dog and baby

moving_home

Just some advice please. 6 year old cocker and 1 year old child get on great. When we are out and about dog seems very protective. For example I was out walking with baby in pram and dog on lead and another dog came out of a house barking at us (no lead). My dog went mad and barked and barked but strange dog wouldn't back off. My dog bared her teeth. I ended up unhooking her from lead and walking swiftly away with pram. My dog stood keeping strange dog away from us and then followed me once we were a safe distance away from strange dog. I hooked her back on lead and she was happy out again. Never ever seen her bare her teeth before. It was very scary. I think she could have done damage if that dog had threatened us. She has done something similar once since with another barking dog was less enclosed space so no teeth. Do I need to address this? Sorry for long post.

aonb

A dog on a leash will (usually) react differently to an oncoming dog/scary situation, than one that is off leash.
You dog obviously thought to protect you and your baby from the oncoming dog.
From your post, it sounds like this is a new reaction/issue with your dog?
Have you always walked her on leash? Were you walking on a regular route? Has something happened to make her nervous/worried when walking?
Is your bitch neutered?

moving_home

aonb wrote: »

A dog on a leash will (usually) react differently to an oncoming dog/scary situation, than one that is off leash.
You dog obviously thought to protect you and your baby from the oncoming dog.
From your post, it sounds like this is a new reaction/issue with your dog?
Have you always walked her on leash? Were you walking on a regular route? Has something happened to make her nervous/worried when walking?
Is your bitch neutered?

She is neutered. She's always on a leash on this walk as it's a relatively busy road. It's a regular route as beside our house and nothing has changed bar the addition of the baby!
She would be off lead in the park or beach etc. It's new since the baby so I think it's related to protecting the baby. I read alot when I was pregnant about not allowing your dog to become protective of baby for a few reasons so I never encouraged that.

sillysmiles

moving_home wrote: »

I read alot when I was pregnant about not allowing your dog to become protective of baby for a few reasons so I never encouraged that.

Why is this something to not allow?

ShaShaBear

sillysmiles wrote: »

Why is this something to not allow?

Although there's probably no real reason for it, this is something I actively discouraged with Shadow when Abigail was born, and again with Opie. There are too many situations where you might need to rush and grab a baby/toddler like if they have something in their mouth or are about to fall off/climb onto something dangerous. I wouldn't like for a dog to rush to actively defend my child from me in what he thinks is a heroic act.

Cherry Blossom

sillysmiles wrote: »

Why is this something to not allow?

5 years down the line, what happens when the child has a birthday party or a friend over and the kids have a falling out?

Or a babysitter is minding the child and they are refusing to go to bed (the child I mean) and the babysitter tries to make them?

The list is endless. It is really not a healthy situation to have a dog being over protective of a child. It can sometimes be a form of resource guarding which is never a good thing.

intheclouds

sillysmiles wrote: »

Why is this something to not allow?

I dont think its ever a good idea for a dog to be over protective of any human. Its not healthy dog behaviour.