Dogs and children

It's pretty evident to everyone how beneficial dogs are for children. When a child has a dog the dog turns into his or her friend and play partner, however it's important that the parents counsel and accompany the child to make sure that he or she treat the dog with respect and love in order to stimulate a healthy relationship between them.
It's also very important to keep the dog clean, healthy and well trained.
One very important thing to take care of when having a dog in the house is the arrival of a newborn baby. The dog (especially if the dog is a young male) will probably not enjoy the idea and in some cases it can turn into a traumatic experience for him. Make sure to never leave the dog alone with a newborn baby especially during the first days. You do need to let the dog get close to the baby so that he becomes use to the idea though; to do this, allow the dog to come close to the baby and pet and calm the dog taking to him, make sure though to keep it under control and to be alert of any mood changes the dog might be having to be able to intervene immediately.
To a dog, a newborn baby does not look or smell like the rest of the family because it's small, defenseless, and cries ("howls"), and this can in effect cause the dog to look at the baby as it's prey.
Remember that babies and toddlers also crawl and this can also arouse the dogs hunting instinct. 
If a your dog begins to show strange behavior around a newborn or a child, don't just hit the dog or make him use a muzzle, instead train dog correctly, and in harder cases, get help from a specialist.