You’ve brought home a new beautiful bundle of joy, but your four-legged friend isn’t adjusting so well. I’m sure you pictured your dog loving your baby right away (and perhaps they do), but they’re just not showing it right now because all your dog does is bark at the baby. Why do they do this? Why would a dog be aggressive towards your baby?

Is this one of the signs your dog is jealous of your baby? Today, we’re going to answer all of these questions and most importantly, tell you how to stop your dog from barking at your newborn baby. I’m sure you’re eager to end this frustration, so without further ado let’s get started on this article “Dog Is Barking at Baby, How Do I Stop Them?”

How Do I Get My Dog to Stop Barking at My Newborn?

To get your dog to stop barking at your newborn baby, you should start by first separating them at any signs of aggression. When your dog barks at the baby, immediately give them a calm but firm “no” and put them in a timeout in their crate or in another room. Be consistent with this, and they should quickly learn that barking is not a good thing to be doing towards the baby.

Still, you need to address their behavioral issues as merely getting your dog to stop barking at your baby is not going to solve everything. Without getting to the core of the problem, it will simply just start showing itself in other negative ways, many of which will be significantly worse than barking.

And to do that, let’s begin by thinking about what really makes dogs tick in the first place, and has for thousands upon thousands of years. You’ve probably heard before that dogs are pack animals, and that in every pack there is a pack leader. Right now, your dog barking at your baby is a clear sign that they aren’t respecting your role as leader of the family pack.

If they did, your dog would respect your ability to introduce new members of the pack without issue. You need to show them that not only are you their pack leader, but that you are a worthy and capable one, and that they have to respect your decisions, your commands, and the other members of the pack (like your baby).

And let me ease one concern you might be having right now immediately: no, you will never have to be mean to your dog to achieve any of this. In fact, you would be doing both you and your dog a disservice by doing so. Training humanely is not just the right way to do it, but the only proven and effective way of doing so.

Now, let’s get back on track and talk about how you’ll show your dog that you are their pack leader.

I’d recommend watching an excellent free video series that’s on just that subject — how to be your dog’s pack leader — by a renowned trainer named Dan. In it, he’ll show you everything you need to know in ways that are very easy to understand and teach to your own dog, and he gets right to the point so that you’ll start seeing results very quickly.

Start watching Dan’s free training series now by clicking here. Soon enough, your dog will respect you as their leader, obey your commands, and most importantly: you’ll get your dog to stop barking at your baby once and for all! That will be such a relief, won’t it?

Why Is My Dog Barking at My Baby?

Your dog is barking at your baby because they are territorial animals (being descended from wolves), and might be seeing your child as an intruder. They see this new little person as something that can’t necessarily be trusted, so they respond with the only warning they know: barking.

It’s also possible that your baby is playing too rough with your dog. Newborns and toddlers love to grab and pull on things, which if done to your dog can obviously be very unpleasant for them. Your dog may then be barking at your baby because they’ve had enough and want to keep the baby away from them.

It could also be that your dog barks at your baby as a result of an ongoing issue with anxiety. If this is the case, then you’ll also see them barking at different things such as other dogs, the television, or even randomly barking at night.

Regardless of the cause, your dog barking at your baby is obviously not acceptable. You need to address things now before they get more aggressive with your baby or others, and you do that through behavioral training. You can learn more on how to do this in the first section of this article, which you can go back to now.

What Can I Do If My Dog Is Aggressive Towards My Baby?

If your dog is aggressive towards your baby, you should immediately begin keeping them separated. If your dog is acting aggressive towards your baby, it’s too much to risk allowing them to be together.

You should then begin correcting the issue through behavioral training, which we went over in the first section of this article.

Signs Your Dog is Jealous of Your Baby

These are the signs your dog is jealous of your baby:

• Being aggressive or territorial. If you see your dog acting like this around your baby, begin keeping them separated, and start behavioral training immediately.
• Being pushy or demanding. If your dog sees you the baby getting attention and starts doing things like pushing against your leg demanding attention, then they’re jealous of your baby.
• Being more attentive to you. Has your dog started being more loving or wanting more cuddles with you since the baby’s been around? They’re likely jealous and trying to “keep their spot.”
• Doing tricks for you. Has your dog started showing off the tricks they know, or fetching things for you that you didn’t ask for? That’s a sign of jealousy.
• Behaving badly. Has your dog been acting up more lately? For some dogs, any attention works. So if they see your baby getting the attention they want, they’ll misbehave to get it back on them.
• Grooming themselves too much. Many dogs will overgroom themselves when they’re jealous of the attention a new baby is getting. You need to address this through behavioral training, as any signs of anxiety in dogs need to be handled right away before they get worse. Overgrooming can also lead to sores and other health issues developing for your dog.

I’m sure you’re very much looking forward to seeing these changes in your home, so I’ll let you get started on things. Good luck with everything, and thank you for reading “Dog Is Barking at Baby, How Do I Stop Them?”