Doris is an eight-year-old Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Because of her sweet nature, the fact she has been given few rules and boundaries hasn’t really caused them problems until recently.
Nervous and scared
Doris can be nervous and scared around certain everyday things, and especially anxious around children.
I have found this is often the case where dogs make most of their own decisions, where they can come in and out of the garden whenever they want through a dog flap, jump up and all over visitors who hype them up whilst the owners are telling them to stop (how confusing this must be), and where the humans fall in line with whatever the dog demands.
It’s like it is all too much responsibility and she needs to be gently taken in hand for her own sense of security.
Anxious around children
Things have become worrying because her lady owner is due to have a baby in one week’s time. Doris has increasingly been showing fear of little nephews and nieces who visit.
Last week she nipped a toddler. Doris was on lead and the humans were very anxious which obviously transferred to Doris.
Instead of encouraging her with positive associations when she went near the child, they will have been telling her off. She is frantically excited when people come to the house, so she would already have been in a highly stressed state of mind.
When young children visit she has no hiding place where they can’t follow her.
Doris needs support. From a practical point of view she needs a ‘safe haven’ where children are simply forbidden to go. It’s the children that need watching. She has a hidey hole under the stairs which could perhaps be gated, or there could be a gate in the doorless kitchen doorway. It’s a small house with no other downstairs rooms.
Preparation for the baby
It should not be too difficult to turn things around for Doris. Preparation for the baby needs to being immediately. They have made a start with Doris no longer sleeping on their bed.
She now needs positive associations with the smell of the baby, with the Moses basket and the buggy.
There will be plenty of visitors when the baby is born, so Doris will need help to calm down quickly which means the visitors will need to be shown what to do. When children come to the house, Doris needs to be left strictly alone, somewhere safe. Seeing that this happens is the responsibility of good owners.
With more guidance in all aspects of her life, Doris should gain more confidence in her owners to understand her and to look out for her.
About a month later: Doris is better with the baby and joins them in the sitting room.
