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Help!Jumping up at 1yr old girl & taking food off her.

*Pauline*

Well-known member
I am looking after the prettiest little girl today and have been asked if I can do this once a month. I might have to say I can't. I was worried as Dylan loves to mouth and his teeth are very sharp. That hasn't been the problem though. He won't stop jumping up to lick her face which she doesn't like and he tries to take her biscuit off her (not aggressively). I boiled up some chicken breast quickly as a bribe and I have his attention more because of that but not completely. Do you have any advice please?

I'm wondering if I should say I can't do it in future or use it as an oportunity to train him with little kids.
 
I'd take the opportunity to learn from it. She won't get hurt. Wesley jumps on my 16 month old and can knock her onto her bottom and he also tries to steal her food from her. She only gets a little startled, but is never hurt.

I'd love to hear some input on how to kick this behavior.

Only thing I've really read or heard is that when they approach people they are to sit. If they sit there, you give them a reward.

Not sure about what to do about the food stealing though...
 
I am not sure what would be the best tactic of teaching Dylan to not jump on her, espicially if she will only be there once a month. I think you would have to think of a way that you can practice not jumping even when the little girl is not around. Good luck! :flwr:

I know it is not your call, as it is not your child Pauline, but I think it is good for small children to be around dogs from the get go. I have a distant cousin who is 2. His parents have always told him "Dogs are bad! Dogs will bite you and hurt you!" He is PETRIFIED of my dogs..even teeny tiny Tilly. He screams bloody murder around them and tries to kick them. I usually just go home when they show up to family events :roll: Wesley's mom, sounds like you are doing both your puppy and your baby a favor by socializing them with each other. :flwr:
 
Hi Pauline!
Maybe you can start to focus on teaching Dylan to properly play and socialize with children now. If it's once a month that you may look after the little girl, than you have some time to prepare. Take him to parks- kids always want to meet a little puppy.

I really wanted Coco to get along with kids and babies (my sister-in-law isn't so crazy about dogs and she is having a baby in July. I still want to be invited to family events!) so I make a special effort to carefully have Coco approach kids with their parents. She was definitely nervous when she first met the girl across the street who had all her friends over (they ran across the street screaming, "puppy!!", when Coco was just 10 weeks or so), but with time she's gotten so much better.

I keep her on a very short leash, nevertheless. And I think it may be a good idea to let the pup sniff the child's hand first. Oh and praise him and give him treats after a good meeting. I'm sure you already know this, but it may help with looking after the little girl too. :flwr:
 
Probably the best thing to do is to get physically between Dylan and the little girl and say "No!" when she's jumping. Otherwise, she doesn't understand that it is not acceptable behavior. You have to show Dylan that the little girl is off-limits when he is in jumping mode and can only be approached in a calm manner. Having a leash on him would also help because you can get him in a sitting position near the girl (and of course, stop the jumping up). Rewarding him in that position in her presence would be very good.

It is very hard, especially when the dog is food-motivated (as our Daisy is), but with lots of repetition, it can be taught. Daisy just gets very over-excited around kids because she loves them, so we are still working on keeping her from jumping. She has improved, but she still has a ways to go.
 
Thank you for your replies. Kind of you to go inot such detail.

Both Dylan and the little girl went to sleep at around 11am. When Dylan woke up he was a lot calmer with her. My friend rang to ask how I was getting on and she looks after the little girl and has two "in your face" Jack Russells. She said just let them get on with it. Dylan will calm down, and he did.

I started yesterday trying to train Dylan to wait when I put his food down. I was advised to do this in case he decides to snatch some food from a kid so good timing.

I might ask to have her over more often. Her mum can't afford child care so she has asked 4 ladies from my congregation including myself to look after her daughter one day a week. So it's only once a month for me as I said. I could offer to cover for them too.

I enjoyed looking after her. Is it just me or do other peoples kids call you mum? Most of the little ones I've looked after over the years called me mum. :D
 
Pauline, that's so cute that they call you mum!

