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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on March 3, 2012 at 10:29am

You actually want your dog to move away from the baby ( in my opinion). You should enforce that the baby is also a leader. I would not allow the licking so tell your corgi "leave it" and move him away when he does that. Your ten month old is too young to ever be trusted alone with the dog. It is great that you are teaching her to be gentle with the dog but it will be a long time before she understands that. Most dog bites of children are caused because the dog gets pushed too far and has to defend themselves or thinks the child is another puppy and is fair game. Cesar has some good shows on babies and dogs that are probably on u-tube. You are right to always supervise them together. Stay safe for both the dog and baby!

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Permalink Reply by Melvin Brock on March 3, 2012 at 3:29pm

Mine hang around our 5 MO grandboy. But mostly just come by to check on him and go about their business. If the baby is laying in the floor, they come and lay near him for a few minutes. The corgi girl's 4 & 3 yo. are the best breed we have ever had for being people friendly. Our male westie 8yo is the one I have to watch. He does not like screaming kids and when they run around.

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Permalink Reply by Beth on March 3, 2012 at 3:42pm

I don't have kids, but my opinion is that moving away from babies is a good thing.  It means your dog recognized that the baby (not the dog) gets first call on any space she wants to occupy, and the dog is respecting her by moving away.  My male Corgi always does this with the cat.  He has learned through experience to respect the cat, so when the cat moves into a space, the dog moves out of the space.   He's quite probably just grunting because he had to get up and move. 

I'd let him continue to do that as long as the baby is still crawling or toddling.  

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Permalink Reply by Snickmom on March 3, 2012 at 8:05pm

When my first son was a baby our Doxie would try to stay away from him, but if the baby got her cornered she would lick his face to distract him so she could get away. One day we accidentally left them together in the motorhome at a gas stop and there was crying, so I think maybe the dog figured she could be a little more assertive about telling him to leave her alone if we weren't watching. We were much more carefull about supervision after that. A baby doesn't know not to pull ears or hair or grab.

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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on March 3, 2012 at 10:42pm

Excellent advice from Amy, but your 10 month old has a long way to go before she can be expected to properly interact with the dog. Dogs don't usually take much notice of infants, though one has to be careful in the very beginning as they don't necessarily understand this "creature" is a human being and not some small animal.  The trouble starts when a child begins to crawl.  That's when pack order kicks in.  A well adjusted dog in a family with a first baby, will see himself as number three.  When the baby becomes mobile, he does not want to be demoted to number four, so things can get tricky at this stage, if the dog sees his space invaded, or his belongings (toys, food,etc) in peril.

Never hold the dog making him stay if he feels uncomfortable, this will increase his level of discomfort and he will associate this with the baby.  Never leave a dog alone with any small child.  That means you are in the same room and watching what goes on.  Children will do things they think are funny which can provoke a bite from any normal dog.

Teach the baby not to bother the dog, which means the baby does not go toward the dog.  The baby can learn to sit and, with you next to her, call the dog to come to her.  If he comes and licks her face, it's a greeting and it's OK.  You can help the dog to be gentle by holding his collar. You can have your little girl offer a low interest treat ( like a cheerio) by putting her open hand in the palm of your hand, as you both sit on the floor, and have the dog sit, or even better lie down, before you use a special word to signal he can come and eat the treat.  The treat should be in her open palm ( which is held inside your open palm ) and you should teach the dog the word easy, or gentle. If he's too rough, or too excited about the treat, practice this step on your own before doing it with the baby. You want all the interaction between the two to be positive and gentle.

 Most of the time when your little one is up and about, use pet gates to keep the two in separate areas, but where the dog can see the child and get used to the sights, smells and noises that are part of the picture. By the time she is a full fledged toddler, you should have good enough patters established so that she will know to respect the dog and they will like each other and form their own bond.  Still NEVER leave a child under the age of six unattended with any dog.

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Permalink Reply by Lemmy Winks on March 4, 2012 at 12:50pm

My daughter is just over a year, and my corgi wasn't socialized with children at all. So he would try to nip and herd her, stand back and bark at her. I always stayed on top of correcting him, but he seems to have really "learnt his lesson" when he went to nip at her diaper, and she lost balance and fell on top of him ( they were both ok).
He moves away from her now, and no longer barks.
As a precaution, however, we taught our older dog this and are currently teaching our corgi not to snip, bite or snarl when being pulled on.
We did/do this by randomly going up and start gently pulling on ears, tail, legs, fur ( just like a child might do), and if he turns to react we correct, and continue until there is no reaction, then we give lots of praise.
Our daughter has stepped on, slapped and poked our older dog, and the most he'll do is look at us like "guuuuuuys....make her stop."
We have also been teaching our daughter to "pet nice" and "be gentle" but her motor skills are still a bit jerks so... a pet often turns into a pat on the eyeball haha.
It just helps to avoid a bad situation when something happens during that split second when your back is turned. 

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Permalink Reply by Libby and Dyddy!! on March 4, 2012 at 1:49pm

Our two corgis (10-year old female and 8-year old male) seem to be OK with my son (8 mo. old). Our girl is a little leery of my son as she is a rescue and came from a family with an 18-month old, who was NOT respectful of her. Libby will move from him if he crawls towards her but will not nip or growl. Our boy could care less, but if our son pulls on him, we will use his hand to pet nicely on Dyddy and say, "See, nice." We still would not leave them alone with him, just as a precautionary measure. But if we are hanging out outside, they will come lay with him and myself on our blanket, and sniff or lick him.

 

My husband, however did bring home a pee-pee diaper from the hospital and one of the little shirts so they could familiarize themselves with his scent before he came home. We also met outside on mutual ground the day we were discharged, so they could investigate him, get their sniffers going, and we all walked in as one pack. They understand he is a member of our pack, and not a toy.

 

Good luck!! I am sorry I do not have much insight to offer. :-/ Just lots of lovings to your corgi fellow!!!! And praise too!

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