Need advice...Triss bit the baby
 

He crawled up to her and she nipped him on the lip and drew a little blood. I was there and he wasn't alone with her. I hate this. I'm sitting here crying over this. Triss is a loved part of our family, and I do not want to rehome her.

Triss is 2 years old. Never EVER been aggressive towards anything, except a little dominant over our doxie. She stays in a 4x4 Xpen for much of the day. She gets outside often, walk once a day, and supervised playtime when baby is out. After baby is in bed, she gets free roam of the house.

She also is beginning to growl when the baby gets close to the pen. Please help.

I'm not an expert but I think there might be a little jealousy going on.

It definitely sounds like a bit of jealousy. I'm sorry your child got bit :(

I would start by making ALL positive associations with the baby. When the baby is out, treats/food comes out. When Triss is being calm and good around the baby, again praise and treats. Or maybe play toys with her while holding the baby, etc. Basically whenever the baby comes out, ALL things must be good!

You say she doesn't get free roam until the baby is asleep, and she's in the expen alot of the day. Maybe that's where she is holding her resentment. In her mind, baby = expen. Baby goes to bed = free time. So she may be learning that NO baby is a positive thing, whereas it should be the other way around. Also, her pen is becoming her territory, so the growling is a warning to back off. A growl can and often will be followed by a bite.

Is there a reason the dog has to be kept in the expen? Is she destructive, or something? Jackson would never stand for staying in the pen while I am home, lol. I've always let him be a part of everything so that he learns. He's grown up with a young girl (little girl is 2 1/2, Jackson is almost 2) and often sees my aunts baby who is 8 months old now. I never locked him away (of course except during potty training) for fear of what happened with Triss. :( I wanted him to feel a part of the family and learn to be around babies and not feel particularly jealous. The little girl he lives with can easily take his bone away, put her hand in his bowl, be in his face and he doesn't care (not that we encourage this... we stop it when we see it of course).

Maybe when you take your walks, have the baby in the stroller with you if possible. Often times the dog learns to feel like a pack, both with human and other dogs, when you walk together. Basically, I would just start by making all things positive when the baby comes out.

I know it's hard enough with a young baby, and also having to deal with a dog, it's gotta be tough. But I think you can get through it with little steps. I wish you luck. :)

Xpen also means a lot of pent up energy. She's going to need some constructive way to get that energy out.

I definitely second the idea of walking with the baby in the stroller- but more than once a day if possible.

You might also look in to the possibility of doing agility training, even informally. It can burn off a lot of the extra energy.

Gatsby hates kids but when I'm not there he will allow them to hug him and take his food and everything else
when i am around he sits in my lap and bad things don't happen and he will let kids give him treats and pet him

make the baby a good thing its the only way

:thumbup::thumbup: excellent advice :thumbup::thumbup:

I agree! Don't jump to any conclusions yet! Hold off. Try to teach Triss that the baby is good! It sounds like there's a lot of pent up energy and there's got to be some jealousy going on. Take little steps! The going on walks sounds like a great idea! You need to teach Triss that the baby is part of the family as well. :)

Good luck!

A lot of people go through this with their toddler when a new baby is on the scene. Think of how you would teach an older brother to accept the new baby and you will know exactly what to do.

Yep...this is exactly what I would do... anything associated with the baby means good things will happen to Triss.

I agree, because of being penned most of the time when baby is out, negative feelings are the predominant association with the baby. The only way to accept the baby as a normal part of the family is to have normal interactions, on a regular basis. Given that time, eventually they will become friends, best friends. The normal relationship between a dog and child is that the dog take on the role of protector to the child, but the dog has to be given a chance. It will take time and is not easy.. I don't envy you. It is hard to take those tiny baby step chances... good luck..

This is great advice. Thank you!

The reason for the pen: I was told to NEVER leave the baby alone with the dog. For good reason. My 11 month old crawls and walks a little and flits from room to room all day. If he goes into his bedroom, I usually don't follow him. I can hear him through the monitor. But if Triss is loose, I would be worried that she may get in there. Or like today, Triss was sitting with me and the baby and she bit him. I let her out as much as possible, but I can't see a way around doing it this way until it gets better through trying your advice.

So she was not in the pen before the baby? No wonder she is jealous. Please do try to build positive relationship between your two babies. They will be best friends in no time.

Exercise the pup more, and get it out of that 4X4 pen when you are home. It should work out, otherwise the kid goes and the dog stays.

