Vet giving horrible advice on babies/kids on TB

[redheadbaker]

I started off agreeing with the response, then I got to the part about "pinching ears and tails" and was like, No! No!

community.thebump.com/cs/ks/forums/7151968/ShowForum.aspx

OP:

We have a 6 year old shih tzu. Recently, our 5 month old daughter has become increasingly more interested in our dog. She loves all dogs, smiles as soon as she sees one. Anyways, she will roll 4-5 times in a row to get to Bell(our dog.) Bella started growling at Waverly(our daughter.) I quickly disciplined Bella. Well, the other day Waverly rolled near Bella, and Bella started growling, showing her teeth, and shaking. We have been trying to find a new home for Bella, but we haven't had any luck. I found a Shih Tzu Rescue and have an appointment Monday to take it. It is breaking my heart to much. I feel that it is whats best. But, that doesn't make it any easier. Have any of you gone through anything like this before? Am I being too drastic to already remove Bella from our house? I just really don't want to chance anything happening to our daughter. Any advice would be appreciated.

One response:

OP. First off I'm sorry I kept calling your pup Bell and not Bella (oops ).

I applaud you for taking those steps with her before you had your LO, a lot of people don't consider their FUTURE life changes (like having a baby) when they get a new dog and start conditioning her, so well done.

I really didn't mean to say that you were lazy or didn't train your dog at all, so please don't take it that way. What I meant by my post was that there were absolutely other things that you probably should have done (especially after your LO came home and with Bella's training before your had your LO) that would have helped prevent this from being an issue. Just because baby is in the picture doesn't mean that the training with the dog stops. Positive reinforcement goes SOOOOOOO much farther than negative! There are baby noise CDs to help condition dogs to their noises. A PP was right on the money when she said that babies are different than toddlers, so having her spend some time around babies would have been great too (but I realize people probably aren't lining up around the block to have their baby be the guinea pig). Clicker training with treats when Bella is quietly sitting next to your LO. You practice pulling on Bella's ears and tail, maybe even pinching her lightly (if your LO is anything like mine she pinches harder than hell). These are all the kind of things that should have been done. That's not to say that these things still can't be done, but its going to be a lot more difficult to condition her since now she has negative associations with your LO.

Also, licking her paws, having a treat or a toy are never ever acceptable reasons for why a dog should show aggressive tendencies. If Bella had ever done that before (sounded like maybe she had by the way you worded your post), that is a whole different behavioral issue that needs to be addressed. (As an FYI, if you do elect to bring her to a shelter as opposed to a rescue, one of the tests that they will do is to see if she is food/toy aggressive. If she is, she will not be considered fit for re-homing).

Also, I want to give a thumbs up to the other PP who said that they don't ever leave baby unattended with the dog. Both of my dogs have their canine good citizen training. We have spent hundreds, possible thousands of hours doing obedience training. I did all the things I mentioned previously with them before brining my boys home and I still NEVER leave them unattended with the boys. Do I think they would do anything to hurt them-NO! But it only takes one time to prove me wrong.

I'm a vet. I see it at least every couple weeks. Family bring home baby...family says that dog is too aggressive, or a little too rough, or (my personal favorite) too hyper...so they elect to re-home the dog. Then they show up with a new puppy a couple weeks/months later. It is usually the same breed and I can't even tell you how often its from the same breeder or (gasp) pet store. See where I'm going with this? It erks the sh!t out of me that people think that the dog was the problem. That was why I said I hope you strongly consider getting another dog until you have a more time for training.

You have taken some good steps in an effort to hopefully make Bella baby friendly. All I'm saying is that there is still more work to be done if you really want it to work. And in my experience, people don't ask for opinions unless they don't have their mind 100% made up. So I wish you good luck

[SallySparrow]

Maybe she didn't mean pull like PULL, maybe she just meant to handle her ears and tail so she'd be used to it? In my head, that's what she meant. Roxie does not love having her ears touched, but we have tried to desensitize her to that (certainly not by pulling them, just by petting her and giving treats when we touch them).

My question is that she made the comment about how having a treat or toy isn't a reason for a dog to show "aggressive tendencies", but wouldn't that be resource guarding? I've never seen a dog with resource guarding tendencies and thought, "hey, look at that aggressive dog!". I've always thought, "Hey, Sable does NOT know how to share". She's better than she was, but that's not really the point.

[SallySparrow]

I just went and read it and it seems like she did mean what I was describing. But apparently I'm torturing Roxie, so what I do I know? lol

And this is not me trying to start an argument, but I don't see what I'm doing as any different than trying to get a dog used to you touching their paws so their nails can be trimmed. I'm not pushing her, and I'm certainly not torturing her. She has gotten much better. I think her issue was just that no one had ever touched her ears before, so the first time I tried to look at them to see how they looked, she was like, "WTF are you doing, weirdo?"

[redheadbaker]

Jul 15, 2012 18:01:52 GMT -5 SallySparrow said:

I just went and read it and it seems like she did mean what I was describing. But apparently I'm torturing Roxie, so what I do I know? lol

And this is not me trying to start an argument, but I don't see what I'm doing as any different than trying to get a dog used to you touching their paws so their nails can be trimmed. I'm not pushing her, and I'm certainly not torturing her. She has gotten much better. I think her issue was just that no one had ever touched her ears before, so the first time I tried to look at them to see how they looked, she was like, "WTF are you doing, weirdo?"

The average pet owner allows their baby to crawl, climb, grab, pull, pinch, etc, with no redirection, just, "Ooh, look, widdle Johnny lurves the doggie!" So they "desensitize" their dog for that and expect the dog to sit there and take it. That's what I meant by torture.

[redheadbaker]

I was nursing while typing earlier.

Should've added that yes, desensitizing pets so they'll allow us to examine their ears or touch their paws is great. But not so that babies can poke and pinch dogs as much as they like.

[gbck]

I've worked to desensitize my dog, and I dont see it as ever being a bad thing--I also dont' count on it to cure all ills.
Dawg thinks an ear pull is a sign of high affection and means she is getting a treat. That doesn't mean I let Buffy pull her ears (I try not to let that happen), but I don't think, properly done, that advice is super bad. Just needs to be handled w/ care.

[starlettedir]

Jul 16, 2012 9:13:47 GMT -5 gbck said:

I've worked to desensitize my dog, and I dont see it as ever being a bad thing--I also dont' count on it to cure all ills.
Dawg thinks an ear pull is a sign of high affection and means she is getting a treat. That doesn't mean I let Buffy pull her ears (I try not to let that happen), but I don't think, properly done, that advice is super bad. Just needs to be handled w/ care.

This

[starlettedir]

Jul 17, 2012 12:33:17 GMT -5 @fivedogs said:

Star - your picture just kills me! SO cute!

Thanks :-) numbers took it!