If you had a dog when you brought home your child

Did you have any issues with growling ?


My dog is a love love, huge mush. LOVES kids. LOVES people. He has loved her since the day she came home. If she cried in her infant swing, he would sit by her and lick her feet (his way of trying to help). Never showed any jealousy.
Fast forward to 9 months old, She's crawling. She crawls over to him. She likes to touch his feet.
He usually is fine with it.

However, twice he gave a low, short warning growl to her(probably with the span of a month). I immediately corrected him and once had him go lay on his bed, second time sent him outside.

Yesterday, he gave more of a growl (not what I would consider his usual warning growl). I again corrected him & sent him outside. He knows he has done wrong, stays outside and doesnt bark to come back inside.

I really dont think he would hurt her. I think he is just getting annoyed with her and adjusting to the fact that she is mobile. But I'd like to make sure I'm adressing this issue correctly.

I'd love to hear if you had issues, what you did. IF it ever advanced to anything else.


-I've set the rule that if he is on his bed in the living room, she can not touch him. I feel he needs his own space, where he can relax.
-I've never left her alone with any of my animals at anytime.
-when he lets her touch or is nice to her, I praise him.

I'm going to stop her from touching him multiple times.
But on the other side, I dont want to live in fear. Or have the dog think he can do this.

I know you have to set the Hierarchy in the house & let the dog know he is not above the baby.

sorry so long, thanks for reading.

Re: If you had a dog when you brought home your child

bump

no one had this problem ?

Re: If you had a dog when you brought home your child

MIL has a dog that growls at my nephews who are 1 and 3 when they pull his tail, step on him, try to ride him etc etc.
It makes me SUPER nervous and Im wondering when my DD gets older and is mobile what will happen as MIL watches DD.
Dont think he would actually bite but the fear alone is enough to drive me crazy.
So- no advice- sorry- but I relate.

Re: If you had a dog when you brought home your child

I ma so worried about how our dog will be when DC arrives. DH & I are always talking about this!

Re: If you had a dog when you brought home your child

I replied to you on pets. Don't worry, can easily be worked out.

Re: If you had a dog when you brought home your child

Message edited 6/25/2010 1:07:31 PM.

Re: If you had a dog when you brought home your child

My dog hasn't done this but I do know of a dog that started acting like that out of the blue. It turned out that the dog was ill, so the children bothering him made him feel even worse. If you can't explain the dogs behavior otherwise, you might want to bring him to the vet, just to make sure everything is oK.

Re: If you had a dog when you brought home your child

We have two dogs. Our Puggle Henry is fine with Chelsea. Jake not so much. He was fine when she wasn't mobile but once she started walking it became a problem. For the most part he ignores her but once she fell on him and he snapped at her. Ever since then we keep them separated. I wasn't taking any chances and it was really scary the one time it did happen. Usually she is in the den and he lays under the table in the kitchen.

It sucks. I am always telling him to go lay down or for her to stay away from Jake. He is 10 years old and a rottie chow so I didn't think re-homing him was an option. We are just very vigilant in keeping her away from him. He never approaches her except when she is in her highchair and throws him food. I think that the one time she fell on him it startled him and that is why he barked at her. It was enough however to scare the crap out of me and never to allow that situation to happen again.

I think the rules you set in place are good. Just make sure you keep on top of them.



ETA: She fell on him when she was one and now she is 2.5 and we have never had another incident. (knock on wood)

Message edited 6/25/2010 1:11:09 PM.

Re: If you had a dog when you brought home your child

Luna was OK with Madelyn until she got mobile. Then we had some issues. One day she growled and "snapped" at Madelyn because Mads got too close to her.

We called BarkBusters immediately. They explained about dogs' heirarchy and that children are ALWAYS considered lower in the pack order at least until the child is bigger than the dog. It is the responsibility of the pack leaders (the adults) to protect the lower members of the pack, and to "correct" poor behavior. When Luna snapped at my DD, she was "correcting" bad behavior.

We ALWAYS make sure that Luna is included in "family time." We wanted her to associate our children with love and fun. They are never seperated, but never left alone together. Madelyn is also in charge of feeding Luna now (under my or DH's watchful eyes of course).

Luna is very good with our girls now. No growling and she really seems to enjoy them, especially our younger DD who loves to hug Luna.

