Leave a leash on your dog all the time, while under supervision and the minute he gets rough with your child, you need to immediately grab the leash and jerk the dog away with a firm, "No!". If the dog is very excitable at this time, keep him away from the child in the same room until he or she calms down to the point where he is sitting or lying down. Then try them together again. If it happens again then do the above procedure again and continue doing it every time your dog displays this undesirable behavior toward a child. When your dog does start to behave well then praise him or her both vocally and with petting.

Does your child do any pulling or banging on your dog? When the child is really a bother to the dog the best response for a dog to do is just get up and leave, without making a fuss over what the child is doing. If this does happen and it seems the dog is reacting to the child because of that, guide the dog away from the child to teach your dog to not confront the child but rather to just leave. If the child follows let him or her but just don't let your dog go for the child if your dog seems to be in a mode to hurt him or her or is very quick behaving. The dog needs to be taught gentleness with children through constant training of control from leash guidance and the "No!" command. Plus, praising when your dog does behave the way he should toward children, without hurting or knocking them down. It is also very important to teach children not to be rough or hurt dogs too.

If he automatically begins being this rough with the child right away when being put together with her or him, then I suggest you have a situation where the baby or child is playing and you are there holding his leash. Then you can have the child come over when he's not excitable toward her and just sitting. Do the procedure above with "No!", again. Repeat this over and over until he gets the message that he is not to be this way toward children at all.

Has your dog had any basic obedience training? If not, this would be a good time to start teaching the sit and stay. Go here to learn them.
 
 
 
 

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