Socializing Young Dog Towards Toddlers?

[Camilla and Darwin]

Darwin is six months old and great around kids, adults, cats, etc. The thing that worries me, however, is babies. My sister just had a baby and they want Darwin to be introduced to him from early on. (Their baby is four months old.) Darwin hasn't ever been around babies, and has consistently only been around eight and up. He is calm and good with kids... but I don't know about younger ones? Do you think he will be okay? How should I introduce them? Any way to better prepare him for it?

[Linda,Yankee & Finn]

The first time Yankee met a baby was in my backyard. My daughter brought a friend over and she laid the baby on a blanket on the grass. Yankee saw the blanket move and crept up to it slowly to see what it was. He saw the baby, licked it and walked away. It will probably be fine.

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

Shouldn't be a problem so long as adult is always present when baby and dog are together.

[Melissa & Porter]

My puppy training teacher said to get as many new experiences in before 6 mos--so I would agree with your sister.

[Adina P]

Ok so this isn't really a toddler but an infant. Which makes a difference because the infant won't be running after the dog or doing any self directed seeking of the dog or crawling or really ever in the way. Baby will always be in someone's arms or carrier or something. I would imagine just having your sister hold the baby and you bringing Darwin in on leash (even if you're not holding the leash) and letting him sniff baby would work fine. It's not like they'll be playing together real soon. My most mellow dood wags like crazy and wants to sniff or give a quick kiss to babies, but then gets bored and flops down to relax. My most high energy dood would prefer to wiggle and lick babies the entire time. We usually separate her after a minute or two--only because she just will not chill. But both LIKE kids. Rosco, my more mellow dood, is also more trained and he'll hold stays around kids, toddlers, and babies.

[Julie B.]

Adina echoed pretty much what I was going to say... toddlers present a very different problem and approach... I'm not sure there is anyway to really create an acceptable situation between toddlers and puppies. They need to be supervised all of the time. The fact that toddlers move away quickly, usually scream and squeal etc. are all behaviors that a puppy simply cannot ignore. When your baby gets to the toddler stage your puppy will have become a dog and that will be a better training situation. I think toddler/puppy interactions should be on a leash, through a fence, behind a baby gate, or in a parent's arms at first. Unintentional bad things can happen quickly which can scar the toddler towards dogs, and can create negative punishment for the puppy who really didn't do anything wrong as far as he/she was concerned. I never recommend that people with toddlers try to raise a puppy... I think it sets up for failure unless the owners are really committed and have owned lots of dogs before. Just my opinion....

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

This may sound silly, but I find you also need to work with the toddler (as much as that is possible) as well as the dog. We have five grandkids (and another due any minute), and we spent time talking to them and teaching them how THEY should act around Guinness. My six year old granddaughter is actually a great little trainer. With the two year olds, it's more difficult, but they do understand that they can't chase him or scream and squeal. They are allowed to give him treats, but have to make him sit first, and most of the time he does. We've taught them to ignore the puppy when they first arrive to give him a chance to calm down....that one is a work in progress. When he's calm, we all sit in the foyer and take some time petting him. I used to keep his leash on the whole time they were here, but I don't have to do that anymore. Below the age of two is another story. I guess we'll find out once the new baby gets here.

[Julie B.]

Good job grandma!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I so agree with this. Most often, it's the toddler who hurts the dog and not the other way around. A friend's toddler once tried to pull himself to a standing position by hanging onto my schnoodle's beard! Even a six month old can grab a handful of fur or a tail, and doodles have a lot to grab onto! Supervision is key.

[Camilla and Darwin]

I stated that kind of badly. What I meant by the toddler thing is that we want him to be used to the baby, so he will be good around him as a toddler. We felt the first introduction should be before he is a hair pulling madman, (her baby.) so that Darwin doesn't get overwhelmed. Thanks for your advice... I feel a lot better.

[Melissa & Porter]

For the future...the biggest risky behavior that little kids seem to do around dogs is try to hold a toy (or food) up and out of the dog's reach. Dog jumps or just stretches and grabs toy/food and maybe gently scrapes a few fingers in the process. 4/5 kids scream, "Waaaa, he bit me!" Dog thinks, "This is a pretty fun game, although kid could lose the screeching and I'd like it better..."

My kids, 4, 6, 7 and my neighbor's 3, 5, 7 have learned to keep the toy or food down and block the dog with their other hand and/or turn away. My neighbor's three year old actually does it the best. And the puppies are getting better and better at knowing to keep off. But we still have to teach every friend who comes over how to do this...and kids sure like to walk around the house and backyard with food in their hands.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

This is great advice; my niece was once bitten in the face by a dog who was just trying to get the lollipop that the 5-yr-old was holding near her mouth.

[Melissa & Porter]

That's awful :-( It is bad enough when something like that happens because the dog is aggressive--but at least that would be somewhat predictable, and the owner would be vigilant. But accidents like that--you wouldn't even be thinking that your dog is going to hurt someone..