It sounds like a little jealousy to me to, my little Rain men may he rest in peace. he is 6 weeks older then our youngest son is when our son came home we made Rain feel like that was his baby just not ours. now I’m not prefect but we wanted our 4 legged family to love our kids as much as we do and to see them as part of the family, so we would take one of our sons blankets after he had it for a week or 2 and then let rain sleep on it, then we would let him set in the car seat after our son got out, so the smell was still there, then we would hold Rain and our son together in our laps and so on, as you can see from my picture albums Rain loved our son. Other family members would say you shouldn’t let that dog up there with the baby but it ended up being the best thing we could have done, when we went on walks Rain would ride in the stroller with our son, our son and Rain had a bond that you would not believe he could do anything to Rain and Rain would lay right there never ever show any type of aggression. I use to say that instead of rain being my son’s dog, my son was Rains Human baby. Rain past away almost 2 weeks ago and my son is still waiting on him and looking for him. it’s a sad time right now but keep it up let your Fur baby know that the new baby is her baby to, don’t give up keep trying and trying give triss one of his blankets to sleep on and make the baby a part of her life just as much as she is a part of yours. She will get it sooner or later but don’t give up on her yet.
I know this is long but I have faith in you and Triss.
I hope this helps :animal-pa

Well, yes, that is great advice. You never want to leave any type of dog with a baby "alone" ever. But I think by Triss being confined so much to a pen, it's just going to make the problem worse. I think the two just need to bond. For the first few days, I would leave Triss out whenever humanely possible to keep an eye on the two of them. Keep treats in your pockets, etc, and any good reaction from Triss towards the baby... she gets lots of treats.

My aunt is a good example of learning how to give attention to both. Her Pittie, Max, has been her baby for the last 8 years. She now has an 8 month old baby boy. It was really hard on Max in the beginning because she had been in the hospital for longer than expected as she got sick. He was pretty sad. But, she made sure to always give Max equal attention.. if not more than the baby. They have a beach down their street so she would go on walks with baby in stroller down to the beach and give Max his off leash play time and give Max HIS attention and love, while the baby slept or chilled in the stroller. Now that baby is older, he sits on a little towel on the beach and plays with toys, etc, while the dog plays in the water. It was a learning process but she learned how to give attention to both, and now the two of them are like real siblings.

I'm not planning on having a child for a loonggg time! I'm around far too many kids as it is, LOL, and living with a 2 1/2 year old makes you not want kids:p:p. lol j/k. But, I know when I do, I will always include Jackson in what we do. Jackson just loves little Emma (she's my half-sis - age range is 18yrs!) and they've grown up together. Plus, Jackson loves my aunt's little baby boy.

My maltese was a little jealous with my son came home. A baby naturally takes a LOT of your time and attention. But I would put Matt in the stroller and Casper on his leash and off we would go.

When I was rocking Matt - I might be throwing a toy down the hall for Casper at the same time.

Casper was a very laid back maltese and even he got jealous of the baby. I tried to make sure he was included as much as possible; hence all the stroller walks. But I didn't leave the two of them alone together either once Matt started crawling and walking - because babies love to pull fur and tails .. . and they don't know what they are doing! Casper gave him a very wide berth when he was a baby.

Hang in there - things will get better.

Thank you all for the great advice. I should mention that the pen has been set up for the past two years. (For potty training Triss) Our wiener dog fell in love with the pen and has slept in there for the past 2 years on his cushy bed with his fleece blanket, lol. (With the door off after potty training) So I never put it away.

I had to start locking it when the baby came. I do feel bad and wish I could have spent more time with the dogs. Triss used to sleep in my bed. I breastfed the baby and co-slept with him most of the time. (He hardly slept, had reflux and colic. I had supply issues.) So most of my energy and time went for the baby. And any free time I had, I slept. She never seemed sad. I walked her once a day and one of us in the house played with her at least once. She always ignored the baby. But now he is mobile and interested in her. This was a total surprise today. I will definitely work on it. In fact, this evening, I set the baby in my lap and had him feed her treats. I think they both enjoyed it.

(Our wiener dog loves the baby. Seth gives him 'hugs'. Its so cute.)

I think this is great. It'll show Triss that the baby is part of the family and when she starts associating him with treats, she'll be a happier girl. It's going to take some time, but you'll get it!

I was thinking, is it possible for you to let Triss out of her pen and hold her, or keep her in the room with you when the baby is on the floor playing or in his room? Or when you're holding the baby, put Triss on the floor, let her play, toss a toy or give her treats? Anything she does good to the baby, give her a treat. Even if it's just her laying calmly while he's playing. Just show her that her 'good behavior' gets her out of the pen and into your 'good graces.'

Good luck!!

Aw, I know it's tough when a new baby comes along, period. Even tougher when you have 'baby dogs' to take care of, too. And that your baby had colic! I feel for you.

My mom felt terrible after she had my baby sister because her dog, Carmen, had become really close to her during the pregnancy since she was home all the day. She would sleep with her every night, follow her everywhere... and then when the baby came, it almost was like my mom was totally ignoring the dog without really meaning to. She always tried her hardest, but Carmen ended up becoming 'my' dog (I lived there) and being with me every night, etc. lol.

How long are her walks? I know for Jackson, getting just one little walk and being played with once per day wouldn't cut it. Yorkies can be high maintenance dogs and thrive on human companionship! If it's possible, I would try to split up the walks. Get her out maybe for 3 little walks per day. Give the dog a routine, just as you do the baby. Maybe a certain time in the morning, set aside a little 15 minute play-time for the dog, and again in the afternoon, and night. I think you just need to drain her energy a bit more. A tired dog is a happy dog, meaning more exercise! I also think it will get better with time as the baby gets older :)

I agree :)