Dog and Babies Book

[froggy76]

Try the pets board. I think they have a standard response for this question, with a helpful link. I thought I had it bookmarked, but can't find it now!

[ejpint]

I recently read this PDF from the American Humane Society. It seemed to have some good advice.

www.americanhumane.org/assets/pdfs/interaction/pet-meets-babypdf-updated.pdf

[DarcyLongfellow]

We were worried about this when we brought DD home. We have two dogs, and one of them is a rescue who still has some issues.

We had no problems at all. I think a huge part of it is making sure the dogs get lots of attention. Also praise the heck out of them any time they're around the baby and being good.

We tell the dogs to "love the baby" in a soothing voice (it's my MIL's thing to teach them to not chase her cats -- she teaches all the dogs in the family to "love the kitties" and it works!).

Also, don't freak out if your dog is really curious at first. Our Springer (the rescue) was totally freaked out when DD was in the cosleeper. He could hear her crying but couldn't see her, so he'd jump on the bed to try to see her, stand on his hind legs next to the cosleeper -- just to see what the noise was. Once we realized he was just curious, not aggressive, we were able to help him see her and he was fine.

[aspentosh]

We made sure to bring home hats and blankets before taking DD home from the hospital. DH took them with him when he visited them each day I was in the hospital. They sniffed it but didn't really care.

When we got home from the hospital, I greeted them first (without baby). They were excited to see and smell me and in the process caught DD's scent because I'd been holding her. After that point DH brought DD in and introduced them. Again they sniffed and didn't care beyond that.

To this day they aren't overly interested in her. Not standoffish, but also not fixated.

[MamaMaui24]

May 18, 2012 5:01:00 GMT -5 aspentosh said:

We made sure to bring home hats and blankets before taking DD home from the hospital. DH took them with him when he visited them each day I was in the hospital. They sniffed it but didn't really care.

When we got home from the hospital, I greeted them first (without baby). They were excited to see and smell me and in the process caught DD's scent because I'd been holding her. After that point DH brought DD in and introduced them. Again they sniffed and didn't care beyond that.

To this day they aren't overly interested in her. Not standoffish, but also not fixated.

This was our experience too. Brought blankets/t-shirt home from hospital while we were still there. When we came home, I came in the house without baby to greet the dogs, then DH brought baby in. We let them smell him and lick his feet but no hands.

They don't really care too much about him. Sometimes curious but otherwise leave him alone.

[welder'swife]

I think if you go to the Pets PB board, onto the subboard P&F Moms, DorkFish added a couple blogs/info this morning. IIRC, Babies & Beasts and Dog & Stork are the two most popular/useful.

ETA: pandce.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=petmoms&action=display&thread=893