Pets

Useful Toddler Safety Advice For Pet-Loving Moms

Life can get challenging if you have to handle a toddler and a dog together. But the truth is that you wouldn’t want to choose one of them, you would want both. As a pet-loving mom, you need to train your dog to accept your baby when you first bring him or her home. But that’s not where things get sorted out. You will have to be even more careful as the baby grows into a toddler. The sudden mobility of your little one can change things, as they have a tendency to grab handfuls of fur, pull tails and play with dog togs. Keeping the peace between the child and the animal needs some work. Here are some useful pieces of safety advice that can help.

Never leave the toddler and your dog unsupervised

No matter how good the dog is with your kid and how much you trust it, never leave them together unsupervised. While toddlers are unpredictable, dogs also have the potential to hurt them intentionally or unintentionally. Obviously, this does not make a good combination. Ensure that someone is always around when both are together because even a single minute is enough to invite disaster.

Practice handling your dog

Your dog wouldn’t have a problem with the unpredictable handling of a toddler is it is used to having all parts of its body handled in routine. Thankfully, it is easy to train your pet to love being handled. Practice rubbing its fur, looking in its ears, holding its paws, and gently tugging its tail. Praise it and reward it for accepting all types of handling. If it’s good enough with you, the animal will accept it coming from the baby as well.

Give the animal its own space

When there are a dog and a toddler in your house, both need their own space. Don’t expect the animal to be happy being pestered by an unruly kid all the time. The worries will be lesser if you have a child-friendly breed like Goldendoodle Puppies at home because they are perhaps the friendliest, Teach the child how to treat the dog kind and affectionate one around. Still, it is best to have a comfortable, safe spot for the pet so that it can be on its own.

Just as your pet needs to be trained to co-exist with the kid, it has to be the other way round as well. Spend some time every day with the animal and the child together to teach the toddler how to behave with the animal. Interact with the dog gently as kids take cues from their parents. If the child gets rough with the pet, stop them firmly, and explain that it is wrong. A routine would help them to be friendly and comfortable with each other.

Finally, ensure that the child respects the pet’s belongings because animals may get aggressive over their stuff. Pay attention to the pet’s body language and invest in professional training to curb any dangerous situations. Never think that the toddler and the dog will grow out of bad behavior because you cannot be too careful while handling both.

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