A friend who has one of my dogs - now aged 7 years - also has a 12 month old baby.  Dog and baby adore one another.  I placed this dog in a pet home following a cruciate ligament operation that left him lame with arthritus and unshowable when he was two years old. Over the last couple of months, the baby has become more mobile and has bumped into, and fallen onto, the dog on a couple of occasions, obviously hurting his bad leg, and the dog has snapped at the toddler - a kind of "Get away from me!" snap, although no contact has been made. 

Apart from the obvious advice of separating these two until the toddler is old enough to understand that the dog needs his own space - I wondered if anyone on the Forum had experienced this problem for themselves and had anything else to add.

Not really, even with a fully ift dog I would expect the dog to be protected from the child as the last thing wanted is for the dog to have no recourse but to defend itself, with the consequence that it will likely bite faster next time.

To be honest the child won't be old enoguh to be left alone with the dog until the end of it's days.  I wouldn't trust even an Infant school age child alone with a dog for fear of teasing or inadvertently hurting the dog.

I tend to agree, the dog must be protected from the baby, and only be together under supervision for both their sakes. It is dog nature to warn but if the warnings are ignored, the next natural thing to do (esp. if pain is involved ) is to nip rather than air snap. This is absolutely normal for the dog who will see it as communication, but of course  not what parents want and not fair on dog or baby esp. as baby could end up scared of dogs!

Hth
Lindsay
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