An Easy Way to Teach a Dog to Stay Away From a Baby’s High Chair While they are Eating

By: David Codr

Published Date: March 19, 2020

Rue scaled - An Easy Way to Teach a Dog to Stay Away From a Baby's High Chair While they are Eating

For this Omaha dog training session we teach 3 year Labradoodle Rue to stay away from the baby as she eats in her high chair.

Rue is a playful and high energy dog so the first thing we discussed were ways for her humans to burn off some of that excess energy. While we were discussing this, I noticed that Rue would duck or back away when I went to pet her at times; often around the head.

Many people are unaware that when a dog backs away, turns its head or ducks when you reach to pet it that is the dog’s way of saying “I don’t want you to touch me.” As Omaha’s resident Dog Behavior expert, I have seen many dogs start to nip people because they do not recognize or heed this warning.

I recommended that the guardians start to look out for Rue displaying this behavior around guests to the home as she didnt show this backing away from the humans as far as they could remember. However its possible Rue may offer this cut off signal to them too so I recommend they stop petting if they see it.

If this behavior of turning or backing away from other people when they try to pet Rue continues, Id like the guardians to reach out to me so I can show them a positive reinforcement based exercise that should stop Rue’s reaction to not wanting to be petted, changing things so she sees petting by guests as a good and desirable thing.

When asking through the home, I noticed that Rue’s kennel was in the baby’s play area. Since one of the dog behavior problems I was called in to fix was Rue not being a fan of the baby, I recommended the family move her kennel into another room. Baby often shriek, cry and make other unpredictable sounds that can sometimes be stressful for a dog to be around. Giving Rue a quieter place to hang out may help quite a bit.

I also recommended the guardians provide Rue with places she can go to get away from the baby. Dogs have a fight or flight response. Although not as intense, this was going on with Rue when the baby was approaching at times.

One of the other dog behavior tips I shared was to place dogs beds on opposite sides of the room and teach the dog to go to them on command. This way they can head things off earl if the baby starts moving towards Rue, especially if she has a high value item like a toy or bone. Creating a safe environment for the dog and helping manage the situation early can prevent many problems between dogs and young babies.

Another thing Id like the guardians to work on is teaching the dog to move away from the baby in general. This positive dog training video from another session shows an easy way to teach a dog to move away from a baby on command.

Another dog baby problem was the dog stealing food from the baby or the dog getting too close to the baby during meals. I have taught many dogs to learn to stay away from a baby when its eating but had never filmed it until now. Watch the free dog training video below to learn the secret to keeping a dog away from a baby during meal time.

This is an easy way to teach a dog to stay away when a baby is eating. Teaching a dog to say away when the baby is in a high chair when eating is a great thing for all parents of young children to do. Best of all, anyone can do this, even though you may to be a professional Labradoodle dog trainer.

It was great seeing how quickly Rue and her guardians caught on to this exercise to keep the dog away when the baby was eating. In fact, the parents gave the child another snack when I filmed the roadmap to success video below and used what I showed them to great success. Within a minute, Rue was laying down several feet away from the baby, even though the baby was dropping food onto the floor!

Even better, I got a text from the guardian a few days after the session with a picture of Rue sitting on the floor several feet away while the family was eating a the dinner table. The guardian said she “never thought Rue would be content so far away form us during a meal.” This is a wonderful example of how willing dogs are to do what we want, when we communicate that to them clearly and consistently. Now the the family knows how to do so, everyone is on the same page and happy.

To help the humans remember all the positive dog training tips we covered in this in home Omaha dog training session, we recorded a roadmap to success video that you can watch below.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Categorized in:

This post was written by: David Codr