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2nd Trimester
How Will You Prepare Your Pet For Sibling-hood?
Our beloved pup Kiji has been the center of undivided attention for 3 years. He's a good dog, smart as a whip, but I wonder how he's going to adjust to having a baby in the home. I've been reading up on some tips online ... some sites say "if possible, try to have SO bring home a soiled diaper while you are still in the hospital so that your dog can get used to the new baby's smell." Other books say, you might even "try getting a baby doll" so that you can start carrying it around to get your dog used to the idea. Hmmm.
Perhaps this is overkill, perhaps its sage advice. I don't know. Maybe I'll buy my dog a new nyla-bone to keep him distracted, and keep an extra vigilent eye open.
Just wondering if anyone has any "plans" or ideas for easing the adjustment for your pet -- if you do, please share, I'm interested! 
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Re: How Will You Prepare Your Pet For Sibling-hood?
What I plan on doing is letting my dog sniff the baby as soon as we come home to encourage friendly behaviour. Bring the baby down to his level per say. Encourage him to look and smell with lots of positive praise.
I also plan on getting a dog pillow to put in the babys room beside the rocking chair so he can be apart of everything and remain at my side. This way he isnt neglected and he can still follow mom and new baby around.
Great topic btw!
My Bella is 3 -- she's a chihuahua mix. She's afraid of everything!! However, she's been around infants before, just not so consistently. She likes them until they start to move on their own, ie: When they can sit up, but can't quite crawl yet. Once they start crawling, she wants nothing to do with them. Once they start running, she wants to play "Catch me if you can," so I dont know. I dont think we'll do anything specific to prep her, but we'll def keep a good eye on her and my husband will probably get the duty of spending extra "I love you" time with her, even though she's my dog and more attached to me. Also, my mom will be with us when the baby comes, and she loves my mom, so I think she'll be good. I dont know if there's really anything you can do before the baby comes...
What does Cesar Milan say???
We have a 4 year old Pit Bull and a 1 year old Boxer (Both the BIGGEST babies ever). We plan on getting a baby doll once we have the nursery set up. Having someone bring a blanket or diaper even (never heard of that one) home before baby is definitly not a bad idea!
I'm worried my dogs will feel that they're not getting enough attention when the baby comes..after all they have been our only "babies" since we've been married!
We have two large dogs. A chocolate lab and a golden retriever/black lab mix. They have been our babies with all of our attention as well. I've been reading up on it and talking to other dog owners about this since we got our BFP.
What we're doing to prepare them for baby:
Getting our chocolate lab fixed
Getting bad habits under control now (they both jump a bit when you come home and bark at the door. over all they're good boys)
Opening up diapers, wipes, shampoo, powders, lotions, etc., and letting them sniff the items every once in awhile.
Playing sounds of babies crying.
And we've had a couple close friends with infants come over. They LOVED the babies. They sit right in front of whoever's holding them and watch.
We are also trying to give them less attention. I think this is the hardest part.
They will be home when we get home with LO. we won't be kenneling them at all.
Hope that helps some. I've researched it a lot because I was concerned! I'm just over joyed we have these two big bundles of fur for our little girl to grow up with and love like we do.
Little M 6/16/2013
Angel baby 5/17/2014
My Blog: Naturally Mindful
I am SO worried about this! We have 2 dogs; one is almost 4 and the other is 8-months. I'm worried about the 4-year old - he has been my baby! He is used to coming everywhere with me. He is very well behaved but I will admit, quite spoiled. I babysat my friend's baby the other day. The dogs were very good with her! They were both gentle and extremely curious. She warmed up to them fairly quickly too! I actually blogged about it (link in sig).
We have 2 doggies - a chihuahua boy, all 13.4lbs of him 4 years old and a rottweiler girl, 130lbs and currently boarding with MIL in NY.
She's been away from us for a year until we settle in and get a bigger place on our own. Difficult to live in a guesthouse in someone's yard with a rottweiler in LA!
That said, with my Balty (chihuahua), I wasn't so sure of him around kids as he never really lived with any. We had a friend come over though with her 13 month old and he was totally fine. Her little boy was taking steps towards Balt, curious about his face etc but Balt didn't really shy away or growl or do anything like I was worried he might.
I mean he's ok until anyone tries to put a finger in his ass, right?!
But he was fine and took it like a champ. That's not to say that I won't keep a close eye on him when the baby is here, at least for the first year or so. Wanna make sure he's comfortable and my baby is safe. I'll probably give him a sock or a bootie or something to sit on. He's always stealing my slippers!
But the rottie...not so sure. MIL emailed me concerned - her friend visited her with her grandchildren and MIL tells me, Alabama (rottie) wasn't so keen on curious kids. She growled and wouldn't stop until she got put in the yard. MIL has her own rottie girl and the pair were the same towards the kids I'm told.
