Dogs and Toddlers

[OddSocksSparklyDocsandDungaree]

Daughter - Just turned one.
Labrador - 19 months old.

He's obsessed with licking and sniffing her. She loves it and belly laughs at this. Obviously we tell him to leave and if he gets too much, he's put into the kitchen to calm down and the returns once he's calmer. Any tips on what else we could do? Theyre never left unsupervised together

Try distracting the lab as well with toys and rewarding when calm around the toddler. The dog is very young still and labs are very excited at the best of times. Also before they interact try and tire the dog out , so their energy levels are already low.

@romdowa

Try distracting the lab as well with toys and rewarding when calm around the toddler. The dog is very young still and labs are very excited at the best of times. Also before they interact try and tire the dog out , so their energy levels are already low.

^ agree with this. Maybe try providing something better to lick with they are together - a peanut butter kong, for example, might be more tempting than a toddler

Ooh, that's a tough combination

I agree with PP - focus on capturing the calm. So when the dog is naturally lying down or relaxing, calmly reward him for that. Don't make a huge excitable fuss, but just a "good boy" and quietly give him a treat.

He should soon start practising calm behaviours because he knows he'll be rewarded (alway reward the calm) and eventually it will become normal for him to behave that way.

I would be careful with toys as the dog could get even more hyped up!

I would avoid using a Kong or similar whilst he is close to your toddler as an excited dog may react negatively if he thinks she is grabbing at it or she tries to take it.
As a pp said, praise calm behaviour.

Thankyou for all your advice 😊

Dog toys are not a big thing to him but my daughters toys definitely are! She prefers his toys to her toys too so its a winner winner 🤣 He has Kongs but they last him 20 minutes maximum - hes learnt that if he bounces them off the floor, baby gate, my foot 😐 that it falls out gradually.

He loves a good marrow bone but they're so hard to find at the minute!!

Camel Skin (rolled up) lasted a full 8 hours! But with him licking her, we didn't want to risk it so haven't bought it since.

On the rare occasion he settles we always praise him with a calm 'good boy' but then he goes back to his wild child self

Tell me it gets better?!

oh, and when hes put in time out, he has the most irritating whine you can ever imagine

You do have to make a decision whether he’s allowed to do it or not. Right now it seems like he’s allowed to do it until it gets ‘too much’ and then he gets taken away. But he’s never going to be able to learn that he’s allowed to do it if he only does it a little bit. If you want him to stop then you need to tell him off the second he goes to do it. Just use whatever method you use to stop him quickly when he’s doing something wrong. A sharp NO and a clap of my hands usually stop mine. If he goes to carry on then I’d remove him immediately

@Babadook76 Nooo, he's not allowed to do it full stop. We tell him, tell him again and then he's out.

[quote OddSocksSparklyDocsandDungaree]@Babadook76 Nooo, he's not allowed to do it full stop. We tell him, tell him again and then he's out. [/quote]
I would take him out straight away, tbh.

At the moment he has no real consequence as he can do it (and get told off twice) before anything actually happens.

The licking will be more satisfying than the upset of being told off.

No practical advice, sorry.
Marrow bones are often available at Morrisons. (The Waitrose ones not good anymore as they sell them cut half lengthways).
Independent butchers always have them in stock where we are. Some sell them fresh, some frozen.
I would advise not to let the toddler or an older child anywhere near a dog with a bone. No matter how calm and well behaved the dog might be. I have always interacted with all my dogs with a bone but only for training purposes and I can only trust my dog with me. The dog needs to enjoy his bone and that's that. The risk of reacting can be very high. And always remove the bone at the end.

@fairylightsandwaxmelts we will try this today. Thankyou 😊

@Branster I agree. We would never 100% trust him. We've always played with him when he has his bone and he's absolutely fine but it's not worth the risk.

Tell him and tell him again is just daft, sorry. Block it, prevent it if possible and if he does it he's removed.

I had dogs before DC, then pups when the DC were babies, one my DDs best friend, as a toddler, was our old retriever. I have endless pics of the tow of them asleep together. I had a younger dog that was 3 months older than my youngest DC, tbh I never worried about it, just made sure they were supervised and try to minimise accidental injury.

The licking and sniffing are not a problem from a health POV as there is good Research to show the benefits of handling dogs for the development of the gut biome (look out the videos of Prof Tim Spector of the ZOE project on You Tube, one of the latest ones mentions this). Generations of children have survived being licked and loved by the family dog.

Don't allow the DC near the dog when it has its own bone or toys and make a game out of teaching the dog to give the child's toys TO the child would be my advice. You seem to have a nice natured dog who just needs to have his nice nature channeled into calmer behaviour.

@Catsrus He really is and they're honestly like partners in crime! If she is having her dinner in her high chair, he's behind the gate, waiting for her to finish as he knows that he gets to hoover everything up 😆

Love idea of making it into a game! Do you have any ideas on how we can do this?!

hi @OddSocksSparklyDocsandDungaree - does he have a good retrieval instinct? does he give up balls, toys etc when asked? My current retriever will happily retrieve ANYTHING just for the joy of doing it - I can send her for toys (belonging to the other dog), balls, gloves. She loves things being hidden and then being sent to find them. Not all of my retrievers have been this interested, some would prefer to just deconstruct toys (my DC had a lot of armless, legless, dolls growing up - when they left anything near the reach of one particularly obsessive doll murderer).

If he does bring things back then playing hide and seek with toys is a good game, you start by showing the dog and child that you have the toy, then you make a big deal about hiding it, say under a box or behind the sofa - and then you ask the dog to find it. Repeat.

If he won't retrieve but he will catch, then you play the teaching them both to count game. A very slow and clear '1,2,3,4...... FIVE!" - and on five you drop the toy into his mouth. You don't throw it, you calmly drop it - and you stop counting if the dog moves from a sit - you don't want him standing, but sitting. The toy is the reward for the sit and waiting until you get to "five" The dog begins to anticipate the "five". It's a good indoor exercise to teach a dog anyway because there might be times when he's confined due to injury and you want some way to keep him amused without having to rocket around the place.

If you do it after he's kindly cleaned up for you when she's in her high chair then she's safe off the ground and can "help" you drop the toy.

You really do have to put in the work with the dog and train the behaviours you want, then try to teach your DD how to get those behaviours. If anything you are doing is making either of them hyper then stop - you are trying to get calm and focus from both of them, don't overdo it - better to have 2 or 3 successful little interactions and stop.

young dogs and young children are both hard work, but I never regretted having them together, loved watching their interactions.

@Catsrus Not always when asked but you happen to get a treat and he'll drop it immediately! You've given some great ideas so I'll try it

My main concern is how bloody clumsy he is and I'm always afraid he'll stand on her or something 🙈