Golden Retriever's Gentle Way of 'Stealing' Snack From Baby Makes Him the Sweetest Boy

The first year of parenthood is tough — pet or human — and for me, one major source of light and joy in my life when things got hard was seeing the bond between my infant and my dog (my first baby) grow. At first, my pup didn't really even acknowledge her as human, and then slowly, as my daughter woke up to the world, my dog started to realize that she had a new potential friend in her home. And by the time she started eating solid food, my dog realized that if she stuck near the kid, there was always going to be food under the highchair waiting for her.

But most dogs understand that they need to be gentle (and maybe even a little bit sneaky) if they want to continue riding the gravy train that is enjoying the human baby's food, and the Golden Retriever in the video below gets that 100 percent. 

On Wednesday, October 16, @jessie.lalande shared this sweet video of an interaction between her Golden Retriever, Jack, and her human baby. 

The little one was chilling in his activity center, munching on a teething cracker, when Jack realized that there was something edible nearby. Obviously, he set his sights on stealing it, and steal it he did — but very mindfully, I might add.

While the baby was waving the cracker around, Jack ever so gently leaned his head in and snatched the cracker out of the baby's hand (despite the fact that we can hear his mom telling him not to in the background). 

"Even when he's bad, he's good," his mom admitted in the video's caption. 

I'll hand it to Jack — as much as he wanted that cracker, he made sure that no babies got hurt in the process, so you do have to admire that about him. 

Do Dogs Know to Be Gentle With Babies? 

After watching this video, I'm wondering if Jack is just gifted in being so gentle with the baby, or if this is a trait that all dogs share, so I did a little investigating.

As it turns out, dogs can actually sense that babies are vulnerable creatures they need to be careful about. Applaws points out that a dog's sense of smell helps them tell the difference between adults and babies, and it's easy for them to know that the little person in question isn't a threat just by using their other senses to suss them out. 

These instincts don't mean that you don't need to train your dog to be gentle and calm around your baby, though, and the more you're able to put that training into action (and the better socialized your dog is to begin with), the better off the whole family will be.

Jack's got the gentle part down... now, he just has to stop stealing the crackers! 

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