Same Words for Your Dog

Every situation in this book names its source - a named study or a veterinary position statement, printed on the page, not a branded method and not a clip somebody shared.

A baby is coming, or already here. The dog who had the sofa, the lap and the quiet evenings now has a crib, a crying sound he has never heard and, before long, a toddler who grabs. This book tells the whole family what to do, what to say and what you should be seeing a few weeks later, from the months before the birth to the child who wants to help.

Forty-five situations, each on one spread: getting him ready while there is still time, the dog who notices before you tell anyone, the sound of a baby crying, the nursery door he waits behind, the words everyone agrees on, the dog who was here first, the first meeting, his bed while the baby feeds, making the baby a source of good things, a baby at the height of his nose, never alone together, what supervision actually means, gates for the minutes nobody can watch, the signals grown-ups miss, the twenty seconds before a bite, a way out he can always reach, "he loves kids", hugs and faces, letting a sleeping dog sleep, how a child pets a dog, the snarl a child reads as a smile, grabbing and climbing on, four feet down when a toddler walks by, the high chair and the floor under it, food a child drops that can poison a dog, which toys are his, trading instead of taking, the bowl nobody touches, the dog who guards a person, games that work with a child, teeth on hands and sleeves, fetch without a fight over the ball, children's games with him on his bed, the dog too wound up to stop, jobs sized for a small helper, what school teaches and home has to add, the leash that is not for a child alone, friends coming over to play, a growl or a snap, impatience that turns out to be pain, the hour after a bite, hygiene around a baby and who to call.

Nine words, and everyone in the house uses the same nine. One word means one thing and never two. Children can learn them too, but an adult always backs them up, and no child is ever asked to make the dog do anything. The same nine run through every book in the series.

The research behind every page is named. Reisner and colleagues on dogs referred after biting children, two-thirds of which had never bitten a child before; Owczarczak-Garstecka and colleagues, who studied videos of real bites and saw the warning signs rise about twenty seconds before; Rezac on 132 bites to the face, three-quarters of them after someone bent over the dog; Meints and Lakestani on how young children read, and misread, a dog's face; Arhant on what caregivers of small children actually allow; Jacobs on the quiet forms of guarding that owners miss; Yong and Ruffman on how dogs respond to a baby crying; and the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior on humane training.

It also says where the evidence is thin. Several studies describe dogs referred to a specialist, not dogs in general. Some rely on what parents reported rather than what anyone observed. A school safety program made bites less severe but not less frequent, which is why the rules at home still matter. A disclosure at the back names the limits of each study and the funding behind them.

No brand of gate, crate, toy or baby product is named anywhere in it. It does not sort dogs by breed, and it does not promise that any dog is safe to leave alone with a child.

It is not a substitute for a doctor or a veterinarian. Any bite to a child goes to a doctor. A sudden change in a patient dog goes to a veterinarian first, because pain is a common cause.

Book six of Same Words for Dogs, and it stands alone.