Another Dogs and Babies Question
I read the post a little further down about training your dog and his or her interaction with LO. This gets me thinking and I'm looking for some ideas. We have an 85lb Chesapeake Bay Retriever who is very sweet natured and of course, my big baby. We prepared her for the baby's arrival by introducing her to baby scents, by carrying around a "baby" doll and by walking her with an empty stroller. She transitioned really really well. She gets along with the baby, has never growled, has never nipped, and knows the difference between her toys and LO's toys.
Now that LO is getting bigger and starting to scoot/roll and eat finger foods, the relationship is changing. It's obvious that the dog doesn't want to be "bothered" by LO but when she eats, she's right under the high chair waiting for food to fall. These are my 2 problems.
1. How do I prepare my dog for a mobile baby? I don't want LO to be stepped on if they are "playing" and I don't want the dog to feel tormented and chased by LO.
2. I have very strong feelings about the dog NEVER eating table food. I hate the idea of her begging and I don't want her to get sick. If she ever eats "people" food, it is specially prepared and served directly to her dog bowl (never from my plate to hers). She is very well behaved if someone drops something on the floor and I am able to pick it up before she can eat it. However, she knows now that LO drops food from her high chair (by accident) and will snag it. Now she hangs out under the high chair and I don't want LO to realize she can feed the dog and then meal time is now play time. How do you navigate this situation? Do I need to gate the dog off in another room? What training tips do you have?
Sorry this was so long- but any ideas are welcome!
Re: Another Dogs and Babies Question
We have a lab too.
1. DS is interested in our dog and she pretty much ignores him. She was great with DD when she was little. So no help here.
2. We either put the dog outside while we eat or if weather is bad she goes in our bedroom with the door shut.
Same for us on #1. Our home as an open floor plan with carpet in the living room and tile in the dining room, so we have taught them the command "Carpet". Anytime we are cooking or eating, they must stay in the living room area and it allows us to clean up messes before they can leave that area. We'd been doing this before LO, so they didn't hang out under the table while we were eating (we also don't give table food, but they would always still "beg").
To start out, we would take them over to the carpet and tell them to sit and "wait", then reward with treats. We'd have to wave our hand back and forth between the carpet/tile line, showing them where the barrier was. This command also works well in our entry, so they know they can't come up directly to the door (since that area is tiled, too).
Same for us. DD LOVES the dog and cat...luckily they are both pretty patient with her. I always make sure that I am right there when they are near each other.
I would also agree with putting the dogs in another room while your LO is eating.
This is probably not a solution for everyone, but since DD is nearly mobile and is spending more and more time playing on the floor, we have come up with a game plan. We purchased a play yard type gate system with extensions and have a very large portion of our living room gated off for DD to play in. It gives her lots of space and we can leave her toys there. The dogs love to watch her, and their bed is right outside the gate (which is where they hang out most of the time when we are playing). We also supervise their interaction closely, DD isn't crawling yet, but she loves to watch them and they love to lick her hands, feet and face if they can.
It doesn't help the table thing, I have been terrible about letting them hang out below the high chair (we never used to give them table food).
1. We have a 90lb lab. I've noticed that when he lays next to DS, he is very careful. Our dog walker stopped by the other day with her puppy and our dog was playing oath the puppy and acting like a crazy animal bit never once touched the puppy. I would just watch carefully while LO is becoming more mobile and once they get used to each other, it will not be as stressful.
2. I would work with your dog to not sit under the high chair while LO is eating. Distract them with a bone or chew toy. Our dog has NEVER had people food and we'd like to keep it that way too!