13 year old springer spaniel with cataracts.

Question
QUESTION: Hi Ailigh, I have a 13 year old springer spaniel. I would say about 6 months to a year ago he started developing cataracts in both eyes. His behavior has been pretty much the same as far as being a good dog, and listening to me when I call him, or when he starts wandering out of the yard. He has become a little snippy towards small children that are not good with dogs. Kids that annoy him by coming around him while he is relaxing on the floor..  He is not snippy towards kids all the time, but on rare occasions when he just wants to be left alone. He never gets snippy towards our 9 year old daughter because she is good with pets and does not annoy him when she comes around him to pet him...    Ten months ago we had a baby boy, and we made a point of keeping all the animals both dog and cats away from him until he got a little older. Now our son is 11 months old and crawling around really good, and is at that age where he is curious of everything, including Trevor our springer spaniel..  Trevor has been really good with him for the most part, with close supervision..  Everytime Shea our son goes near him we watch him carefully to make sure he does not grab at him or pull his ears or any other annoying behavior that might aggravate Trevor..  SO to make a long story short just recently, I was not there, but my wife was.. Shea was crawling on the floor around Trevor and we are not really sure what Shea did, or what exactly occurred but my wife took her eyes off Shea for less than a minute and she turned around and Trevor, the dog, had SHea pinned on his back and had his mouth open and over Shea's face, and he was growling.. My wife immediately went over and grabbed SHea in a panic, and took him away from the dog. Shea, our son is fine he just got a couple of little bruises on his and a very little scratch, thank goodness... My wife is now freaked out and wants me to get rid of our dog whom I had since he was a pup for 13 years... I love this dog very much, and promised my wife that he will not be around Shea anymore... I realize that Trevor is getting old and due to the fact that he is loosing his vision he is getting a little testy, and when Shea was crawling on him he might have over reacted because he did not know what was on him, only that he wanted whatever was on him and pulling and grabbing him, he wanted off...   I told my wife we are just going to have to keep Trevor away from shea at all times, when Shea is playing inside we will keep Trevor outside, and only let Trevor inside at night, and in the laundry room that we have gated off...   I was wondering if you had any advice as to what we can do so that we don't have to get rid of Trevor...    I have been talking to vet that say the English springer spaniel breed can get snippy when they get older, and due to the fact that he is loosing his vision I would assume is making him less tolerant of little kids...   I have been reading about these eye drops that you can give dogs to reverse the cataracts at http://wisechoicemedicine.net...   Any advice that you could give would be very beneficial..


Craig Frankie

ANSWER: Craig, I would advise seeing a trained behavior counselor in your area who can come to your house and work with you one-on-one.  Hindsight being 20/20 and all that, there are a number of steps to take to prepare a dog for a baby and the main aspect is not separating them, but introducing the smells and new routine during the pregnancy.  Contact me at aialigh@animalia.us and tell me where you live so that I can recommend someone for you.

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QUESTION: we dont have the money to pay some specialist to come over our house and give us advice on how to deal with this situation. My wife wants the dog to be put down, and I am trying to avoid that. We are going to sit down with our vet on thursday to see if she has any advice she can give us...  To sit down with a behavior specialist is not an option for us right now.

Answer
Usually people begin to have problems when a child begins to crawl and if not properly dealt with then they don't resolve until the child is old enough to understand the rules around the dog.  Your vet may be able to help, but I am not comfortable giving advise over the computer for a situation like this.  Without being able to see the dog, the family interact and knowing your wife's reluctance to work with the dog I would worry that either the dog would be left alone (which is it not used to after 13 years) or the situation might lead to an actual bite incident.  I am sorry, but with the dog's life on the line and a small child in the house I really feel you need someone who can work with you in your home.  Check with your vet and see if they can help?