Prepping your dogs for baby

mdupon70997 · January 2015

Our dogs have been our only babies for 7+ years. There are a few behaviors we need to correct before baby gets here. Our big dog thinks the street in front of our house is his won personal property and barks at anyone who dares to step foot onto the blacktop. So we've started them on bark collars now so they don't associate baby with being shocked when they bark. I don't like using it, but I really won't like them being mean to baby. Also I'm worried that once baby gets here we'll be so wrapped up in him/her that we'll almost neglect our dogs. What are you doing to prep your dogs for a new baby coming into the house and how do you plan to introduce them?

jennypolkadots · January 2015

Sorry this will be long, I love my dogs! Every dog is so different. We love our pets dearly, they are like our children before children

We have two 6 year old dogs and cat of unknown age. They have been socialized a lot with children and are very adaptable, but I know the new baby will be a big change for them. Especially our oldest dog who is a bit stubborn/cranky at times. He isn't nippy or anything, but like if the baby is crying at night I know he will be sleeping in the spare bedroom lol I expect him to sort of keep his distance the first several weeks while our other dog, a golden retriever, will probably be completely obsessed with the baby and we will have to separate her a bit.

Anyways, we have exposed them to my friend's newborn and they did great. We are having our pet sitter come while we are delivering. When we are about to head home, we will give her the heads up and she is going to exercise them so they are worn out when we arrive. We are also going to keep the receiving blankets and allow the dogs to smell them to their hearts content. We have bought two new toys and their favorite treats to give them when they first meet the baby to hopefully associate the baby with positive things. We have a 10 year old who lives a few houses down that we are going to pay to come over a few days a week and play with the dogs in our back yard, just to help ease the transition a bit. I don't want them to be neglected!

As far as correcting behaviors, we took ours to training years ago and that helped a lot. They know commands, but honestly 99% seems to be just keeping them worn out. A tired dog is a good dog. Dogs need lots of exercise. My best friend is the laser pointer and my husband lets our golden retriever run with him. Sometimes just a quick walk gives them enough mental exercise to wear them out for the day. I am thankful we spent so many years getting them to this point so that we don't have any worries with potty training, chewing up stuff, or behavioral issues. They are really great babies! We know them like the back of our hand and trust them with the baby, but still they are animals and we will never leave the baby alone with the dogs. There are some things I have just resigned myself to. The dogs bark when the mail runs, if someone walks by, and go crazy when someone knocks/rings the bell. I like that though, they alert me when someone is near. I don't think this will be a problem with a baby - most babies will sleep through anything and just get used to it. We use a little spray bottle if we need them to be quiet and it's quite an effective deterrent. I practically never spray it, but they know what it is and it helps!

I would be really careful with the bark collars. Some are very sensitive and will shock the dog at any loud noise close by. So say the baby starts wailing and then the dogs get shocked, they will really not like that baby. Or if your dog is barking at your neighbors dog, the neighbors dog could bark back and cause your dog's collar to shock. Some are better and don't do that, but I still would never use them. There are citronella spray collars and ones that ring a high pitched sound that are more humane and just as effective, although nothing is a substitute for lots of exercise and proper training.

mdupon70997 · January 2015

Maui, our front door is one of those wooden ones with leaded glass from top to bottom. And our big boy loves to sit there and patrol "his" street. The problem is that we have a ton of children in our neighborhood who play in their front yards and ride bikes and roller skate in the street. This is how the collars work: if our dogs let out a growl or a first bark they get a warning from a beeping noise. If they bark after the warning beep they get a small shock. If they bark again they get another shock at an increased intensity (1-8). And it continues like this up to an intensity level of 8. However there is a safety feature. If our dogs bark more than a set amount of times in a certain time frame (I think it's 10 times in 15 seconds?) the collar shuts off - this is for dogs who may be alerting their owners to intruders or some other type of danger. We don't control it, the collar is programmed to deliver the shock on its own. We've been using the collars for about a month now and within the first week barking was down by at least 50%. Now they hardly ever bark at people walking on the street. We started using the collars now so that they not only stop excessive barking before the baby gets here, but also we don't want them to think "this new thing called baby came into our house and now we have to wear these dumb collars that hurt us when we bark. Baby must be causing us to get shocked!" So that's our theory. And I'm pretty impressed with how quickly they learned to associate the shock with a bark. Now we can take the collars off for small intervals and they don't even bark at the kids on the street.

