hi guys So i need a little bit of an advice; my husband and I recently found out we’re having a baby, arriving early March. Our redds will be 16 months by then but I can’t help but worry! First of all, anyone can recommend any books/reading on how to introduce baby to dog- toys, licking, food etc? 2) he is quite bad with my 3 year old niece and he constantly tries to hump her (he is 9.5 months now and not yet neutered - we will do it in the next 2 months) but it got to the point when he always has to be on short lead when theu visit. Is he going to be hard to control when the baby comes? 3) barking if a stranger comes in the house. We’ve tried to work on him not barking if he hears a knock but he is uncontrollable if a stranger (postman or workman or a friend who’s never been in the house) - he will just bark at them until they leave or until we sit down and he would understand it’s ok- obviously not going to work with people who are coming for a very short period of time. What worries me is the noise. Is he just over-protective? He doesnt do it outside the house but does at my husband ‘s parents where he stays frequently. Anyone with experience of a young dog and a baby to help me with my worries?
Check out Amazon.....there are alot of great books now that deal with dogs and introductions to babies....knowledge is power.......this will settle your mind...
By 16 months he will probably have settled down some, but he certainly won't be an adult dog. Neutering will probably not have any impact on humping, but training may. Cooper our 3 yr old Lab is great around our 1 yr old granddaughter, and always has been. She has always seemed to understand that this is a baby, and treats our granddaughter very gently, though she does get a lot of licks. Children who grow up with dogs are supposed to have fewer allergies and generally be healthier than those who don't. Both of our dogs bark at people coming to the door, which we think is desirable. They calm down some when we open the door, but they are not protective, just friendly.
Hi and congratulations to you both how exciting but scary at the same time. With regards to barking you could try holding a treat in your closed hand, counting to 5 in your head and whilst he is sniffing he can’t bark and then give him the treat. Hope this helps
Hi we had a 20month old lab and a new baby,before baby arrived we brought a pram and left it around for her to get used to,we also walked her with the empty pram. We also brought toys and let her sniff them and hear any noises they made. When baby arrived we put him in his car seat on our kitchen table where our lab could put just get paws on and sniff his toes and hear him cry. She was very excited at first but decided baby was boring pretty soon. We used stair gates everywhere and never left them together alone. It took some planning and we had to be strict with ourselves,but was with it as both loved each other for the next 10 years!
Congrats on the baby Yes, there is a great book here: http://amzn.eu/d/cZ06B7B This is a link to UK Amazon but if you're in the US, you can probably find the same book on US Amazon. I really would not recommend neutering. There is no reason to neuter a male dog (at all) let alone at 9.5 months. Dogs need their hormones to mature into the adult dogs they should become. And research shows that neutered dogs actually hump MORE than non-neutered dogs. You might want to read these articles and papers: https://www.psychologytoday.com/int...vior-changes-when-dogs-are-spayed-or-neutered https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/29718954/ http://www.naiaonline.org/uploads/WhitePapers/SNBehaviorFarhoodyZink.pdf https://www.frontiersin.org/article...ame=Frontiers_in_Veterinary_Science&id=284353 It will also lead to increased risk of various physical health issues and obesity: http://www.jarvm.com/articles/Vol4Iss2/Lund.pdf (Which labs are very prone to!). Impossible to predict. Teaching the dog to guess a sit, when in the presence of children in these circumstances, keeping the dog in certain rooms of the house behind a stairgate so there can be dog-free zones (and kid -free zones for the dog) - will all be really useful. Well, this is a whole other behavioural issue but - in short - you want to try to avoid someone coming into the house whilst he is there. Tell them to call when they arrive, and take him outside. Tell them just to ignore him completely and walk away when they see you coming out with him. They should go in the house first and you should follow with him. This will hugely reduce if not prevent this type of reactivity.
