XP: Getting dogs ready for baby

[Deleted]

I also posted this on ML

What has anyone who have dogs done to get them ready? We have two goldens who are both under 2 yrs old. Their only concern is the jumping on us and guests (they just love people too much and can't control themselves sometimes), we have been training them to get past this and we definitely see some improvement but there is still room to grow. Otherwise they are awesome dogs. One is not perfect in the potty training (we got her as an adult 3 months ago and she has gone better but we hope to get this 100% done by the time the baby comes) but she is the sweeter one, most obedient and rarely gets in any trouble!

We are planning on getting a dog walker to walk them for an hour everyday (for the first 2-3 weeks) with DH trying his best squeeze in an extra walk and playtime in the backyard as much as he can. I will try to at least hangout with them as much as I possibly can too and hoping we can get back to usual routine after 4 weeks (fingers crossed or we will keep the dog walker for longer) How early can I introduce the baby to them? How did your dogs react to a newborn? 

[dearprudence]

My dog is NOT typical. He really showed basically no interest in the baby until the baby was able to walk around holding food. Now he only seems interested if he thinks he's going to get something from the kid, otherwise he spends his day avoiding our toddler.

Prior to the baby I did the typical things - played clips of babies crying, put together the furniture and let him see them moving/making noise, etc., DH and I wore stuffed animals around in the carriers - but he was generally nonplussed and non-interested.

Our plan was to bring the baby home, and then pick him up from boarding and let him sniff the blanket on the way home. BUT the day we left the hospital there was a freeway shooter on the loose, so we ended up picking him up on the way home from the hospital so we wouldn't have to leave the house once we were home. So he was in the front seat and baby and I were in the back. I don't think he even noticed the kid and wasn't interested in the baby at all when we got home.

I think my most important piece of advice is having a place your dogs can retreat to - a baby safe zone. I know a lot of people are against pets on furniture, but for us, it's great because my son can't get up on the couch or the bed by himself, which means our dog is always "safe" up there from overzealous petting.

Some great resources:
babiesandbeasts.blogspot.com/2009/02/bringing-home-baby.html

www.aspca.org/Pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/dog-articles/preparing-your-dog-for-a-new-baby

www.aspca.org/Pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/dog-articles/introducing-your-dog-to-your-new-baby

[redheadbaker]

We set up pieces of baby equipment little by little -- my female is prone to anxiety, and each time we set up a new piece of equipment, she'd pant and refuse to eat.

We brushed up on their manners training (my female is CGC certified; my male took the prep course, but never took the test), and got a little more stringent with the NILIF (Nothing in Life is Free).

We played a CD of baby sounds on repeat and just went about our day as normal.

In addition to the above resources, I bought a book called "Childproofing Your Dogs," by Brian Kilcommons.

There's also:

American Humane's Pet Meets Baby ebook

Family Paws

And I just managed my expectations. I didn't expect things to go perfectly from Day 1 the baby was home, and they didn't. My pittie was terrified; and my Aussie was anxious and tried to guard the baby. But with lots of short, positive interactions, things got better quickly.

[awick14]

I don't have kids yet we are TTC but something that we do all the time is make sure we have kids around as much as possible.

We invite SIL and my sister over with our nieces and nephew quite a bit. We have tried to do this ever since we got our puppy because we don't want it to be a shock to him that there is a little person around.

We also had DH's cousin over a while ago (they have a 3 month old) and all our puppy did was sniff him and walk away.

[Deleted]

Thank you for all the suggestion I will try keep everything in mind. Our dogs loves kids you can tell by how their eyes change when they see kids vs adults on our walks I really hope everything will go smoothly. Our first dog has been to two classes and is pretty good with commands (except the jumping on people, he just cant seem to control himself but he is getting much better already). Our second dog used to be a show dog and is possibly CGC but I am not so sure on this so she is also pretty good/behaved. We will keep up on the training, we practice NILF (but not so stringently) so we will try and be better at this too. They have to sit for food, sit to go out, sit for pets, etc. Thank you ladies! I will look into the links posted above  

[nital]

If your dogs don't already know "leave it" and some variation of "go" or "go to your bed/crate" I would highly recommend teaching it. I also started not allowing my dogs to take treats without a verbal cue "take it" because I didn't want them stealing her food. I also don't allow them to shark when we're eating. I didn't want her learning to throw treats for them.

I let the dogs sniff Abigail when we brought her home (after they calmed down) but they were pretty uninterested in her for a long time.