Dogs and babies

I'm sure we've had plenty of threads on this, but I want everyone's tips for my specific situation -

Yesterday, we introduced Lillian's to my boyfriend's two family boxers. Hansel is a 4 yo male, and Rascal is a 6 yo female.

Rascal was super awesome. She sniffed the baby's feet, tried to lick her face, and when we corrected her, she just wagged her tail and then ignored the baby for the rest of the time.

Hansel....loves the baby. LOOOOVES her. As in, wants to lick her skin off and may think she's a toy. He's the type of dog that if he's ever around the baby, we'll have to be RIGHT THERE ready to intervene. He's a good dog, with basic obedience skills, and he listens, he just seems like he'll need constant direct direction near the baby, and if I even look away for half a second he'll be slobbering all over her or possibly pawing at her or something.

I'm not sure if the novelty will wear off eventually....but there's a good possibility we'll be living with these dogs sometime in the near future. If it's not a good living situation, the dogs CAN go live with his father (they're technically his dogs), but he doesn't have a fenced yard.

We've got plenty of baby gates and a good obedience foundation (he's got a solid sit, stay, leave it, and come command). We can work on a go-to-your-place command. I *THINK* he's crate trained but I'm not positive.

Also, I think he's a chewer. Besides being super-vigilant, keeping the baby's things picked up as best as possible, etc...anything to keep him from grabbing her stuff?

Have them both checked for food, toy and space aggression.

I would keep working on heavy rewarding for not giving attention to the baby Meaning use place commands, settle, etc. I used to really like playing fetch with the dogs while wearing the baby...I kind of think it helped them get used to the baby as being not for them but more like part of me?

With toys, its really management. I have a toy box of dog toys and they are pretty good about going to theirs. I also have the playroom off limits so that helps as MOST of the temptation is away. They both know "not yours" but that is only reliable really if I am around to notice and remind them. There are certain toys that for whatever reason they go bonkers over and its a lost cause if they are not totally separated from them...for Ivy it was plastic dinosaurs. She chewed their heads off and would hide the carcasses under her bed:/

I have a four year old cardi, a five month old cardi, and a 14 month old human baby at home lol

Yes, I live in a zoo ;-)

Right from the get-go I established VERY firm boundaries between my uber friendly kissy dogs and my little one. If he initiates contact with them, they're welcome to have a love fest. Otherwise, he's to be left alone to explore the world as his leisure and they have toys to play with.

The dogs know they can play with the toys in their toy box, but anything that's left out on the floor is NOT fair game.

I find the "leave it" command very helpful. Eventually, they both started recognizing their toys from his toys and now we don't have a problem with that. I also use the "leave it" command when they're getting in little bud's face and he's trying to walk somewhere or do something.

It's alot of work and management if you have busy, curious dogs who love love love people.

I will say that I have never had any problem with resource guarding; the dogs don't even do that between each other. In fact, the dogs try to get the little one to play with them by offering him toys and then play bowing. It's really super cute, especially when he recriprocates and tosses a toy for them. <3 <3

Just wanted to give you some hope that it won't be that way forever... no babies here, but that is exactly how Squash used to be around our cats. SO fascinated by them he wanted to be licking or nosing or pawing them constantly. Just management and supervision and tons and tons and tons of repetition with redirecting, and now he barely pays any attention to them unless he happens to get a wild hare up his rear.

I second the suggestion to do loads of rewarding for leaving L alone and being calm around her.

I'd also teach the dogs where to go if they need space away from a baby NOW before she is super mobile. I know several people who have low gates that work to keep baby contained, but that the dogs know they can jump over to get some space.

For toys, you can try scenting either hers or the dogs' with something like vanilla extract to make it more obvious which ones the "no chew" rule applies to, but I'd work hard to keep both dog and kid toys separate to avoid resource issues.

Yes, because a lot of baby toys look like doggie toys & vice versa. So there is a lot of room for confusion on both sides.

I don't have any problems with my current dogs ... They love everyone :/. But kids will never be a problem here.

For us, our days of having 2+ dogs put together were over, but we also had APBTs. There was enough going through my mind and on my plate to have to worry about a dog fight. And the best way to avoid having my baby be a bystander to a possible dogfight was to remove the possibility. So when the baby (or boys, as I had more) were up and with me, only one dog out at a time. And even then I can honestly tell you I NEVER left my baby (boys) and the dog alone in a room together. Bouncy seats, exersaucers, bumbos, etc. are a great way to bring your baby with you from room to room (obviously always on the floor!). If the baby was asleep or happily doing whatever, then doggy came with me via a leash attached to my ankle, including when answering the door, phone, check the oven etc.

An ounce of prevention, in this situation, can save lives. And I can also honestly say that every dog we had was in LOVE with the baby (/boys), so it's not that I didn't trust them. I just knew there was no room for regrets, when an extra 10-20 seconds of effort would take away the possibility altogether.

The worst that ever happened was when Chipper, our OEB, got the zoomies and plowed right through the infant-to-toddler rocker chair thing that Cole, just 5 months old, was sleeping in. The entire chair went airborne. Cole was ok, but I learned even more about " product placement". Lol