Babies and dogs: a topic too serious to be avoided. Are you a parent? Please read this.

The internet is filled with pictures of babies and dogs together. While most people’s reaction is “AWWW HOW CUTE”, dog trainers cringe at the sight of such proximity. Why? Because… dogs bite. “Oh but mine doesn’t”. That’s what I hear in many of the cases I had in my years of practice as a dog trainer: “He was fine for 3 years, now all of a sudden he bit Johnny in the face”. Dogs are fine until they aren’t. Maybe they were giving signals all along, maybe the last time baby pulled Fluffy’s ear was the last drop.

To be clear: Babies and toddlers are not doing anything wrong. They are taught by their parents to be magnetized to dogs from a young age. “Johnny, look, a DOGGIE!!”. We dog trainers advise against doing this. For more on this topic, PLEASE go visit this amazing blog series HERE. Please also buy some good baby-dog books.

The question is, how can you make it work? You live in a small space, you have a dog, you are planning on having a baby or already have one. Here are some steps that will help you! (suite…)