Baby and dangerous dog(s)?

My cousin got her first dog a couple years ago and loved him so much she got another one within 1.5 yrs. So she has two boston terriers ages 3-4. One has bitten people 3 times I think. My cousin lives in a different city so I can't really know the dog, but it sounds like he is fearful and will attack (not just be cornered and bite) when he is afraid. He has never been aggressive with people he knows. Her other dog is sweet as pie but he is a tank and will bowl adults over. He has given my cousin's adult sister a bloody nose from jumping and ramming his head into her. They have had the aggressive dog Bentley to obedience class but it did not seem to help. They just got a referral from the vet to a behaviorist.

My cousin is pregnant and she is worried about the interactions of the dogs and the new baby. She said her friends have brought babies over before and the dogs were interested and wanted to lick them and not aggressive, but these were very short visits/intros.

Any suggestions?

That is a tough one. I had a Jack Russel until last year and she was a fear biter toward people she didn't know. However, I never had a problem with her and our son (she was a senior when he was born). It is most important to supervise and minimize all interactions between dog and baby. Always. It sounds like the "tank" needs more training if he is jumping up. Tell her to take him to obedience school ASAP.

Well... general training won't really help, I don't think.

I suggest getting a makeshift baby and teaching them to leave it alone and to just generally give it space. Like... treating the baby doll like they're going to treat the baby and going from there, and setting boundaries. Like, they can even make it where the dogs don't go in the baby's room period.

If I have kids, that's probably what I'd do. Let them know that they're not allowed to be near the baby (practicing on a baby doll and then reinforcing when the baby actually arrives). If that doesn't work, then I would - depending on the breed - keep them out of the baby's way period. Obviously, CKCS can't do too much damage to anything... unless it's smothered or drowned by slobber.. but boston terriers are considerably rougher. Consider buying a playpen for the dogs or baby/dog gates to keep them in one certain area.

They do have a large fenced yard for the dogs to play in. They also have baby gates the dogs are used to. Additionally, they recently moved the dogs from sleeping on their bed to sleeping in their crates and they adjusted great.

I really hope things work out. Training the tank (Buddy) may be hard. He's one of those absolutely relentless dogs and they are first time dog owners. He just gets so excited he goes mad! Probably a great temperament for a police dog

Thanks for the tips!

Hi

Sometimes you cant take the risk with a dog ,before I got the girls and prior to my cats I bought a puppy Kerry Blue who turned out to be a horror he was four months when we got him and he was one of three boys who the lady breeder let run riot in the house .I thought I could change him ,I did partly succeed when he was with me but when I left for work he would rule the house and petrified Dawn so I started taking him to work with me but when we knew Luke was on the way ,it wasn't worth risking so after 2 1/2 yrs I returned him to the breeder ,when we took him to the park I couldn't let him off lead or he would attack any dog irrespective of size .So my little Cavalier girls are a very wellcome change .