My dog/children

Question
Hello, I have an almost 10-year-old male cocker spaniel who is a bit on the hyper side but otherwise a good, sweet little dog. Whenever we have people over that have babies, though, he goes nuts. Not nuts in a mean way, but he gets so worked up and anxious because he wants to lick the child and constantly bug them. When he cannot be near the dog, he just whimpers and cries like mad the whole time. We cannot get him to calm down at all, and it it always very stressful. He does not try to bite the children or be aggressive, but it is almost as if he thinks the baby is food or a toy because he once got a little close and took the child's sleeve in his mouth because he wanted to pull the baby down to him. It's like he doesn't really understand what the baby is. We do not have children ourselves, but we now have a new baby niece and I dread when they will come to visit with her because I know my dog will be a pain in the ass the entire time. Our other cocker spaniel is calm and really doesn't care.

Are there things we can do so that he won't act this way? I love him so much and he is my baby, but when babies come to visit (which is not that often), he just turns into a nutcase and never stops crying and whimpering. He just won't settle down.

What can we do?

Thank you.

Rachel


Answer
I would set up situations where you can have the dog at a distance from the baby (at least across the room, on leash)and play "look at that" with the baby (a game from Leslie McDevitt's book, "Control Unleashed. Teach him what a clicker means (or you can use a word marker, though it is less effective) www.clickertraining.com
If he is close enough that he is crying or struggling to get to the baby, go further away until he can play the game. Ask him to look at the baby. The instant he turns his head that direction, click and treat, and repeat immediately. This changes the meaning for him of the baby - from "something I have to check out" to a game he plays with you. Training him some behaviors like down stay would also give him something to do besides try to get to the baby. While it doesn't sound like he is actually aggressive or fearful, you really do have to be very careful with this situation. If he's grabbing clothes, he could easily miss and get fragile baby skin. And accidents can happen quickly, especially when the dog is highly excited. So he should NOT be allowed close enough to the baby to do this.
You could probably do with some professional help with a trainer who uses positive training and reads dogs well. And when you don't have time to have your attention 100% on the dog, I'd put him safely in another room while the company with a baby is there. Sandy Case MEd CPDT www.positivelycanine.com