How to prepare dog for new baby

barbiegirl

Hi guys
As some of you know we have a 1 year old spaniel retriever cross Sindy. We've just found out we're pregnant, something we are delighted about but my only worry is preparing Sindy for this new noisy, smelly arrival, that will be taking her place on her mammy's lap :-)
Sindy is very good natured and we're observed how gentle she is around little kids. She's learnt not to jump on them, and is actually quite protective. She is inside when we are, sleeps in her bed on the landing, and goes to the garden when we're out. She's pretty obedient but definitely spoilt.
Anyone any advice as we want a nice happy home.
Barbiegirl

TooManyDogs

Well firstly contratulations!

I've just had my first baby, she's 5 months now and I have 6 dogs ranging in age from 18 months to 12 years old. Here's the way I prepared for my baba.

- I stopped them getting on the sofa without invitation
- I stopped allowing them go upstairs
- I put alot of work into their basic obedience, particularily 'stay' and 'leave it' commands
- I trained them to walk on lead with the buggy (cos I'm too lazy to walk everyone seperately!)

After my little girl came home from the hospital I stopped them coming within 6 feet of her. They could be in the room but not come near her. The reason I did this was I saw one of the pregnant foster dogs I had demand massive space for her pups, and the dogs gave it very happily and took no offence, so I decided to do the same. One of my dogs would stare at the baby so as soon as she did that I made her leave the room. She could come back in when she was calm again. I never leave her alone with the dogs, under any circumstances. While my dogs are my furry babies they're still animals and can't be trusted 100% with a child.

Gradually over the last month or so I've allowed the dogs get closer but because they know they're not allowed touch her they pretend she isn't there so walk past quite happily. My baby loves watching them, they're the best toy she has!

Another thing is to keep your dog as tired as possible the first couple of months while you recover yourself, so if anyone offers to help then give them the dog lead! While your dog is tired she won't have energy to be jealous or upset, and it'll give you time to figure out your new addition. I never expected the tiredness in the first couple of weeks but luckily I have great neighbours that helped by walking the dogs.

One bit of advise - never let your dog be protective of your baby, it may not seem like a problem while baby is small but when the baby starts crawling and the dog is still trying to protect the baby is when problems start. The dog tries to protect the baby from dangers it sees, and will try to stop the baby going near it by nipping it, and that's when all hell breaks loose. My dogs all know that if anyone needs to bite the baby in the future, that I'll do it myself!!! (Joke!)

Anyway, hope that helps,good luck!

supermonkey

Start putting her out of the house at random and ignoring her more and more. Disrupt her routine alot.

If you always walk her at 6:30 pm walk her one morning and late at night.

Basically pay less attention and less routine.

arybvtcw0eolkf

OP. Well based on personal experience of this my advice would be to make Sindy feel that its ok to shift around the new arrival & be curious of everything (within reason of course) and not to exclude her from your attention's.

I take it this is your first baby?.. You've no idea what your in for in term's of hard work, you'll wonder what happened to your life before baby arrived.

Its a testing time for you and your partner, and its easy to push poor ol' Sindy away so just bear this in mind.

Last thing you need at when the baby arrives is a sulking dog!.. And believe me, they can sulk big time!. Include Sindy, show her the baby. Let her get to know the child, and to know its not a replacement - Sindy's logic doesn't work on the same levels our does.

Honestly, you'll be fine..

barbiegirl

I have to say the being stricter on the sofa time and leave commands sounds like what I thought. Giving her plenty of attention whilst making her give the baby space also makes sense. Plus I think she will understand these rules.
She is a little dote and I don't want her to feel punished. I'll keep an eye out for her being protective. To date she's just used her nose to push nephews etc away from things she thought were dangerous :-)
Plus I will definitely have to train her to walk with the buggy and be accepting all offers of help from neighbours.

TooManyDogs

Oh, one tip I forgot to add, I put dog treats in my change bag, so whenever I change my baba I give the dogs a small treat, positive assossiation if they're calm at changing time! And now they adore the buggy, they know it's walk time

kylith

You can get cds of noises like crying babies. I know people who've used them to desensitise the dog to crying.

boardbrowser

I'm sure you are very excited leading up to the new arrival.
There is a great book call' Happy kids, happy dogs' by barbara Schmannfang that is brimming with information and practical exercises that covers in great detail how to prepare your dog for the arrival of a baby.
available probably on amazon .com or www.dogwise.com
Best of luck

Cat Melodeon

If you have the space, I recommend making one room (either the kitchen or the living room) a dog-free zone. This isn't so much for when the baby arrives first, but later when you start letting it roll around the floor and when it starts crawling. If the dogs are allowed in the room you'll have the stress of keeping them away from the baby as well as the difficulty of keeping floors and furniture hair-free. My lad actually coughed up a furball when he was 5 months old - I knew it was time to get a better hoover (and use it more!) as well as time to start limiting the dogs complete freedom. If they get used to that idea now it'll be easier to enforce when baby is that age.

Get some of your baby stuff set up before the event (as much as your personal superstitions will allow) as it the dogs will be used to the changed environment well before the baby arrives.

I don't know what the other poster means by telling you to start ignoring the dog and disrupting it's routine??? I found that taking my baby for a walk every day made a huge difference to how long he would sleep at night. Once you're over the initial painful post-partum bit, get into the habit of at least one walk a day. This more than anything will make your dog appreciate your baby.

Finally, once you've had the baby get your partner to bring home a used vest/dirty nappy from the hospital along with a worn nightdress of yours and let the dog have a good sniff at them - it'll help prepare her for when baby does arrive in the door. Good advice from TooManyDogs about keeping them back from the baby for the first while. I let mine have a quick sniff but they were more excited that I was back than by the baby. When you arrive home from the hospital first, it's good if you go in and make a fuss of the dog first before your partner brings the baby in. Then just be as calm as possible for the next couple of days and keep the dog in her routine as much as possible - it'll be disruptive anyway as you'll probably have lots of visitors, make sure they help out!

I found that once the first 6 weeks were over things really settled back down and the time I had for the dogs was actually greater than before (yeay for maternity leave) so anyone that tells you that you'll ignore the dog once the baby arrives is talking rubbish. And they all end up great friends - my dogs have been teaching my son (11 months now) how to throw the ball for them. He's nearly there - once he manages it they will worship him forever!

Good luck with it...

Knine

Congratulations on your pregnancy!:D

You have gotten some great advice so Ive not much to add but I find stair gates are my best friend:D I use them as much for my dogs as I do for my toddler. The stair gates keep my dogs (and my toddler) where I want them and also stops my older child letting the dogs out the front door by accident.

Children and dogs are a great combination, no matter what the breed. I have a disabled child and my dogs greatly enhance her life and get her tru the very tough times she has faced and will indeed face in her future!