mdupon70997 · January 2015

Thanks for your advice Jenny! I never thought of bringing new toys/treats home to them when the baby gets here. That's a really good idea. We did decide that we'd let the dogs sniff the receiving blankets and baby as well. Our German shepherd absolutely loves kids and I don't think he will be an issue as much as our Pomeranian. She's very much a lap dog and is not crazy about toddlers (maybe because they can be rough.) Luckily the collars we bought work in such a way that they "feel" the dog barking rather than "hear" the dog barking, so other loud noises haven't been an issue.

spectacularly · January 2015

We are in the same boat as you! Currently training our very spoiled pug who barks at everything. We purchased a device that lets out a high frequency noise that apparently can only be heard by dogs. When he barks, we firmly tell him, "no!" And press the button. It's been about a week and we've noticed a huge difference! I also agree with PP mentioning bringing a friend's baby by if you have the opportunity! A close friend of ours has a baby and we introduced him to our pug, and he barked a few times, then calmed down. We are hoping when we do bring home baby that he will totally take to him and be fine. I hope the same for yours as well! Best of luck!

SSCmomma · January 2015

There is an organization called Familypaws that's sole purpose Is to help with this stuff. I think they are a .org. DH and I found some of their videos of youtube. We have 3 middle age/senior 4 legged children so this has been a real concern for us as well. They are all obedience trained and stuff but they are also used to being the spoiled centers of our lives. I know it is going to take time and effort to get them to accept baby. We are planning to set have lots of baby gates and boundaries early on and DH will be making and extra effort to make sure they don't feel pushed aside. Number one rule ever though is NEVER LEAVE DOG AND BABY TOGETHER UNSUPERVISED. Even the best dog will be stressed and nervous about the new household member abd it only takes a second for one bad incident.

mdupon70997 · January 2015

I've never heard of this group before! Thanks.

ashiscute · January 2015

What things did you try before the shock collar? That seems so drastic when you didn't list any other things you tried to decrease the barking. And I'm also not sure what the barking has to do with baby. To me the barking at everyone on the street seems like a separate issue that would be addressed but has nothing to do with baby coming. Your baby is going to have to get used to dog barking like dogs are going to get used to baby crying.

We didn't do much to prepare our dog when our first came. We got baby stuff ready a little early so he could investigate it. We also tried to get him as much exercise as we could right before she came (it was January and very snowy). When she got home we just watched them together but let him see and sniff her. The same with when DS was born.

I won't say I'd never use a shock collar because I would do what I had to to keep my dog but there are a lot of options between nothing and a shock collar kwim?

hetispagetti · January 2015

RedheadBaker said:
You are basically setting your dog up to bite "out of the blue." You never EVER punish a dog for growling. A dog that learns not to growl is a dog that goes straight to biting when it feels threatened or afraid. You're effectively taking away their default means of communication with you.

KonaCoffeeBean · January 2015

You're using a shock collar on your dogs?! As others have pointed out, you are creating a dangerous situation for your dogs and your baby. There are many, far more appropriate tactics to take, which have also been discussed. Would you use such an inhumane training tool with your child? I'm sure you wouldn't, so please reconsider with your dogs.

mdupon70997 · January 2015

Thanks for the advice. The barking is a problem not only because of a sleeping baby, but because DH works night shift and they are constantly waking him up during the day when I'm at work with their crazy barking. We've tried several things to help with the barking such as rewarding good behavior and scolding negative behavior, using a spray bottle, and a few other things. If it were regular barking (someone is at the door) it wouldn't be an issue. It wasn't a problem where we used to live. But he thinks it's his job to sit at the door and patrol his street. So the barking does become excessive. Although last night when DH was at home he we heard some funny noises in the house and he started barking. I don't mind that.

jennypolkadots · January 2015

I think you've gotten a lot of really good advice. Shock collars can't be the best solution. You are strapping a device to them that gives them physical pain when they do something you don't like, so it's not much different than just hitting them which surely you wouldn't do. And as far as the design only working when they are growling/barking, how do you know for sure? Electronics malfunction all the time. If you're really unwilling to look into professional training and put in the time, and probably give them way more exercise, then at least look into the collars that use high frequency sound or citronella spray instead of shocks. These aren't great either, but a bit more humane in my opinion.

