R my ideas have evolved over the years nothing to do with dog forums though as have been working with dogs professionally since mid nineties

i have changed views on things, but i think its more practical things as well as being on dogsey.

dogsey has helped me though, if i wasnt reading about raw feeding on here and read so many views and how to do it, i imagine my dogs would still be on commercial food.

my college course started more of an obsession with learning all aspects of dog ownership, and im grateful, but people do think im a little strange now

i have learnt alot by simply owning phoebe. the me 6 years ago when i got her is a totally different person to the me now. Some of that has been due to forums and getting advise and tips form others.
But the main thing the forum has given to me is somewhere to go and talk dog. Be it bragging, moaning, needing a bit or support or advise or even just getting it off my chest. I love reading the other post and sometimes seeing im not alone with our problems. I love the fact that i can sometimes offer some helpfull advise however rare. Being of some support to somebody else. Pictures are one of my favourite parts. i dont have any doggy friends really and worry i bore my friends to death but now i can just come here and tell you lot

This.

Mine certainly have changed in the naerly 20 years of owning dogs and 25+ of being around dogs.

Totally agree with this!

Helen

I feel the same way !

Its so nice to come across nice owners as quite often I come across numpties who have no thought for their dog or anyone elses for that matter

Its nice to come across people who love their pets as much as I do if often if not a little more!

My dog is only a year old and has her own freazer and a bench all to herself.

Although I've only had Rosie since February I've learnt that when taking her out that some people like to tell me how to train her and bring her up, which sometimes I find quite irritating especially when all I've done is say hello to there dog! I know I'm no expert but I have owned a dog before which was a rescue but I've had to re-home because he nipped my daughter when she was a baby through jealousy. But I've also learned things through reading through these forums for the past few days and I know Im not the only person that gets given 'advice' lol I'm very gracious when accepting these bits of advice.

if you actually mean 'nipping', that isnt necessarily too bad. often you can resolve those sorts of situations for the safety and happiness of child without needing to re-home the dog

Hi
My daughter was only 14months at the time and we'd rescued him from a home where he was mistreated by girls who w here allowed to pull his fur and scar his back. I say he nipped my daughter but he bit her lip when she crawled up to him, we'd already had Sammy for 4 years by then. My daughter wasn't on her own with him so wasn't expecting him to do this. He went to a lovely family who'd just lost their 20year old dog and they had a15yr old son and wasn't having any more children. He lived the rest of his life out in luxury and being spoiled rotten. It was the best thing for Sammy and us. My daughter is 13 now x

Fair enough, so you mean more than a 'nip'.

From the info you gave, i would say it was a natural and inevitable thing to happen. Babies being nipped/bitten by dogs when they crawl up to them is not uncommon.
This freaks put most dogs, even those without bad memories. When i worked in rescue, too many people thought that because the dog had been fine for some years, and/or had had been fine and accepting of the baby beforehand, that this meant the dog would automatically be fine and accepting for the baby crawling. However, from a dog's point of view, it is entirely a new situation, in that the baby that is now crawling etc is a different animal to the one that has been carried around for some months. After several weeks you need to wean pups from mum. But another reason this is so is because pups are crawling up to and all over mum, and mum will often pin them to the ground with her teeth or fling them away with her teeth. So if she would do this to her own species, it stands to reason she would do the same and slighly more to an alien species that is suddenly 'thrust upon her'. I always told the parents on the phone that as long as you respected this truth, and stopped anymore incidents of baby crawling up to dog, then quite often the situation would not repeatitself, so you could keep the dog. (I also advised home visit advice as well). This means that you provide dog and child their own space from each other in the home so they can express themselves freely without one or other getting worried. Often, the growl/nip/bite/etc are later stages of other more subtle signs that have been missed, as many dogs owners wont be aware of the more subtle forms of canine body langauge, such as calming signals, or the dog having left the room on previous occassions baby was crawling around, etc.

Its nice that you found him a good home and he had a good life.