Re: If you had a dog when you brought home your child

Message edited 4/1/2014 10:35:08 PM.

Re: If you had a dog when you brought home your child

op PLEASE TRAIN YOUR dd ITS THE ONLY WAY.

Message edited 6/25/2010 1:25:00 PM.

Re: If you had a dog when you brought home your child

Posted by Goobster

Posted by BethanyLynn

MIL has a dog that growls at my nephews who are 1 and 3 when they pull his tail, step on him, try to ride him etc etc.
It makes me SUPER nervous and Im wondering when my DD gets older and is mobile what will happen as MIL watches DD.
Dont think he would actually bite but the fear alone is enough to drive me crazy.
So- no advice- sorry- but I relate.

Your MIL needs to address this. No child should be allowed to do these things to a dog. That is cruel to the dog, who will eventually respond in the only way he knows how (nip, bite, growl etc).

Please tell your MIL to stop allowing the children to tease and abuse the dog b/c it will be your MIL's fault if the dog reacts to protect himself from children treating him like a punching bag. And then if something happens EVERYONE will blame the dog when the problem is the humans not stopping the children from abusing the dog.

Teach your DD not to tease the dog or do those things to the dog and it sounds like this dog is an amaing dog to put up with this ALL this time.And if my MIL was not able to teach my child proper manners and how to treat an animal, I would not trust my MIL to watch my DC. THe issue is with MIL and NOT the dog.

You'd growl too if you were being
ridden, your hair pulled, etc.

Re: If you had a dog when you brought home your child

Posted by Diana712

Posted by Goobster

Posted by BethanyLynn

MIL has a dog that growls at my nephews who are 1 and 3 when they pull his tail, step on him, try to ride him etc etc.
It makes me SUPER nervous and Im wondering when my DD gets older and is mobile what will happen as MIL watches DD.
Dont think he would actually bite but the fear alone is enough to drive me crazy.
So- no advice- sorry- but I relate.

Your MIL needs to address this. No child should be allowed to do these things to a dog. That is cruel to the dog, who will eventually respond in the only way he knows how (nip, bite, growl etc).

Please tell your MIL to stop allowing the children to tease and abuse the dog b/c it will be your MIL's fault if the dog reacts to protect himself from children treating him like a punching bag. And then if something happens EVERYONE will blame the dog when the problem is the humans not stopping the children from abusing the dog.

Teach your DD not to tease the dog or do those things to the dog and it sounds like this dog is an amaing dog to put up with this ALL this time.And if my MIL was not able to teach my child proper manners and how to treat an animal, I would not trust my MIL to watch my DC. THe issue is with MIL and NOT the dog.

You'd growl too if you were being
ridden, your hair pulled, etc.

OMG!!! I would really be very very angry if my dd did even less than these things to my baby dog lola.. I have been on top of my dd from day one not to hurt my dog.. My dog has never growled since the day I have her .. But I would expect her to bite my dd if she was hurting her.. This would be no ones fault but my own.. How could your MIL allow this to happen??? PLEASE try to talk to her if you can.. I can almost assure a bite somewhere down the road with that kind of behavior.. ESPECIALLY as the dog grows old .. This is so sad I waNT TO CRY!!!!

Message edited 6/25/2010 1:37:14 PM.

Re: If you had a dog when you brought home your child

Message edited 6/25/2010 1:51:06 PM.

Re: If you had a dog when you brought home your child

Posted by BethanyLynn

Posted by Diana712

Posted by Goobster

Posted by BethanyLynn

MIL has a dog that growls at my nephews who are 1 and 3 when they pull his tail, step on him, try to ride him etc etc.
It makes me SUPER nervous and Im wondering when my DD gets older and is mobile what will happen as MIL watches DD.
Dont think he would actually bite but the fear alone is enough to drive me crazy.
So- no advice- sorry- but I relate.

Your MIL needs to address this. No child should be allowed to do these things to a dog. That is cruel to the dog, who will eventually respond in the only way he knows how (nip, bite, growl etc).

Please tell your MIL to stop allowing the children to tease and abuse the dog b/c it will be your MIL's fault if the dog reacts to protect himself from children treating him like a punching bag. And then if something happens EVERYONE will blame the dog when the problem is the humans not stopping the children from abusing the dog.