What about cutting off your dogs access to the front door? Use baby gates. Or put a window covering over the leaded glass. Yeah, it's tacky but doesn't need to be permanent. Your husband can use ear plugs in the mean time while you work on training. My aunt swears by the orange foam hunting ones, her husband snores like a bear lol Just some more ideas for you!

fragile1000 · January 2015

When I was pregnant with my first child, Sara I used a book called Tell Your Dog You're Pregnant: An essential guide for dog owners who are expecting a baby. It was really helpful and came with a baby sounds and toy noises. Max (my fur child!) took some time to get used to the sounds but the book helped on how to do it. It gave me advice on what changes will occur and how to prepare my Max for them. It also talked about the causes for aggression and why it might occur and how to avoid it. It is written by a vet behaviorist too so it cover health issues as well - I got it from www.babyandpet.com.au or Amazon too i guess - mayb that will help you too!

canadianttc1st · January 2015

My best advise is to include your dog in what you are doing. Allow them to sniff baby stuff. If you're in the nursery allow them in with you even if they're not allowed in without you. Let them sit with you while you're feeding/nursing. Don't make any drastic changes to what they are allowed to do after the baby arrives do this before baby or not at all.

Also 100% agree with the growling (as long as it's not a snarl with teeth showing) my one dog is not as tolerable as my other however when he is annoyed and had enough he will growl and walk away which is what you want. He is saying I have had enough and removing himself from the situation.

I have a friend who is the opposite of me and and wouldn't allow the dogs to be "part" of what they were doing and would discipline by hitting when the dogs growl and they have had a few incidents of biting and the dogs are not good with the lo now. I wouldn't trust my lo with them and I believe this is their own fault for how they handled the many situations.

babychevy2015 · January 2015

Shock collars cause more damage than good, your dog can become more reactive because of them. I have a long window near the front door, and it has a shade over it I pull down if the dogs are too interested in what's going on outside. Like others have said they may just be bored and if they get more excercise they will be better. I would get a cover for the door and provide more excercise

animaldoctor12 · January 2015

As a vet, I do not recommend shock collars. They can create fearful, reactive dogs that are more likely to lash out and bite which is exactly what you don't want with a baby on the way. You need to work on counter conditioning to unpair your dogs response to the stimulus outside.

I would contact a veterinary behaviorist for a consult, not a regular dog trainer. And buy the book How to Tell Your Dog You're Pregnant. Do this all asap because training takes months and months.

And please remember the golden rule, never leave your baby unsupervised with the dogs.

MrsJCool · January 2015

Can you not put a curtain up so he can't see the street? Or maybe change the door?

Weezy56 · January 2015

RedheadBaker said:

You are basically setting your dog up to bite "out of the blue." You never EVER punish a dog for growling. A dog that learns not to growl is a dog that goes straight to biting when it feels threatened or afraid. You're effectively taking away their default means of communication with you.

Exactly this. Obviously they are not able to communicate with words so this is their way of warning you that their limits are being pushed.

Stephmichellep · January 2015

You've gotten a lot of good advice, so I thought I'd leave a resource a lady on my BMB gave me. This blog has a really good series on getting dogs ready for baby.

https://loveandaleash.com/?s=Baby&submit=Search

This should be the first entry and at the bottom of the entry it lists the others. I really enjoyed it and got some good ideas from it. But our dog is extremely obedient and exercised and played with regularly. So we've never had any behavior issues with him. Also he only ever barks at is our vacuum. So maybe once you guys get the behavior stuff taken care of these would help with prepping for the baby. Good luck with your pups and little one!

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