It's good to hear that Dylan got calmer. I'm sure he'll take cues from you and learn to behave properly. That's great that you are training him to wait. I liked the other ideas too, like teaching him "off" or "leave it". :flwr: :flwr:
 
Thanks. It is lovely that they call me Mum. I just think Auntie is a mouthful for them though I don't encourage them to call me mum.

How is Coco feeling now? I was quite upset for her that they didn't give pain killers after her spay. She has such a lovely face.
 
Coco is doing so much better now. Thanks for asking. :) I'm so relieved. She was just so lifeless for those couple of days, in so much pain. They gave her an injection of morphine after the surgery, but nothing after that. I asked the night we picked her up and the next morning for painkillers, but the vet said it wasn't needed. I feel horrible thinking about it! I should have been more aggressive.
 
Pauline.... The best thing you can do to correct this behavior with Dylan is to practice greeting people. Get a friend or family member and take turns coming through the front door. Put his leash on him and the person inside should lay the leash on the floor and step on the middle of it so that Dylan won't be able to jump. When he stops trying to jump, praise him and give him a treat. You could also hold a treat in your hand and use the same technique when Dylan jumps up to try and get it. Have the other person give him a different treat when he stops trying to jump.
 
We got our lab when my youngest was 3. I always gave her, her kong with a biscuit in the laundery room - gated when my kids had a meal or snack. Sometimes if it was a quick snack like a cookie I put a long light weight line on her and me. I dont her to lie down and stay - if she got up I had the end and put her down again. Served as a great time to train too. Mind you during this last wk with Kodee wrapping me around her finger I need to work on training myself to not forget all these great tips before I have a monster on my hand! :yikes
 
No time to read other posts so hope I'm not repeating but .....

You could train him to always wait for your command before he takes any food. (easier said than done :lol: ) I have done this a little with the boys and tried to teach them some patience with taking food also as they would run and snap it out of my hand or the leave it command could be a good one. These two will pay off time and time again in other instances aswell.

Do you have access to an x pen where you can watch them both but there is some distance between them and time out for both?

The little girl could go in their while she is eating ?

Ha HA just kidding I mean for Dylan
 
All your ideas are great. Well I started to get Dylan into a sit before I gave him his dinner and put my hand on his chest and told him to stay. When he stopped lunging (spelling?) for a few moments I let him eat. I also put a little piece of chicken on the floor and told him to stay. I can't believe it's working already. Now I don't have to hold him, I just lift the food if he goes before I said ok. I'll work on it.

I did think of using the play pen for the Jorja. She is so cute, she was getting grumpy at 11 so I cuddled her and she fell asleep on me. Yum! Oh and as soon as the crate was opened, she climbed in with Dylan! I'd show you the pic but she's not mine and some people don't put pics of their kids online.
 
Whoa, hang on here; while I think this advice is fine for a child of a much older age, and if you have weeks in which to train Dylan to behave more politely, there is just no way this is appropriate for a one year old or any toddler -- the child is way too young and a dog cannot be trusted to behave when a child is waving food around! :yikes: That's asking for a lot of self control he hasn't been trained to have in this particular circumstance and this child is way too young and small to think sensibly or follow your directions on how to interact with Dylan.

This: **Dylan should not have access to a one year old, EVER, and a one year old should not have access to Dylan.** Please folks, do NOT allow your cavalier access to toddlers and young children and vice versa; this is a potential nightmare. Dog attacks can be sudden even from the most placid family dog -- a cavalier's teeth could as easily (and accidentally) maim or even kill a child as a pit bull and don't ever take the risk of thinking otherwise. This is such a serious issue, and a dangerous mix on both sides.

All interactions need to be totally supervised with you holding Dylan or the baby. Otherwise either the baby needs to be confined or Dylan needs to be confined. Either could be seriously hurt with tragic results if they can freely interact. If Dylan bites a child *even by accident*, in many places this would mean he could be PUT DOWN as a legal requirement!! This point was made on It's Me or the Dog a few months back and is true for the UK.