Teach your DD not to tease the dog or do those things to the dog and it sounds like this dog is an amaing dog to put up with this ALL this time.And if my MIL was not able to teach my child proper manners and how to treat an animal, I would not trust my MIL to watch my DC. THe issue is with MIL and NOT the dog.

You'd growl too if you were being
ridden, your hair pulled, etc.

OMG!!! I would really be very very angry if my dd did even less than these things to my baby dog lola.. I have been on top of my dd from day one not to hurt my dog.. My dog has never growled since the day I have her .. But I would expect her to bite my dd if she was hurting her.. This would be no ones fault but my own.. How could your MIL allow this to happen??? PLEASE try to talk to her if you can.. I can almost assure a bite somewhere down the road with that kind of behavior.. ESPECIALLY as the dog grows old .. This is so sad I waNT TO CRY!!!!

I of course would teach my DD not to do these things. I think you misunderstood me...they kids are not abusing the dog. The 1 year old will grab onto her as he is trying to stand..not purposfully "pull" her hair ans it is not ALL the time as you state. Im talking he may step on her on ACCIDENT- not abusing him! He is only 1. Of course my MIL scolds them not to bother the dog. MIL is VERY capable of caring for children- that is a VERY ignorant statement to make!

Message edited 6/25/2010 1:44:02 PM.

Re: If you had a dog when you brought home your child

Re: If you had a dog when you brought home your child

Posted by Goobster

Posted by BethanyLynn

Posted by Diana712

Posted by Goobster

Posted by BethanyLynn

MIL has a dog that growls at my nephews who are 1 and 3 when they pull his tail, step on him, try to ride him etc etc.
It makes me SUPER nervous and Im wondering when my DD gets older and is mobile what will happen as MIL watches DD.
Dont think he would actually bite but the fear alone is enough to drive me crazy.
So- no advice- sorry- but I relate.

Your MIL needs to address this. No child should be allowed to do these things to a dog. That is cruel to the dog, who will eventually respond in the only way he knows how (nip, bite, growl etc).

Please tell your MIL to stop allowing the children to tease and abuse the dog b/c it will be your MIL's fault if the dog reacts to protect himself from children treating him like a punching bag. And then if something happens EVERYONE will blame the dog when the problem is the humans not stopping the children from abusing the dog.

Teach your DD not to tease the dog or do those things to the dog and it sounds like this dog is an amaing dog to put up with this ALL this time.And if my MIL was not able to teach my child proper manners and how to treat an animal, I would not trust my MIL to watch my DC. THe issue is with MIL and NOT the dog.

You'd growl too if you were being
ridden, your hair pulled, etc.

OMG!!! I would really be very very angry if my dd did even less than these things to my baby dog lola.. I have been on top of my dd from day one not to hurt my dog.. My dog has never growled since the day I have her .. But I would expect her to bite my dd if she was hurting her.. This would be no ones fault but my own.. How could your MIL allow this to happen??? PLEASE try to talk to her if you can.. I can almost assure a bite somewhere down the road with that kind of behavior.. ESPECIALLY as the dog grows old .. This is so sad I waNT TO CRY!!!!

I of course would teach my DD not to do these things. I think you misunderstood me...they kids are not abusing the dog. The 1 year old will grab onto her as he is trying to stand..not purposfully "pull" her hair ans it is not ALL the time as you state. Im talking he may step on her on ACCIDENT- not abusing him! He is only 1. Of course my MIL scolds them not to bother the dog. MIL is VERY capable of caring for children- that is a VERY ignorant statement to make!

It wasn't a misunderstanding. I read what you wrote about what the children were doing to the dog. Nothing else was written. If you meant otherwise, there was no way for anyone to imply that from your post. And if your MIL is allowing a child to abuse a dog (which is what it seemed like from your post) then it's not an ignorant statement to make at all.

Re: If you had a dog when you brought home your child

We have a 2 month old pitbull and my DS will be a month old on Wed. Our pup is very playful and wants to nibble on his feet but since his teeth are super sharp we minimize contact. If he hears us giving the kids loving than he starts crying to be part of it also so we let him out and all bond together.

I hope he doesn't get angry towards baby as time goes by....

Re: If you had a dog when you brought home your child