Excited Dog Tries To Relax In Order To Play With Baby

The golden retriever really wants to calm down, but it’s so hard when your new playmate is as rambunctious as yourself.

“Me calm down? What about the baby? Tell HER to calm down!”

These two will go far together. And what’s with those kicking legs? Hilarious. Her little arms are flailing around, too, and they are obvious targets for the dog to try and latch onto with his mouth. Of course the dog isn’t biting hard, but he is connecting, and without mom’s supervision, things could get a little rough. A full sized doggy playmate could probably handle the rough play, but a baby? Not so much. The baby gives mom a worried look, like, “You are ready to step in if he gets carried away, right?” Babies depend almost 100% on the parent to keep them safe.

The golden retriever can be a quick study, however, and as baby grows, her dog will have figured out the proper protocol. Until then, both will need patient guidance to train them into respectful buddies. Babies, too, can be less than gentle with their pulling and their prodding. They want to see how things work, and if possible, get a reaction. Their methods may not always be gentle. Learning to make your pet also your friend has many benefits, like helping the child learn to recognize the dignity and person-hood of creatures that are not yourself. It takes years, and in the case of children who grow up to be narcissists, sometimes it never happens.

Successfully integrating into society requires reciprocation—give and take. Incredibly, dogs play an important role in the healthy assimilation of children into the greater good. Children learn the responsibility of raising a pet, and why pets are not just inanimate objects to be admired, like furniture, but take a lot of work, and need a lot of attention. Energetic, excitable dogs like golden retrievers have a much higher order of interaction than dogs with, er, “slow metabolisms”, shall we say? In a few years baby will be walking, and will want to take the leash. Retrievers really love being walked, and will actually offer the leash to their ward. By the time the child is strong enough to walk her dog on a leash, he may have slowed down considerably.

A human may own several dogs over their life time, but that first dog can be a very strong bond. It is not just a pet, but more like another brother or sister. They are both “kids” that need scolding from time to time.