Reddit reviews Please Don't Bite the Baby (and Please Don't Chase the Dogs)

Growling is actually good. Growling is not your worst fear. Growling is a warning sign. You don't want a dog who doesn't give you a warning. Don't punish the growl, you're removing your early warning system.

Crawling is hard for pups! These babies are all unpredictable. It's scary for the dog.

No. 1 Recommendation: https://www.amazon.com/Please-Dont-Bite-Baby-Chase/dp/158005577X Book by a dog trainer about bringing her adoptive son home. Really, REALLY good advice. I can't recommend it enough.

Recommendations:

• Safe space for both. We have a "baby jail" (gated area) that we can put LO in that I know he's safe. Dog has a crate (we used it when he was a puppy and recently reintroduced it as his "safe place" away from the baby - baby is never allowed to go in there e.g. he can't crawl in, we won't let him.)
  
• Tons of rewards for good behavior - whenever pup is acting how you want him to, reward the shit out of him.
  
• Positive training methods. Punishment can increase behavior problems and ultimately backfire.
  
• Make sure pup is getting enough exercise. Behavior problems are exacerbated by boredom.
  
• Remember, both baby and dog are just creatures without much sense of these things. It's our job as the grown ups to protect both of them from each other. Issues that arise with dogs and babies are unfortunately our fault. So scary as both a mom and a dog owner!
  
  Victoria Stillwell is a good, positive methods trainer. Check out her website and Facebook page.
  
  The book "The other end of the leash" is good and a really interesting read.
  
  Watch for known issues - e.g. my dog is possessive of balls, and one specific toy. The baby is NOT ALLOWED THAT TOY. It's the dog's. It's our job to police that.
  
  Oh also - very important, learn about dog body language. This is a good video from a trainer at a nearby place to us. https://www.facebook.com/ZoomRoom.Campbell/videos/858572274272659/ People soooo misread dogs. "Oh look, he's smiling!" OMG no, he's so uncomfortable and desperately needs his humans to remove him from that situation before he snaps. Learn what to look for: Rigid boy, whale eye, showing teeth. Those all come before the growl. Learn what to look for even before you get to the growl - which is still an early warning, more than a bite.
  
  Good luck! It doesn't mean he/she is a bad dog. At all. Just needs a little more help managing fear of the baby.

Some people don’t seem to do this but I definitely did. We don’t allow our dog on the couch/bed anymore because we live in NYC and her paws are gross from walking around outside. I don’t want to have to worry about germs even more than I already do. I want the furniture to be safe places for my LO. Also he seems to get covered in dog hair so much even without being on the same level as the dog so I can’t imagine if they shared furniture.

Introducing the dog and the baby was more challenging than I expected. For the first two weeks every time the baby cried the dog cried and I was ready to pull out my hair. The dog is big and friendly and the baby is just too small. There’s a good book called Please Don't Bite the Baby (and Please Don't Chase the Dogs): Keeping Our Kids and Our Dogs Safe and Happy Together https://www.amazon.com/dp/158005577X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_ijFGcV9mUXn3I
I wish I had read BEFORE the baby came. By the time I got to it it was too late to enforce any of the rules.

Good luck!

Similarly, I'm planning to use baby gates to divide my house into 2 zones so that we have the option to separate baby and dog while still giving each of them access to a large area. I got a lot of good ideas from the book "Please don't bite the baby".

I actually don't think your concerns are outlandish. Many dog/baby injury stories start with "he was always so gentle!" A little bit of management with play pens and baby gates can provide a lot of protection against accidents.

I found this blog post and this book incredibly helpful!

I'm worried about my dogs' behavior when our baby comes, so I started reading Please Don't Bite the Baby (and Please Don't Chase the Dogs): Keeping Our Kids and Our Dogs Safe and Happy Together yesterday. It's easy to read and helps you understand your dog's body language with some tips help everyone get along. I highly recommend it!

We have two pitbull type dogs that will be around when our little one gets here. Our old guy (we think he's 8 or 9) has been around babies of all sizes and is very good about being gentle and patient with them. Our younger dog (4 1/2) is a ACD/pitbull cross and he's veryyyyyyy high energy and loves to chase small creatures like cats and squirrels and what not. We were worried about him thinking that a tiny human would be a fun squeaky toy so we got in touch with a trainer and worked on his basic commands so that we would be able to work with him for the next nine months. I didn't think he was poorly trained before but even just working with him for 10-20 minutes a day has really made a difference in him.

We also have been getting our dogs accustomed to being sequestered in the kitchen with baby gates so that if they do get too excited they have a safe place to settle down away from baby.

The biggest thing that we plan to do though is just make sure that the dogs and the baby are never left alone in the same room together even if it's just for a few moments. Way too many horror stories have happened from situations like this and we want to do everything we can to prevent anything tragic from happening.

I ordered this book to give me some ideas on how to manage all the changes coming and I found it to be incredibly helpful especially when it came to easing my own nerves about being a first time mom with a newborn and two big dogs. Baby girl gets here in a few short weeks and then we'll know for sure if any of our training has made a difference! Fingers crossed that our boys fall in love with her because I would be heartbroken if we had to give them up.

https://www.amazon.com/Please-Dont-Bite-Baby-Chase/dp/158005577X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483987219&sr=8-1&keywords=please+don%27t+bite+the+baby