Our 8 year old Chesapeake Bay Retriever bit our 1 1/2 yr old baby on her hand. My wife wants the dog to go, I don't know what to do.

If you’ve let a dog be possessive his whole life and then left him alone with a baby (even for a few seconds) you are very lucky there wasn’t a much worse incident.

The problems you are seeing are the result of the way you live with your dog. When dogs act like this they lack leadership from their owners. In other words their owners don’t understand how important pack drive is in how they raise their dogs.

Owners of dogs like yours underestimate the genetic power of "PACK DRIVE." Pack structure is not something new and it is not optional, and if you don’t provide the structure and leadership a dog NEEDS then he or she will behave as canines have for thousands of years and will structure your family and household their own way. Your dog is not behaving badly out of spite or stubbornness; your dog is simply being a dog, a dog that needs some guidance and rules.

If you want to fix a problem like this it will take some work. I’d start with our Groundwork program and the video that picks up where the article leaves off - Pack Structure for the Family Pet.

Here is a DVD that I would recommend titled Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive Dogs. If you go to the link on this DVD you can read about what it covers. You will also see a detailed outline of what’s in the video.

This dog needs to have his free time controlled 100% of the time, no privileges unless you grant them and no contact with kids.

We have a section on kids and dogs.

It’s likely that you will never be able to trust your dog around your child, if this was my child I would NEVER leave the dog with the baby ever. This dog would be on a leash attached to me, or in a crate or kennel at all times.

I would direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the website for any additional questions you may have. If you type in your key words it will guide you to articles, Q & A’s and posts on our forum.

Cindy