Many of us have dogs before we bring a baby into the world and into our homes. We love our fur babies so much, we cannot wait for them to meet our humans babies and watch their bond and connection grow. That picture in our heads of our kids playing with their dogs in the backyard is on it’s way to reality.
But what if it isn’t?
What if, with the excitement of them making a connection and a bond, we actually create the opposite?
We’ve borrowed some infographics from Family Paws – Creating Dog Aware Generations (downloadable pdf’s available here) to help explain.
Setting your dog (and your dogs relationship with your baby) up for success is going to take a little bit of work.
First, let’s take a look at how babies and dogs should meet and interact.
We have all seen the adorable videos and pictures of babies and with their dogs sniffing them or licking them, the dog cuddled right up with the baby, or even the baby having been placed on top of the dog to lay with them…
They all make us say “awww“… but the truth is,
allowing the dog full access to the baby, without appropriate boundaries right from the start, can be a recipe for disaster.
Even more importantly, when those babies become mobile toddlers, supervision and physical boundaries becomes even more important.
Let’s take a look at the Do’s and Don’ts that Family Paws has shared
The goal is to make sure everyone stays safe all of the time.
To do this, creating “success stations” is such a helpful tool:
We should also talk a bit about supervision. Again, Family Paws has an excellent infographic on this topic as well. It can be so easy to be lax and not think that anything would happen, but it’s important to be sure you’re really supervising.
And when you can’t be supervising, that’s where physically boundaries need to be in place.
Of course, proximity into needs to be taken into consideration too. This infographic shows what is called “the Grumble & Growl Zones”. Ideally, with excellent supervision of your baby or toddler and your dog, this won’t be an issue. It’s important to be vigilant, even if your dog is the sweetest pup ever, because we never want your dog to feel the need to protect himself or his stuff, no matter how much he loves your baby.
As your baby grows and develops, so does the relationship they will have with their pup. It will be just as important, maybe even more so, to be mindful of the boundaries needed.
None of this information is meant to worry, scare, or judge you in any way!
These are simply things we don’t often think about, so it was worth sharing.
The more you know, the more you know.
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