She got all panicky but DH assured her that common sense would always prevail and no dog, big or small, would be left alone with the baby. Even when the baby is not alone, might have to watch out for jumpy dogs.
Balty's been with me since he was a pup, I know him better than I know Alabama - she is DH's dog and she lived with me for 6 weeks before she went to stay with MIL temporarily.
So I don't know how she'll be but I think she'll be ok. She was fine living with DH's son since he was a baby so all should work out in the end. Plus, even if she is a larger more dangerous breed, she's SUCH a lady!
Love 'em both, they're our babies too...
The link below has some great information. Definitely check out PittieBoo's blog - one of the earliest posts has a whole list of great things to do.
https://sites.google.com/site/petsboardfaqs/home/training-and-behavior/preparing-your-pets-for-a-baby
Oh, and if Cesar Milan suggests something, do the opposite.
The only thing he says that has any use is to make sure that your dog gets lots of exercise. Other than that, his methods are outdated and dangerous to you and your dog.
Happy Spring!.
WHAT??????????
My Blog: Naturally Mindful
When we had DS, DH brought home the blanket from the nursery that he had been swaddled in, every day before we came home with him. The day we came home I came in the house first for a minute and let our dog get excited that I was finally home. I pet her and spent some time with her, and then we brought in the baby. I held the baby on the sofa and she just sniffed him and then she walked away. After 2 or 3 days, she started sleeping in front of the pack n play where he slept. She used to wake me up when he cried. They are best buds now.
She's a lab mix. Mixed with what we have no idea. but she's 70 pounds.
We have a choc lab who was 1 year when DD was born. DH just brought home something from the hospital every day (i.e. swaddling blanket, burp cloth, etc). Also, I will swear to this day that our dog new when I was going into labor (but that's a different story)!
When we got home, she ran out on the front lawn and greeted us, sniffing everything like crazy. Since then the two have been BESTIES I seriously can't imagine having one without the other. They entertain each other (especially during these blah winter days). Now that we have a new LO coming, we are considering getting a furry play pal for our doggy... but I'm not sure if I want to do newborn and puppy again?!?
DD #2 2 years old (08/17/11)
DD #3 born 08/29/13
DH will bring home a baby blanket that LO has used in the hospital and let our dog sleep with it the first night. Learn LO's smell, at least. We did that last time with DS, but we had a different dog. We also plan to put the car seat on the floor right when we get home and "introduce" our dog. I'm sure DH will get him a toy, too. If we had a dog that had our undivided attention and we were having a baby, the toy baby isn't a bad idea.
Yeah, he's a quack who has killed dogs with his "training" techniques. Most of his nonsense is based on outdated studies about wolf behavior that have been proven to be incorrect. There is more information on that Pets board FAQ link I posted.
The exercise thing is the only thing I agree with - tired dogs are happy dogs.
Happy Spring!.
We have 5 year old Ludo (the bigger dog in my siggy) and 7 month old Dingo. Ludo I'm not so worried about- he has calmed down considerably in the last 2 years. I think he will adjust very well. He hasn't been around many kids but those he has he has just adored.
Dingo is still play biting my hands (I'm working on that), and barks at every new noise he hears. I ordered a CD of various baby sounds and will be playing that for him so that he becomes desensitized to the crying, and hopefully won't start barking every time the baby cries.
I do plan to send DH home with a blanket from the hospital when he comes to let the dogs out.
And as soon as it's warmer out and I have my stroller I will start walking with it when I walk the dogs. Ludo saves all his energy for outside and has always been a puller. We use a harness with him which helps control the pulling but doesn't eliminate it, so I'm hoping we can work on this too. I am also concerned about the dogs getting tangled in the stroller- hence starting out without a baby in it yet.
The moment we finally got pregnant we started working to change some of dog's less than ideal habits. She has been pretty great about it, I think she totally knows what is going on. Just little things like not allowing her to jump on us and rewarding her for good behavior more often. More walks and we are way more consistant with "punishment" for lack of a better word. (no we don't hit our dog). She still has some bad habits but she's done great thus far!
I know that isn't very specific but I'm just saying you don't have to do some class or training to change the less ideal habits your dog has, it's all about being consistant.
GL!
My Everything Blog
My Health & Fitness Blog
If you have trouble with pulling, you should try the gentle leader. Harnesses can sometimes make it easier for them to pull. My friend uses a gentle leader with her 75 pound former puller and it's awesome once they get used to it.
I love the gentle leader- my dog has become a much better walker when using it. The company that makes the gentle leader, Premier pet products, makes a no pull harness that has a strap that goes across the chest that helps with pulling.