Getting Dog Ready for Baby - Rome,GA

I can't speak of routines after but so it is not a shock I will share something we did. The night my husband went home to sleep from the hospital he took with him a blanket, t-shirt and soiled diaper from my son for our two weimariners to smell. He threw out the diaper shortly after. Our dogs sleep with us so hubby brought the blanket and shirt to bed and placed it on our pillows. That position shows high honor in a dogs pecking order. Lastly we brought the pups out of the house to greet our new family (pack) member attempting to be on neutral territory and then all walk in together. We have had no issues.

Something I also made a point to do for as long as we have had them is pull on their tails, ears, stick my hand in their mouth. I have also spent time ensuring we can approach and stick out hands in their food bowls while they are eating. My dogs have to wait for permission to commence eating when their food is put down. I always make it clear it is my food they are allowed to eat. Very important since they are both rescues and we have young children in the family before I had my own.

HTH

Look upon your dog as your other child. She needs to know that the changes at your house are fine, AND she needs to know she still has a secure place in your home that the presence of a baby won't threaten. You're the "head dog," and your attitude will give your four-footed baby the lead on how to regard the newcomer.

My children grew up with dogs and cats. I never had any trouble with it, but I'm one of those people who talks to my animals. When we brought a baby home the dogs were interested, so I'd let them sniff the newcomer. I didn't leave the baby alone with them for quite a while, but I would supervise. When I didn't need to take care of the baby, I'd give the dogs some extra attention. It's possible to pat two dogs on their heads while lying down on the sofa with one's feet up.

What a dog does when a baby cries depends on the dog's personality. Yours sounds like a bit of a manager, and might be worried about the noise. Reassure her as you get up to take care of things. If she follows you around the house, that's all right.

If your dog barks and startles the baby, you'll have some baby-reassuring to do, too, but it's surprising how quickly babies get used to dog noises, along with the other daily sounds.

My youngest granddaughter is in a house with - among other things - two Norwegian Elkhounds. One of them is managerial and likes life at home to be a predictable, orderly routine. So he used to check on the baby in her crib and report back to my DIL. Neither dog was any trouble or threat to the baby. Now that my granddaughter is walking and talking, I'm told they roll their eyes a lot at what she does, but she is THEIR baby, too, and they're very patient with her.

I worried so much about our dogs, three large breed dogs. That they would not like the crying or wake her with barking. That first day was the most difficult they all wanted to see her and what was going on. After then I was shocked at how little they barked and when they did she sleeps though it most of the time. And they are great with her, now pulling on them they all just love her and my hardest thing now is to get them to stop licking her upside her face.

i am not sure really. when i had my oldest son our dog was like yours. he did okay. we introduced him to baby right away though. funny thing is when i was preggers with my oldest and baby was moving and causing pain because he was out of room, that dog was the only one who could calm joseph down in my tummy. he just had to lay on my lap and rest his head on my stomach and joseph would settle down. i loved it. then with our second son, new dog but dog had been around joseph our other son. so he was pretty used to kids. when i had patrick i sent some thing of patricks home with hubby that night for the dog to smell. he was nice to patrick. he was curious about the new sounds and some one else taking time from his "mommy" and he did get a little jealous some times but he was still okay. good luck

My dog, collie/lab 70 lbs, was about 9 when we had our first child. We let her in the nursery and let her sniff the clothes, furniture and talked about the baby with her. We told her about the baby coming and that she was to be his protector and to be gentle with him. She saw his toys and when we let her get nose close to them, we said "gentle" so she knew they weren't her toys.
When I came home from the hospital, hubby carried our son in the house while I greeted the dog with love and hugs. Then we, together, introduced the baby. We told her to be gentle and spoke normal loving voices. We tried our best to never let her too close to his face but after a few hours, let her sniff his face more and she licked him.
From that point on, when he cried, she came to us antsy to tell us to come. She protected him outside in the yard, too. She only scarred me once, when son was 4 days old. I bent down to let her sniff him outside, and she licked the side of his head...I saw just how big her mouth really was!! She could really hurt him, if she ever wanted. But, she was never mean or ugly with him.
We did our best to not change the dogs routine anymore than necessary so as not to upset her and remove her from the chain of family members. When she died, she spent her last hour with my son, head on his lap and he petting her. Then we (without 5 yr old son) took her to the Vet.
I wish you luck. Be consistant in your words, start now and best of luck to you all!

Try getting a doll that cries. This way the dog will get used to the crying before baby comes home. Also when the baby is born send home the hat that they give the baby with your husband to have the dog sniff it. Also when you come home go in ahead of your husband and have him carry the baby in. Go directly to the dog and talk and pet her. This way she won't feel left out. She won't see you for a couple of days and will want your attention. Then introduce the baby to her. We did this with our 2 cats and it worked great. We didn't have any problems with the cats and the baby. They were actually my helpers. When my daughter cried they would both come to the bassinet and look in as if they were checking on her. Or they would lay by the bassinet until she stopped crying. My one cat would rub his head on her hand and she would quiet down right away. Animals are great that way. I wish you luck and Congrats!

My dog is a total velcro dog wh was/is glued to my side. The one thing I really wish we had done before we had our baby was to teach him the "place" command (which where you pick a spot in the room, preferably on the floor and when you say "place" the dog goes there and stays there until you release him). It is very hard to nurse (if that is what you are planning on doing) with both a dog and a baby on your lap! I would also have put a swaddling blanket on the floor and taught the dog to stay away from it b/c he frequently wanted to"cuddle" our daughter while she was doing tummy time.

We also bought a baby doll and practiced with that so that he got used to the things you do with a baby and the tone of voice you use with baby before she came.

Don't exclude your dog from being with you and the baby, but try to make sure he knows role in the family. It is a period of adjustment for everyone so expect some issues, but for us they mostly worked themselves out.