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Baby in the house and not sure what to do

1K views 7 replies 4 participants last post by  murphy1 
#1 ·
My niece is visiting this week and has a two month old baby boy. He's actually a very mellow boy and only fussed a little last night, but Duke and Charlie are obsessed with him. The crying does not seem to bother them. They want to be as close to the baby as possible and keep trying to lick his toes and sniff him (my niece and her husband are standing and hold him because it's almost impossible for them to sit). Duke and Charlie are not acting at all nervous, but rather more excited. Their body language is relaxed; tails wagging and it looks like they are smiling :) Charlie eventually settled down, but Duke did not at all. Even after my niece went to bed, Duke kept standing at the door to the basement and wanted to go with them.

It's been a long time since I've been around babies and Duke and Charlie have not been around babies at all before. For now, I've kept them leashed and hold them away from the baby. Any suggestions on how to handle this?
 
#2 ·
Is your niece opposed to letting Duke investigate the baby? Bayleigh loved and loved and loved on our babies when we brought them home. In fact, the second we walked through the door with our daughter(now 8) she hasn't left her side. If the baby was on the floor, so was Bay. If the baby was sleeping, Bay was in the room next to the crib. With our son, now 5, she wasn't as head over heels- but she was super protective of him. When he woke in the middle of the night she'd be howling before he even started crying. If he got hurt, s he'd be the first to investigate and make it better.


I think Golden's are naturally drawn to kids(and babies)/


If you're sure Duke is just wanting to explore and love- I'd allow him to(supervised of course).


Lisa
 
#3 ·
I think my niece is a little nervous, but her husband is a dog lover and I think was also thinking it might help to settle Duke down. I wasn't worried about either dog hurting the baby based on how they were acting, it was almost like they wanted to love him to pieces. :) But both dogs did try to jump up on my niece when she was holding the baby so they could be closer and I don't want them jumping on anybody when they're holding the baby. I kept them on a pretty tight leash last night.
 
#4 ·
My niece leaves tomorrow. Charlie did great at settling down with the baby but Duke has continued to be over excited. Last night I put them in my room and tonight I tethered Duke to me. That seemed to work the best. My niece was much more comfortable with Charlie who proved to be very gentle around the baby. I was worried about him the most and he surprised me.


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#5 ·
All the dogs I've had of various breeds along with Goldens always loved babies and little ones. They were naturally curious at first wanting to check them out-sniffing them, licking them, nuzzling them.

My dogs were great when my son was a baby and I didn't mind them licking him. I know a lot of people don't....

Like Kalhayd said above, my dogs usually were always right next to my son when he was little.

Sounds like your boys did well with your niece's baby. I think if Duke had been given the opportunity to check out the baby he would have done even better.
 
#6 ·
You both are probably right about Duke. I was taking my cues from how nervous my niece seemed to be and she was much more comfortable with Charlie around him...


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#8 ·
Since I've had Murphy four more grandchildren have been added to make the total five. I think it's fair to say you must know your dog well but we held each baby and let Murphy sniff from the top of the baby's head to the tip of the toes. He simply loves when they all come over!! He cries as they walk through the door and is sad (and exhausted) when they leave. When they are in the bouncy seat he kisses them, when in the high chair they feed him. One caution is not letting the children run because he'll be right there running with them and I'm afraid he'd accidentally knock them down.
As I said you have to know your dog. My last dog didn't like children at all and we dealt with that accordingly.
 
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