Author: Melissa Cox

Dear reader, thank you for the question and congratulations on your bundle of joy! As a new mother myself, it was very important to me to have a successful union between my son Wyatt (now 8 months) and my Velcro pup, Lily. With Lily having no previous exposure to children and already being an adult dog, I had to have realistic expectations. I had some planning/preparing to do.
Small children can be enormous sources of stress for the canine. We all know that dogs’ senses are much stronger than ours; so the barrage of new smells and deafening cries can weigh heavily on the family dog. The baby’s erratic movements and direct stares (never allow) can all be very intimidating. A dog’s breed, age, socialization, environmental exposure and past experiences can all dictate their reaction to this stressor.
Prior to Wyatt’s arrival, I worked on resolving unsafe attention seeking behaviors, like pawing, jumping, etc. Since Lily has a sensitivity to sounds, I played a low recording of a baby’s cry with increasing volume while administering treats. My husband, while I was still in the hospital, even brought home one of Wyatt’s onesies so she could get acquainted with his smell.
When you come home, it’s important to form very positive associations with the new baby in your dog’s mind. Allow your pup to calmly investigate baby at his own pace. Reward positive interactions with treats and attention. Pet/reward your dog for lying calming at your side while you are holding your baby, take him on his regularly scheduled walk with the baby, etc. We want Fido to learn that GOOD things happen when baby is near. Constant reprimand in proximity of the baby will only serve to confuse and
form negative associations. It’s important to pick your battles and choose management techniques over scolding tailored to your specific situation.
Easing your pup’s anxiety with proper and planned interactions set the positive foundation for your baby becoming mobile; an entirely different topic.

Many dogs have sound phobias. Take a close look at your pup the next time a thunderstorm rolls into your area. Is he panting when he should not be hot or thirsty, repeatedly yawning when he should not be tired, pacing as
though he is looking for an exit or being hypervigilant (looking in many directions)? These are all signs that poor Fido is experiencing some extreme anxiety. Dogs with sound phobias will not get better with reprimand or inundation. In fact, improper exposure with no safe refuge will make the sound phobia much worse.
There are many management techniques that can be adopted to ease your pup’s anxiety, but your empathy is paramount. By providing love and reassurance you are not rewarding the behavior as many believe. The only thing that will reinforce fear is more fear. During a thunderstorm or fireworks event, always make sure your pup is wearing up to date ID tags and you have a current photo of your pup. Exercise your pup very early in the day if you are able to anticipate the event. Allow Fido to find refuge in the innermost and quietest room of your home and turn up all the TVs to drown out the noise.
There are so many tools on the market such as thundershirts, DAP diffusers, essential oils, bioacoustic music for dogs (Through the Dog’s Ear), etc. that have proven clinically effective. In a few rare cases, the fear may be so extreme that prescription medication may be needed. These are all management techniques however, not to be seen as a cure.
In order to rehabilitate the dog’s sound phobia, you must change the emotional state of the dog. You must condition the dog to have a positive association with the thunderstorm, rather than a fear association. This can be done by using counter conditioning techniques in conjunction with desensitization. www.throughadogsear.com has a wonderful collection of CDs, “Canine Noise Phobia Series” which provides desensitization tools along with behavioral modification protocols for owners looking to treat the cause instead of the symptom.

First of all, congratulations on your new family member! I recommend acquiring a crate, a front attaching harness, a hands free leash, a Kong and
other food dispensing toys, a treat bag, and some low calorie treats. With these items, you have everything you need to help your pup get off on the right paw.
For several weeks or even months your furry companion will be unsure of his new environment and will be on his best behavior – I call this the Honeymoon Period. As he adjusts, you may start to see certain undesirable behaviors arise. However, by properly establishing your bond with Fido, you can avoid this common phenomenon.
The crate: You’ve just rescued this pup from what can only be described as a doggie jail. How can you sentence him to further imprisonment? However, too much freedom too soon can cause stress which can manifest into separation anxiety. Destructive behaviors due to separation anxiety are one of the main reasons dogs are returned to a shelter. We want to set Fido up to succeed!
The front attaching harness is imperative for pups that haven’t been properly leashed trained. The EasyWalk pulls the pup off his center of gravity and is a humane solution that discourages pulling behavior in even the largest dog.
The remaining items are needed to teach your pooch that certain behaviors reap rewards and remember: What gets rewarded gets repeated! By using a pup’s kibble, you literally have 100’s of moments where desirable behaviors can be rewarded instead of serving up a ‘free meal’. Reserve treats as high value rewards in distracting situations. By keeping Fido close with the Buddy System, you won’t miss a good behavior or accidentally allow a problem behavior to occur. Use the Kong or other toy puzzles to feed them
the remainder of their kibble (in the crate) and keep their mind stimulated while you are absent.
By consistently rewarding behaviors that you want to
see (sitting for pets, loose leash walking, etc.), you instill good habits, impulse control and become the leader your pup can trust to guide him!

A reader submitted an article that summarized a veterinarian’s opinion on why human babies and children are attacked by dogs. He stated that no matter how well trained, dogs will resort to their natural instincts when
threatened, especially around babies that make sounds that entice their prey drive. He suggested that dogs will feel ‘jealousy’ towards the child since dogs obey a social hierarchy. He concluded that “every dog has the capability to be a dangerous wild animal.”

While I agree that no matter how many silly human tricks Fido can perform, it bears no weight on how he handles a perceived threat. There are many reasons why children are bitten by dogs. Prey drive and the suggestion that there’s a dangerous wild animal lurking within your Pomeranian do not make the list. In fact ~15,00 years of domestication eliminates the validity of the word ‘wild’ when referring to the family dog.
To say that a dog is threatened by the social position of the child in the pack is to say he feels the child threatens his resources: territory, food and right to progeny. Dogs do not have a rigid social structure that they obey like their very distant ancestor, the wolf. They do not have the same fight for survival and there is no evidence that dogs consider us part of their social structure. Dogs also do not consider us food, so a child’s cry does not waken the vicious carnivore within Mr. Fluffy.

So why do dog’s bite? Body language, resource guarding, anxiety or simply; plain ole’ bad handling. The bite is the dog’s last attempt to communicate the need for distance and is ALWAYS provoked. Children are bitten because they are naturally aggressive with their body language and are not taught how to respect dog’s boundaries. With 37-47% of all households in the US owning a dog, I shudder to think what percent took the time to study canine body language and behavior. A topic that is not even required in the curriculum of many veterinarians.

Simply because canines communicate differently and part of that communication is the bite, then I completely agree we should never leave them alone with our children. However, it’s time we take responsibility for these preventable tragedies and learn more about the family member at the foot of our beds – and stop blaming the big bad wolf.