Beagles and Children

United States
February 2, 2007 9:41pm CST
We have a Beagle who is almost 5 yrs old. We treated him like our first born. We now have a 14 month old son, and you would think things would have worked themselves out by now. He seems to love our son, they play together and our beagle is generally good natured, but every once in a while he snaps at him and has caught his fingers a couple of times. I don't think his intention is to hurt my son, because I am sure that if that were the case he wold have done so. But how can I bring the occasional snippines to a stop?
2 responses
luvcameras
@luvcameras (4)
• United States
4 Mar 07
I have the same problem. My daughter is 12 months, and the beagle is two. We also have a Rottie, who is great with the kid. The beagle, though, does not like having her face touched by the baby and will get angry. I have tried some techniques from the Dog Whisperer. I only pet the dog when she is being calm around the baby. If the dog is tense, I remove the baby and ignore the dog. Now, she is doing much better. Not only that, but I also show the baby how to do "soft touches." I take her hand and rub it softly on the dog, and say "Soft Touches." She seems to get it.
slickcut
@slickcut (8141)
• United States
3 Feb 07
Well i don,t think your dog is trying to hurt your son either, but he is trying to teach him...A 14 month old does not know not to pull the dogs tail,or ears,and their ears are really long on a beagle...Im sure at 14 months old your baby is not old enough to know what to do or not to do as far as the dog is concerned..I do believe that your dog knows that this is a baby or he would have already drawn some blood and really hurt your son,if he wanted too...You can stop the occasional snippiness when your son is old enough not to pull or hit on your dog,I don,t think either one of them are at fauilt,he is trying to teach your baby that reaching in the wrong place or doing the wrong thing will be unacceptable....