Hi all,

I have two cavalier king charles spaniels, I bought them on the basis they were child friendly and they were integrated with kids as puppies so I thought great!

Fast forward a few years and I have an 11 month old baby. The problem is that they show no interest in her and it's starting to get me down to be honest. One of them to be fair tolerates her and is showing promise but the one I thought would love her seems to hate her! She hasn't nipped her but she's gone as if she's going to if that makes sense and I obviously dont leave them alone together (who would?)

If I'm honest it's making me really dislike the dogs (the one who seems to hate her certainly) - I know I do treat them differently and I understood they'd take time to adjust but they dont even seem to want to try.

I know I'm being stupid but I'd like us all to get on so if anyone has any tips (other than cover baby in bacon!) I'd really appreciate it

You say you treat them differently - did you just start doing that once the baby was on the scene ?

I can't suggest tips as we kept ours separate from our niece only introducing them gradually and even now they are never unsupervised around her. And we don't really treat them any different as that would be too unfair on them - they never chose this child should live with them.

I had a seven year old Border Collie who had never really been around children when we adopted our then 14 month old daughter....I was extreemly worried about how he would cope as I loved him so much and he was such an important part of my life. I thought I would never have any children and, to be honest, had treated him as a child.

When my daughter came to live with us, he wasn't keen on her at all...he hid, showed off, even growled at her once or twice. He didn't like her at all

The way I handled it was to ensure that my dog never felt left out. and my daughter was always a part of giving him the nice things he likes..fetching his lead for walks, giving him treats, dinner ect, I also taught her how to throw the ball for him and always let her be the one to throw it when he wanted to play. I also turned a bit of a blind eye to letting her sneak him bits off her dinner plate, as long as they weren't harmful to him

I never let her pull him about or rough house him..gentle supervised pats on the head were the only physical contact I allowed for the first couple of years

It took a while,but eventually he realised this little person coming into our lives was a positve thing for him, as she wasn't a threat, but was an endless sorce of fun and food. who took a lot longer to tire of playing with him than we did

Her first words were his name and she bonded with him before she bonded with any of us. By the time he passed away they were so close, he followed her everywhere and sat at the door all day waiting for her to come home from school. She called him her furry brother

I hope you can work it out with your child and dogs too

^^^^ Agree totally with this.

We have a very grumpy, unpredictable dog, and a 2 year old granddaughter. I can't tell you how many sleepless nights we had about how our dog would deal with her. Like Rosemary, we made sure both our dogs were never left out, and the grumpy one absolutely adores our GD.

Please don't expect too much from your dog. Little ones crawling and toddling about can seem very threatening to a small dog, and you shouldn't expect instant results.

Thanks for the replies guys, it's good to know that it takes time, I'm not sure what I was expecting to be honest.

By treating them differently I only mean that of course I do, they have to now share my time with my daughter so it would be naive of me to say they're not treated any differently. We all go for walks together and she's involved with feeding times and she drops food from her highchair for them.

As I say, one of them is really starting to tolerate her which is fantastic, the other one has really shocked me by being so uninterested in her as she loves kids and always has done since she was a puppy.

the thing is most people forget about the dogs and how their life will change after they are pregnant, a lot of these changes can be done prior to the baby being born, like getting them used to a new routine, baby gates, separation etc then it's not such a big upheaval for the dog when the baby comes the same goes for getting them ready for the new smells and sounds along with getting them used to walking with a pram.

It does take a lot of time and commitment to make a child and a dog work, for the most part quality time with your dogs without the child and with the child is important and also make sure they have a place the child is not allowed near for when they need their quiet time.

The most important thing for me was the reinforcement of the leave command prior to the baby being born.

It is really hard when the baby first starts to walk but my two year old and dog are inseperable, he lets him out and in and feeds him, they play ball together and have fun in the paddling pool together at the moment, it all comes with effort but you do have to have dogs with a good temperment to begin with