Any suggestions on how to get 2 yr old over fear of dogs please?

[Millie1]

We brought our 12 yr old lab up to our house from my parent's house at the weekend. Since birth, DT's have come with me every day to feed her ... but have watched from a distance - and loved her - waved, giggled etc etc. However, since she got a little too close in sniffing yesterday, both girls are terrified, one more so than the other. The dog is quiet, good with children but unfortunately deaf as a post so doesn't hear DH or I calling her back from DTs. I'm trying to spend time with girls on my knee, showing them how to pat dog etc etc. Any other ideas as to how to get them over this hiccup? I want to think of it as a hiccup as we have a lab pup coming in a month's time - will cancel if need be but would prefer not to. Thanks.

We had an old lab and my girls were fine with her - sadly put to sleep last year, and one year on we have a new lab pup. My 3 and 5 year olds were not impressed with a bouncy pup at all to start with. The 3 year old (now just turned 4) quickly adapted but the 5 year old is only just getting the confidence with her. We have had the pup for 6 weeks now. We taught them both to stand still, ignore the puppy, keep your hands up and she will find you "boring" and leave you alone. It works well, but only when they stand still. My 5 year old was too scared to manage to stand still at first - legs up and down climbing up us or the nearest bit of furniture if she came near. Initially we held the pup still and the girls managed to pat her, then we progressed to a small dog biscuit in their hands, stretched out flat on my knee me still holding the pup. The 5 year old managed eventually to let her take a dog biscuit off her shoe, but the minute she bounced back to flapping from DD. Big breakthrough for us was when the pup was allowed out and about - she thought it would be great to hold the pup on the lead, so in the house before or after we were out DD#1 took the lead and felt in control. It was magic for us! Gradually gradually she has adjusted to this until finally this weekend DD#1 will go through the stair gate to where the puppy is on her own if she chooses to and can cope. She is now calling her her "best friend" and I am pleased at last it is settling down.

I think you need to just gently gently keep up the interaction, mildly pushing the comfort zone each time but not so much it makes them panic and gives them a setback. If your children understand any concept of "important" yet then try and give them something to do with the dog that makes them feel important - like putting the food in the bowl before you let the dog to the bowl etc. Once one of them gets a bit more confident there will be a good chance the other will see this and it will help too. A puppy is a different matter to an older lab for sure. You need to have a way to contain the dog away from them when you can not supervise as puppy teeth can give a scarey play nip and could send them back to square one of being unhappy around the pup. They bounce a lot more and are pretty unpredicatable and don't respond instantly to commands until you have had enough training input with the pup over a few weeks at least. I guess you need to see how things go with the older dog first before you make a certain decision about getting the puppy.

goodluck

Thanks for your response BG ... I'm sorry about your old lab - a dog really is a friend for life. You've clearly handled things very well with your children and the new pup ... unfortunately our twins will only turn 2 in May so their understanding is not that great ... still, time will tell. I'm hoping that we can get them settled with the old dog and then take it from there. Finger's crossed.

Now why did I put an apostrophe between the r and s in fingers?

Bumping to see whether anyone else has some more ideas tonight please. We spent some time outside without dog today and girls were much happier, then introduced dog. Cue tears. However, I did sit on the step with girls on one side and dog on the other which I patted/played with dog ... DT1 interested, DT2 more interested in traffic going past . All okay until dog sniffed DT2 = more tears. Shall persevere!

I got a Lab puppy and ds was terrified we just persevered with attempting to get them to play together it worked after about 2 weeks.

I think I let my son do treats so he felt he had a little control over our Lab. Good luck.

Thanks Slushy .... shall give the treats a try next.