Please read:

http://www.cavaliertalk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1101

And then especially,

http://www.diamondsintheruff.com/toddlersndogs.html

All this must be a consideration if you make the decision to look after any young child when a dog is also in the house. But very especially with a toddler, who will think of the dog as a huggable stuffed toy. Most bites worldwide are to CHILDREN, by FAMILY DOGS, to the FACE ( a whopping 77% of them!!)... and again I stress this is just as likely to happen with a cavalier as a larger dog that we may think of as scarier or more aggressive. As one dog trainer hs said, any dog has a mouthful of the equivalent of carpet knives. Another notes you need to think of a dog as a scissors left in a room, and behave accordingly with a small child (would you leave it to play with a scissors?). Lots of dangerous attacks to kids come because kids cannot read dog warning language and many dogs HATE hugs, pokes, surprise grabs, hair pulling.... or just one day may find it has tolerated enough. Children are the most bitten because adults think 'but he's just the family dog/she loves children/isn't it cute when little Tommy hugs Fido so tightly like that'.... DO NOT RISK A CHILD!!

And also: please never, ever let a child climb in a crate with a dog. That's such a dangerous, enclosed space and exactly the situation in which a dog may turn and bite. On the dog's side -- a dog should always be reassured that a crate is a safe private area and especially a no-children area. Or it can undo all the work we do at crate training. (y)
 
i was thinking what karlin was saying while reading this thread. a child that small is a baby and can't protect herself.

i would be afraid that dylan could accidentally scratch her face with his toenails. belle has done that to me a few times recently. i dont' expect it because i'm used to zack and he never does that, so i'm caught off guard. Belle jumps up with her front paws held high, and doesn't distinguish betwen my face and the rest of my body, whereas zack never tries to put his feet on my face. i bend down to pet and greet them, and belle is excited and friendly and jumps up with her paws held high. today i got it on the lip, ouch. A one year old has such soft skin. dylan could hurt her by accident while being friendly and acting like a puppy.

you can train him and supervise him but it would always be an unpredictable thing.

how fun to be surrounded by all that cuteness. :)
 
I didn't leave them on their own ever btw but thanks for the advice. I agree about her not getting into the crate, she does it at home with her dogs. I'll have to rethink the baby sitting. We start a highly recommended puppy class today. :D
 
I would crate the dog whilst the child is eating.

I don't think there's any reason not to look after the child (particularly as it's not frequent), but I agree 100% with Karlin's comments.

Incidentally I have a friend who has 2 springer spaniels + foster dogs. She also has a 3 y/o daughter. The dogs are always crated when the little girl is eating her meals. Likewise, when the dogs are eating, the little girl is in a different room. I've never met such a responsible child with dogs than this little girl, but her mum still wouldn't take any chances.
 
Hi Pauline, Please dont stop babysitting. There are ways for you to do that and in my opinion you are doing the right thing. I have a 19 month old and I taught my dogs to wait and leave. Trinity( my baby) doesnt go in their crates if they are in them, but she does have fun "training" Jeremy to go in and come out. I am always with her with my dogs around and they go outside or into there crates at meal and snack times. Dont panic about anything either if something happens cos it will make it worse. Like if baby does have a bikky stolen out of her hand just give her another one and calmly put Dylan away, but hopefully it wont happen again. Dylan will see the child as a fellow puppy and he needs to learn what is and isnt acceptable just like the baby does. And at least you will know that Dylan wont freak out if in the future you have grandchildren because he will have been properly socialised with kids. :flwr:
 
Thanks Selina. I do love to spend time with little kids. I'm 39 and I'd had my two children by the time I was 19. I've spent the last...17 years being broody! Actually as I get older it's wearing off, thankfully. Like you say, it's very important for him to be good with kids, epecially as one day in the future I hope to be a full time grandmother!

It's no problem separating them while she eats, Dylan doesn't mind his crate. She did feed him the first fig roll (I took it off him) so he thought he could take the second.

We started the puppy class today and they do the Canine Good Citizen training. Jumping up is a big no no. Dylan was so singled out for being the cutest puppy there today. The trainer asked to borrow him to show him to one of the ladies in the previous class, she loved him. All but one of the dogs were very good. For a puppy class, they all looked fully grown to me.
 
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