Dogs and Babies

The arrival of your new baby is an exciting, joyful moment! Life changes in lots of ways for everyone in the family. You’ve got a million things to think about, but there’s one thing you might not have considered – introducing the baby to the family dog.




Expectant parents who own dogs are often given  2 pieces of advice from well meaning friends and relatives, which are at best ineffective, and at worst, dangerous:

 MYTH #1

“Bring home a doll and start treating it like a baby so the dog will get used to having a baby at home.”
On the surface, this sounds like it makes sense, but there’s a huge problem with this piece of advice: a baby doll is not a baby. Dogs are hunters, with highly evolved senses. They can smell mates, prey and predators from miles away.  They have eyes that can detect the slightest movements. They can hear the sound of a twig snapping deep in the woods. Their very survival depends upon these keen senses. Thinking that a baby doll smells, moves and sounds anything like a baby is ridiculous.
What does a baby doll smell like? It is usually made of vinyl and cloth and it smells a lot  like a dog’s toys! Exactly the wrong association!  You don’t want your dog thinking that the baby is a toy, do you?

 MYTH #2

“A few days before baby comes home, bring a blanket home from the hospital with the baby’s smell on it.” 
The advice to bring home a blanket does absolutely NOTHING to prepare a dog for the arrival of an infant.  Think about this: many dogs have been in fights with other dogs. Is that because they did not smell another dog before the fight began?  Does smelling something teach the dog to feel good around something? The only thing that bringing home a blanket does is distract the family from what they should be doing in preparation:

What you SHOULD be doing in preparation for the arrival of the baby:

- Gate the baby's room and have the dog learn now, before baby arrives, that this room is off limits.

- Obedience training is always helpful (sit, down, stay, come). A trained dog is under your control; an untrained dog is not.

- Crate training is always helpful for those times when the dog needs to go to a safe, secure place to rest. If your dog is not crate trained, do it now, before the baby arrives.

- Expose and desensitize your dog to the stroller, high chairs, playpens and swings before the baby arrives.

- For dogs who are sensitive to loud noises, use a recording of a crying baby (at first at low volume, then gradually louder during short daily training sessions) to desensitize the dog to the sound.

 

After baby arrives:

- Pay more attention to the dog when the baby is present, and less when the baby is down for a  nap (not the other way around). We want the dog to LOVE seeing the baby because when the baby is around the dog gets more attention.

- Dog and baby should NEVER be left alone together. 

- Dog and baby must not play with eachother's toys. 

- Do not allow baby or toddler to play in the dog's bed or crate.

Buyer Beware: Thunder Garments, Herbal Remedies and DAP Don’t Work!

In days gone by, a gullible public eagerly bought up miracle cures by the gallon to cure everything from baldness to obesity. You’d think that people would be smarter nowadays, but I could make a good argument (at least in my little corner of the world - dog training) that things haven’t changed all that much. Even in this Internet age - people are every bit as likely to buy a potion, lotion or miracle cure to fix a problem as they ever were.

Don’t believe me? Then how else can we explain the millions of dollars spent each year by  pet owners and so-called “dog trainers” on things like Thunder Shirts, Rescue Remedy, Dog Appeasing Pheromone (DAP) and other “miracle cures?” Where is the credible scientific research supporting their effectiveness?   There is none.

If your dog has a serious behavior problem – like fear, hyperactivity, aggression or separation anxiety – you might be willing to try anything to help your pet. These “miracle cures” might not make things any worse, so it’s tempting to give them a try. But when it comes to dog behavior there are problems with wasting time experimenting with junk science: 1) After these products fail to deliver as advertised, people tend to feel they’ve “tried everything” and are tempted to give up; 2) People spend their limited time and money in the wrong place. Spend your money on an experienced, properly trained, “real world” dog trainer - not on nonsensical notions, lotions and potions promoted by the “purely positive” crowd.  

These products are a multi-million dollar business. Their manufacturers sponsor many of the major dog trainer conventions each year.  Well-meaning but often inexperienced trainers are the primary conduits for many of these products.   

Veteran dog trainers don’t promote tight fitting sweaters, herbal remedies and aroma therapy to treat fear or aggression in dogs. They understand that real changes in dog behavior can only be achieved by classical and operant conditioning, systematic desensitization, obedience training, deference protocols and proper management.  With some time, patience and good coaching from a balanced professional dog trainer, owners will see genuine, lasting improvement. It doesn’t come in a bottle. It comes through hard work, consistency and sound training protocols.

What is a "Submissive Grin" in Dogs?

A submissive grin is a fairly uncommon gesture made by dogs.  It can be a bit tricky to tell the difference so people often misinterpret this signal of submission (i.e. a friendly smile)  as an aggressive snarl (exactly the opposite of the dog's intent).

A submissive grin can look like an aggressive snarl, but the two gestures are completely different in both action and intent. If you're not sure that you can tell the difference, here are a few things to look for: 

• Look at the overall body language - is it loose and happy or stiff and threatening?
• Look at the eyes - are they squinty (soft and averted) or threatening (staring and dilated)?
• What's going on in the environment? Has the dog just spotted the owner bringing the leash and is happy to be going for a walk? Or is he standing over a favorite bone stiffly (guarding it)?

Here are pics of 2 dogs. The dog on the left is doing a submissive grin and the dog on the right is doing a threat display:

Dog on left is showing full teeth with his mouth pulled back into a  "smile" - ears are gently back ("bunny ears") and eyes are squinty. This is a submissive grin.

Dog on right has her whiskers forward, hard eyes with pupils dilated, furrowed brow and a strong stare. This is a threat display.

Here is a video of a dog doing a submissive grin: http://youtu.be/Aw_1V1yguvE

Train Dog to Ring Bell for Potty?

Effective housebreaking protocols include things such as supervision, consistency, scheduling and confinement - not training the dog to ring a bell.

In "The Handbook of Applied Dog Training and Behavior, Volume Three"  Steven R. Lindsay, M.A., explains: 

"Teaching puppies to give a signal to go outside is a common, but questionable house-training practice. While appearing reasonable and useful at first glance, encouraging puppies to give such signals may conflict with the objective of training them to hold and eliminate in accordance with an arbitrary schedule. Effective bowel and bladder control require that puppies learn to endure some amount of discomfort – an aspect of house training that is not necessarily served by training puppies to perform a signal to get outdoors on demand. Furthermore, such need-to-go signals depend on the owner being present to respond – a state of affairs that can rarely be maintained on a consistent basis.

An unfortunate outcome of such training is the development of common elimination problems later. Unable to get the owner’s attention with the elimination signal, a dog may go to the door after and after a moment just turn around and eliminate nearby or run off to another room before eliminating, thereby reflecting the pattern previously established in association with the need-to-go signal, viz., give signal and then eliminate.

Finally, many puppies rapidly learn to extend and generalize the need-to-go signal with a need-to-whatever-whenever signal, prompting the owner to go outside for purposes other than elimination. Such puppies learn that barking or pawing at bells can get them outside for play and other activities having nothing to do with elimination."