I_love_Poodles asked:

My main questions are:

1. How can I make my Terrier mix more comforatable and at ease in her own home again?

2. How can I work on her interactions with the baby, if the baby is scared and starts crying everytime my Terrier mix comes around?

Here is what is going on:

FIRST OF ALL: I have no reason to believe that either dog would ever intentionally hurt the baby.

Okay we have 2 dogs: A 2 year old Male Minature Poodle and a 2 year old female Terrier mix (both fixed ofcourse).

We recently had a baby as well.

As far as introductions went, it all went smoothly. We did it all by the book, the blanket from the hospital. The loving on them before introducing them, and everything. And all went very well that first day.

Our poodle just absolutely adores the baby. He is also rather protective, if she starts crying he comes running and he keeps a watchful eye on whoever has her I think to make sure that person isn’t hurting her. He loves her. He comes up and sniff her and today for the first time he gave her a kiss, just on the arm.

All interactions between the two are always supervised.

My Terrier on the other hand (the younger of the two) is handling any of this very well. She is very nervous and stressed. I try to dedicate a few hours in the evening just to her when hubby is home to help with the baby. She whines and cries a lot. We can’t have her out in the rest of the house right now when there is company, she gets too defensive of me and the baby. Whenever she comes up to sniff the baby, she is a little too in your face so to speak and she scares the baby and the baby starts to cry. She isn’t mean, she is very happy and tail waggy. I don’t think she would hurt the baby, but I don’t think she understands the boundaries yet. She doesn’t realize how big of a dog she is. She is a 25lb lap dog that thinks she is a 5lb Chihuahua.

I always thought she was the more mature and more grown up of my two dogs, turns out she was really the baby. She has barked at us when we have been holding the baby and she has been scolded for that. She got a bit barky at my sister when she was holding the baby too. And she got put in another room for that.

I don’t like having to separate her from us but I don’t know what else to do.

My mother has been coming over to help out every day and that seems to make my Terrier even more nervous (she isn’t used to people in her house).

Finally when my husband gets home she calms down and seems to interact fine, but if anyone else is around she cries all day long, non stop.

Again I DO NOT THINK she would ever hurt the baby, but there has to be a way to get her to relax and be calm again (she is still getting plenty of exercise). I want her to be comfortable in her own home again.

We have actually brought her crate out to the living room (she hasn’t been using the crate in months until now). So when people are over she can be with us, and see whats going on. I’m hoping that will help.

Any suggestions on how to make her more comfortable and less nervous about all this?

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Also:
my Terrier is a very well trained dog, graduated top of her obedience classes.

She is just very nervous right now, I’ve never seen her this way.

We’ve only been home 3 days though

I seriously thought the poodle would be the one we would have trouble out of. Not the Terrier

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WE HAVE NO INTENTIONS OF GIVING UP THE DOG, she hasn’t shown any aggression or anything toward the baby. But she has barked at people holding the baby. We want to work at this and see if we can make her more comfortable.
ADD: Obviously if I ever felt my baby was in danger it would be different. But this dog was thrown away once as a puppy, I have no intention of doing that to her, over being too excited.

I will say though that all interactions are supervised. And if either dog ever showed any signs of aggression to her, they would be gone.

but it isn’t aggression I am seeing. ( I have been a dog owner and shelter volunteer for many years so I know dogs)

I’ve done everything so far by the book as the trainer suggested. Because isolating the dogs from her and not including them, will cause problems down the road