We have had a young visitor at our house for the last twenty-four hours. Our one year old nephew, Sawyer, will be spending a three day weekend with us. Within the first five minutes of entering our house Sawyer was frightened and crying. Unable to contain himself, Monte broke a STAY to say "Hello". The big yellow dog was just too excited to greet our small visitor and overwhelmed him. Since then we have provided more supervision and preemptive corrections to teach and re-enforce proper canine behavior.
The three enforceable rules are 1) No Licking 2) Do not retaliate to having your tail run over 3) Baby toys are not dog toys. The fourth rule which has been nearly impossible to enforce is that food dropped on the floor or stuck to the baby is off limits. This is often linked to rule number one and might explain why we still occasionally catch Monte licking Sawyer's toes, hands, or head.
The two yearlings are almost to the point where they ignore each other. They are learning to coexist peacefully.
2 comments:
I still have to enforce those rules with Gilbert, my fully trained dog too, so don't feel bad. He just cannot resist saying hello to the occasional little kid that comes in to our path in public. Sometimes it's hard to discipline him as effectively because I don't realize what he is doing until that child cries. When my mom is with me, she'll give me some warning. "There's a baby coming. Be ready!"
Bennett tells me that Journey is a service dog and that is why she licks him clean, to help him :) It's all part of her job!!
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