means lay down, stay down and chill out, clicked and treated after a few minutes of laying down. We use "beds" for in your crate/ on your dog bed.

However Dylan, Teal + labrador and cocker friend found the nappy bin........nuff said........lesson learnt nicely in advance.....
 
Don't joke, I've known all sorts of horsemen who corral their kids! One I worked for put that click together matting in their tack room and gated the door - voila, instant playpen.

It sounds like you are in excellent hands! My own dogs are atrocious so I won't offer anything else helpful, but I might suggest you write down a overview of what you'd like to accomplish with the dogs before the baby comes. My thing is horses not dogs but I often get new clients who contact me initially by email or have conversations with existing clients about long range plans, lameness issues and other "non lesson" issues and many people find the act of writing it all out very helpful. I know it sounds obvious but planning it out can help you focus on the important bits, show up patterns etc.
 
Well, since I'm up for my nightly 2am vom vest, I thought I'd catch myself up on this again :)

LOL at the idea of Cayla crate training kids. Make it happen, thats what I say... :D :D

...but everyone needs to stop trying to steal her till after she's kicked me & wolf boy back into shape ;)
CC if you weren't so far away I'd be demanding your help too, consider this your lucky escape :p

TS, thanks for your advice. I think you're right about setting myself some goals & writing them down. I shall do just that (and then post them off to reach a leather clad Cayla so thst she can make it all happen :D )
Thanks everyone, as usual the AAD army sets me back on the straight & narrow :)
 
Well I've kept out of this so far as you've had some excellent advice and I'm sure Super Nanny Cayla will be able to sort it. I remember you stressing big time about Tyson coming to the bbq, and he was as good as gold, so with some work I am sure you won't have a problem.
Although it was quite a while ago I didn't do anything to prepare my dogs for my arrival home with a new baby, but they had met lots of children at shows and things. One thing I did do was leave the baby out in the car (with her dad) when we got back home after a 7 day stay in hospital , and make a big fuss of my dogs. I didn't want to be pushing them away on first greeting cos I was holding a baby, once they had settled down then I brought baby in and they had a sniff but that was it. In fact my one bitch became a bit overzealous in protecting "her" baby, no one else other than family was allowed near the pram.
You have loads of time to remind him of his manners, with all the help you have on hand I am sure he will be fine.
 
MM you say about the bitch guarding the pram how did you over come it?

Dylan can get like that over his king but it simply goes away and a "leave it " command is given. Can't do that with a baby. It's my main concern that Dylan won't let strangers near a baby because he has already shown this behaviour.

I'm not pregnant but getting married next year......
 
TarrSteps said:
Don't joke, I've known all sorts of horsemen who corral their kids! One I worked for put that click together matting in their tack room and gated the door - voila, instant playpen.
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I've seen someone arrive in a 6 horse lorry at a BS show, unload all the horses, stick a cage (playpen) in the back, put the kids in and get on with competing - I was impressed :D
 
She generally didn't guard as in showing aggression, just lay nearby keeping a very close eye on everyone. I didn't realise at first that she would protect her so much, but then my sister in law went to pick baby up out of the pram, and I saw my bitch's expression change.:eek: Luckily she was very well trained so I was able to call her too me and put her out of the room, don't think sil even realised she had been close to possibly being chomped. From then on I just made sure she wasn't put under that pressure again, it was alright when we were out and about as I was able to just tell her "no" if anyone came up to the pram. She did look after my daughter throughout her life, she adored other children who came to play but I made sure she was never out with them when they were all playing as I suspect if H had screamed or been knocked over the cavalry would have piled in!
 
Congrats :)

I would add on to what everyone else has said that as well as keeping tyson calm etc, to also be totally sure of his leave and down commands.

Hunter was not interested in baby until i picked the baby up, then it was very very interesting to him. He is a neurotic idiot at the best of times most commands take at least 10 seconds to rattle round his skull before he acts but, as i was firmer with these two commands they are responded to quicker. Like an idiot i only taught them AFTER baby got here.

My son is now nearly 19 months old and the dog is very good with him. (im sure they share the same brain cell). Although they still have to have a time out from each other.
 
Fools Motto said:
Or Victoria Stilwell?? .
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The way she would do this is, get a friend to come round. Totally ignore the dogs, dont shout, dont talk to them. When they jump up the friend turns back on them and doesnt make eye contact and neither do you.

This takes time its not a quick fix. The more you lock dogs away the more upset they get.
 
Loads of good advice so far.....I would add the following:

If you can, get recordings of the noises from new born babies from friends you meet at ante natal classes......they will be different to the crying doll.

Also, assuming you are going for a hospital birth, get someone to bring back some dirty nappies and clothe the crying doll in them prior to your return home with the new baby.
 
I have a lab and a JRT and a 16 month old little girl. Before she came along I made sure I brushed up on the leave commands and other things, and made sure they were ok with being shut in the kitchen when visitors came. They have always had crates. I also had dog walker to come regularly as I couldnt walk far in late pregnancy - this has been a godsend since she was born as there were days I just couldnt get out for various reasons.
We made our dining room into a play room with a high gate so thatI could be in there with baby and the dogs weren't just confined to the kitchen all day.
If we are all in the living room, the dogs go in a playpen where they feel safe and can be with us and it also means I am not constantly nagging them or my daughter to be gentle or leave the dogs alone!
The most important thing I have been advised though is that the dogs will present the behaviour that they get most attention (therefore reward) for. EVEN if it seems like it is negative attention to you. So, if you find yourself constantly telling your dogs to do this, do that, stop this, stop that, they may just carry on doing it because they are getting your attention. I found this is really exagerated when you have a screaming baby and sleep deprivation.
The biggest lightbulb moment for me was to stop reacting to the 'bad' behaviour - you do correct it, but not by telling them off verbally. Then, always ensure you praise the dog whenever it is in a calm relaxed state and doing desired behaviour. If a dog always gets your attention when it is in a high energy state, it will think that this is how you want it to behave.
This works really well when you want to reward them for being calm and quite around the baby - and is REALLY hard to keep up when you are knackered and your baby takes all your attention and the last thing you thing about doing hen the dog is actually sitting quietly, is giving the dog your attention!
Also, we avoid rewarding the dogs with food when doing 'baby' training because it helps them not to associate babies with being able to nick food off them and don't have any dog toys in the house, so the dogs don't get confused when they are suddenly not allowed to play with that nice squeaky ball that was a 1st bday present! We had help from a really good behaviour expert for some of this. PM me if you want the website to read more.
 
Lala - I'm glad you made this thread :p We have been practising 'door' calmness (Not going overly well so far) and bouncing on and off the furniture at will is now a no go (Well it was supposed to be anyway...)

Fingers crossed B will be fine with the baby, I need to invest in a dolly!
 
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