I have an 8yo toy breed dog. A very long story, but we have had him for 2 years, felt we had no choice but to take him as he was living in a neglectful home with a family member who would not countenance any other options. I adore him. He is nervous, because of the neglect I believe, but he is very gentle natured. However he does not enjoy being around toddlers, and we manage these interactions carefully. He has growled at a friends toddler and snarled at another who fell full weight on him. Never bitten or snapped at anyone.
We now have a 4 month old son, who is just getting interested in the dog, reaching out etc. The dog often comes to sit near me or my DH when we have the baby and therefore the baby will reach out and touch him, this will cause a slight growl and the dog to move away. My DH and DS were on the floor a couple of days ago and the dog laid down next to my DS, who reached out to touch him. Dog growled and moved, but not very far and DS touched him again. The dog spun round and growled louder, before moving away. Again on the sofa this morning, the dog laid next to DS (who was on DHs lap), DS touched him and dog growled a bit and moved away.
We have just had a really positive interaction where I was putting treats on babys hand (I was holding both treat and hand, no danger) and dog taking them, licking DS hand, seemed very comfy and relaxed.
At the risk of making this an essay, the dog often does what I think of as a "grumpy growl" when we move out legs under the duvet etc - it's not aggressive, his body language stays totally relaxed, he just shifts slightly. Most of his growls at the baby are like this, but the incident when the baby was on the floor scared me. I am most worried about when DS is on the move. Also I'm concerned about how to manage the growling. I have been letting the baby touch dog gently when dog approaches us, and not reacting when the dog growls a little and moves away - I figure they are finding out about each other and dog has his own way of managing his tension and I don't want to stop him doing his warning sign. Is this the right approach? We will probably invest in a behaviourist visit when DS is moving about.
Help and advice welcome.
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The doghouse
Dog growling at baby...how can we foster positive interaction?
3 replies
HarderToKidnap · 24/04/2012 13:02
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