# Introduction to Babies



## MilesMom (Jun 21, 2012)

Question for all the new moms out there with Vizslas.... (we don't have kids)

A lot of our friends are having babies recently. They are either still pregnant or the babies are very young, under 4 months. My friends come over and bring the babies, and Miles is very good with them. When I am holding the baby he won't jump on me and wags his tail and just looks curious. If he can get close enough he licks their hands. 

My concern is when the babies start crawling and becoming toddlers, as I know my friends will likely just put the babies on the ground when this time comes so the babies can explore and they will be too heavy to hold all the time! It just makes me nervous because Miles has never been around crawling babies or toddlers to much extent. 

In regards to kids, he is improving. We have the neighbor kids walk and play with him and he has been allowing kids in the community to pet him as well (he had a squeezing incident with kids as a baby and this scarred him but we are overcoming it!) 

I don't think he views the baby as a "kid" as he is not fearful at all of the babies as he is with new kids. It still just makes me nervous because it will be a new experience. Any suggestions for introducing him to the crawling babies and toddlers? How did your dogs do?


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## Rudy (Oct 12, 2012)

Rudy visits new born's, infants and Youngsters weekly

Worse thing he ever did was lick them to death ;D

HE LOVES KIDS all ages 

We visit the kids cancer centers 1 x a week as well We do are best

All the Doctors and staff love him

smiles help healing to me

Its tough work

they Need Us and Rudy just earned his blind dog Helper certificate

For me Da' Meathead lol

Give more then you get


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

You could place a leash on him when the time comes. That way his is out, but you still have control over him.


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## MilesMom (Jun 21, 2012)

I like that idea, gives me some control of his behavior. 

He hasn't given me any reason to think he would do anything to the baby, but it still just makes me a little nervous to have a dog near a little baby.


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## SteelCityDozer (Aug 25, 2011)

I get nervous with mine simply because their hyperactivity tends to knock kids over that are stable on two feet yet. And even as good as your dog might be, kids need to learn boundaries and rules for the day they contact a not so nice dog. My friend is a teacher of second grade and EVERY year a kid is in the class with a facial scar from dog bite.


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## Főnix (Feb 3, 2013)

I'm guessing here, but I think something that you have on your side is, if he can see them often, they won't be a strange bouncy four-year-old on the street. They'll be kids that he knows. They grow up one day at a time and if he sees them motionless, sitting in a few months, crawling a few months later, toddling after that... if you're lucky he'll just be really well socialized to young children.


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## luv2laugh (Oct 6, 2011)

I may be a worry wart, but my automatic instinct would be to have him in a down stay while babies are on the ground or in another room. We have a baby gate in our house (for the cats, not a baby yet). But, if he didn't have a strong stay-down, I'd just put him in the other room behind the baby gate, so he could still see us. Training him to lie on a blanket/bed, etc. when the babies are out would also be easy. Oso knows that when we workout he needs to lay in a certain spot. 

With such bouncy strong and happy dogs, I just wouldn't take a chance with someone else's baby. 

We'll see what happens with our own, but I'd rather be safe than sorry even if the parent says its ok.


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## luv2laugh (Oct 6, 2011)

Ok, I'm rethinking my answer a bit. If Oso showed very little attention to the baby and gave it wide birth, he could walk around in other areas and do his thing.

Oso does this with our cats. When we cat sit a neighbors cat, he doesn't even get near it. We don't leave them alone unsupervised, but supervised it's not even close to a problem. If your pup gave the babies wide birth than there would be no need for a stay.


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