Hello everyone,
I was wondering if those of you with children and a dog(s) could tell me how you prepared your fur baby for the new baby. I have a 4 year old morkie who is my baby and I want to start preparing him. He is a sweet dog, but he isn't around kids that much. The few kids he has been around have been pretty well behaved, with the exception of maybe 2 and he has dealt with them pretty good unless they are too rough , then he barks at them. I just wanna make sure he is somewhat aware. I know he will not really understand until there is a crying baby in the house.
Re: How to prepare my dog for baby
i have a rat terrier who isn't the greatest with kids. I taught him "touch" for when kids want to pet him. He's very friendly, but little ones sometimes make him uneasy. With touch, he has to let them pet him and be still. I will also ask the child's parents if they can give him a treat and that helps too bc he associates kids with good things like treats or toys
Thank you! That is actually a great idea! We do the treat thing when people come over because he gets so excited and wants to bark and run around the house like a mad man!I will definitely try the "touch" command.
Yeah. Similar to what garden said, we also use a command "gentle." By default he learned to be gentle around the baby. I used to let him be in the room too when I would change her, Feed her, etc. it got him used to her smell and noises. From time to time I will let her touch him when I'm holding her just to get him used to it. The more your dog is just around where he can hear her it helps. I have a Yorkie too who loves kids, and the rat terrier usually plays with him. Now that he's used to the baby around he actually doesn't care that much. Lol.
just tale your time and don't rush the dog to get used to things.
The Humane Society has a great article about this too if you want more tips:
https://www.humanesociety.org/animals/resources/tips/pets_babies.html
My cat is NOT going to be happy when she is no longer our only child.
Here are a few of my recommendations. When we were expecting, we didn't have a lot of friends with kids, so our dog really didn't have that much experience with babies or children. He has done great so far:
- Make any changes asap so the dog doesn't associate them with the baby. For example, if your dog currently sleeps in your bed, but you plan to bed share when the baby will come, kick your dog out of your bed now rather than when the baby comes.
- Allow your dog to check all the baby stuff out. Don't keep them off limits, let the dog get used to the stuff. We allowed our dog to smell cloths, toys, etc as we got them. We also set out small toys and blankets and taught our dog that they were not his. Dog toys and baby toys look very similar. You have to teach the baby and the dog which are which (our dog is much better at this than our toddler).
- We did carry around a doll a few times and pretended it was a baby. I don't think this really helped our dog, but we also didn't do it too often.
- Fix any behavioral problems now, they obviously aren't going to get better after the baby comes.
Thankfully, I'm not worried about my dogs. I have two Boston Terriers, my 4 year old is usually jumpy when people come over, so I can see her wanting to jump on and lick the baby, so she'll need to be watched. My 8 year old Bostie is very calm with kids, he was in a family with lots of little ones before he was taken the shelter =[. I've babysat my friends babies a lot so they've been around babies.
However, they'll always be supervised, just in case.
"Your truth is different from my truth, and we're both right."
TTC since March 2013. BFP 4/13/13, blighted ovum discovered 6/6/13, m/c 6/8/13.
BFP 11/10/13, EDD 7/25/13 - stick little owlet!
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This. Took the baby home and had his first hat and rubbed the smell all over everything my dog owned or regularly came in contact with. I wanted my Akita to associate the baby with "home". Meaning that he would look at the baby as a new addition to the pack and not a stranger. I'll do it for my second one too. It's not easy to control 80+lbs of dog if you don't prepare them correctly. My dog was never allowed on furniture and that stayed in place because I knew I would be sitting the baby on the couch for changing him. All of the babies gear was kept in the living room like an obstacle course, so my dog got used to going around it instead of on top of it or over it. Also if you haven't crate trained your dog I recommend doing so now. The crate will be your dog's "safe house". The one place where he/she can go and know he/she isn't in the way and they are safe and won't be bothered. Mine knows to go to his "house" on command. And trust me it's a lifesaver.