I have a BEAUTIFUL one year old brindle pitbull. She is a very sweet and loving dog. The only thing is she gets upset (barking and hyper) whenever we pick up my daughter (she is 7). We are currently expecting and want to nip this problem in the bud before it gets to be too mcuh. She is not an aggressive dog. A little high strung, but this breed is known for that. They only other issue is she chases on out of the 3 cats we have.

Can anyone help? Thank you so much! :)

The key to most behavior problems is approaching things using the dog's natural instincts. Dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog. Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones. You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with a treat. Start at Raising Your Dog with the Monks of New Skete For more on being top dog, see Establishing and Keeping Alpha Position That site has an additional page on children and dogs with some excellent advice.

Not sure what to say about the cat. I wouldn't leave them alone together. I would also make sure the cat had a safe refuge, the poles with boxes should help. If you were very consistent about correcting the dog every time it started for the cat, and rewarding it when it left it alone, you might train it to leave the cat alone.

You need to do some serious training NOW... so you can replace the negative behavior with a good one and reinforce the status of the people vs the dog.

I would recommend either a very good obedience series or a private trainer/behaviorist.

Your instincts are spot on about needing to nip this right away !

-Beth