Living Harmoniously: Your Dog & Your Child

You should start acclimating your dog to children at a very young age. If you get a puppy and know that you will have children one day, there are a lot of things you can do to start now.

• Take your dog to basic obedience training. The
  importance of obedience training goes beyond sit, stay, down. Your dog will learn to listen to you and respond to your commands. This is always important in situations where you may need to bark a command for your dog to stop growling/snapping/nipping at your child.
• Socialize your dog. Take your dog for a walk at the park or around the neighborhood where there are kids.
• Tug on the ears and tails. Children are fascinated by dog’s ears and tails and will tug on them at every opportunity. By starting your puppy with these behaviors now, your puppy will be able tolerate them.
• Touch/pet your dog while eating. Again, this is best started when the dog is still a puppy. Dogs are protective of their food and will growl at anyone approaching them while they eat. Pet the puppy’s head, ears, tail and tummy while he eats.
• Get the dog used to quick movements. Your toddler could be standing still next to your dog and decide to lunge at the dog in a split second. The dog should be introduced to situations like this so he doesn’t get startled and accidentally snap at your child.
• Pet your dog while he sleeps. A dog that get startled out of sleep may snap at your child so this is another important thing for your dog to get used to.
• Make the hierarchy clear to your dog. When it was just you, your spouse and the dog, the hierarchy is pretty clear. But once there is a child in the house, the dogs need to slide down the totem pole. You will need to retrain your dog about this by greeting your child first when you come home from work (even if the dog is already by the door waiting for you), always say NO when your dog growls at your child, do not allow your dog to play tug-of-war with your child. NEVER ever tolerate growling in which your dog shows his teeth. Do whatever you have to do curb this behavior. Dogs that bare their teeth are ready to attack.
• Never play tug-of-war with the dog. This game will teach your dog to be aggressive and when he gets the toy at the end, your dog will think he is the alpha.
• Never let your dog play with your child’s toy. As your child grows up, you’ll have tons of toys lying around. If your dog is playful, it will inevitably pick one of your child’s toy to play with. If your child sees the dog play with his/her toy, your child may naturally want to go over and tug on the toy to get it back. This can lead to a “tug-of-war” with your dog which I’ve already said is a NO-NO.
• Train your child. For the same reason that your dog must learn how to deal with children, your child has to learn to deal with dogs at a very early age. Teach your child to leave the dog alone when it growls. Cornering a dog that is trying to get away is never a good idea.

These suggestions still work if you already have an adult dog. The process just takes a little longer. If however, your dog is already exhibiting bad behaviors like growling when approached while eating, it is very important to get your dog trained NOW! You don’t want to take chances with the safety of your child.

My husband and I have had our 2 miniature schnauzers for 4 years before our son was born. From the very beginning, I’ve done everything I’ve described above. I was fortunate enough to have found an animal behaviorist as a dog trainer when my dogs were only months old. My son, who is now 15 ½ months, loves playing with the dogs, though only one really does tolerate him enough to stay put. Salem, the male one, always walk the opposite way when he sees Matthew approaching. Koby, the female, just stays put and loves the attention.

I hope your family, including the four-legged one, live harmoniously!

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