How to introduce baby to dog?

sardavbak · September 2015

Looking for advice from STM+ on how to go about introducing the baby and the dog when the time comes... We have a 4-yr old French bulldog who has been our only "baby" and I'm worried about how to introduce him to the baby in a way that won't turn his entire world upside down and/or create jealousy or animosity toward the baby.

yl1m32015 · September 2015

Read the book "good dog, happy baby." It really helped me start to prepare my furbaby. Basically, I've started practicing with him. We've walked next to the stroller, sleep next to the bassinet, ride in the car with the car seat, and practice with a baby doll. The main problem with dogs when baby comes is that they just get too overwhelmed. There's so many sights, sounds, smells all at once. The more you can ease them into it, introduce them to the new furniture, the movement of the swing, get them used to a different routine before baby comes, the easier the transition will be for them.

Corynnie · September 2015

I'll just leave this here.

BellaM110 · September 2015

In addition to what has already been said ...

I'm a FTM but I have heard before you bring baby home, have your Husband or family member bring a blanket or a onesie (something that has the baby's scent on it) home to the dog for it to smell to get used to the baby's scent. I plan to try this myself. And the of course be cautious when you do bring baby home until your dog is used to him/her.

laceyglowacki · September 2015

Just to add, whatever you bring home for your dog to learn baby's scent, it has to be after the baby gets their first bath!

yl1m32015 · September 2015

laceyglowacki said:
Just to add, whatever you bring home for your dog to learn baby's scent, it has to be after the baby gets their first bath!

That's interesting. What's the reasoning for that? Not that I would bring home a goopy blanket, just curious how the scent changes.

BellaM110 · September 2015

yl1m32015 said:

laceyglowacki said:
Just to add, whatever you bring home for your dog to learn baby's scent, it has to be after the baby gets their first bath!
That's interesting. What's the reasoning for that? Not that I would bring home a goopy blanket, just curious how the scent changes.

Actually this is a good point. I would think because prior to bathing the baby has and scent of blood/amniotic fluid which wouldn't be the the true scent of the baby. After a bath baby would be clean and no longer have that iron scent.

stickybun14 · September 2015

BellaM110 said:
In addition to what has already been said ...

I'm a FTM but I have heard before you bring baby home, have your Husband or family member bring a blanket or a onesie (something that has the baby's scent on it) home to the dog for it to smell to get used to the baby's scent. I plan to try this myself. And the of course be cautious when you do bring baby home until your dog is used to him/her.

And while your doing this make sure your dog is in a calm state. Not getting too overly excited or jumping. This is something we are planning on doing. After they have a good sniff the blanket will go on the bassinet and they will be told to lay down next to the bassinet and get treats if they are nice and calm. So they associate the baby smell with where the baby will sleep and they will get treats if they are calm and well behaved.

Make any changes now so the dog doesn't associate any negative changes with baby. For example ours are now only allowed on their mats when they are inside and are spending more time outside.

And the obvious - never leave your dog alone with a newborn. Ours are super friendly but we would never take the risk.

Only a FTM but we have researching this a lot.

hpolello · September 2015

Our nurse gave us a great idea. We have 2 giant dogs and were very nervous as well. The hospital gave us a hat for our daughter. When we got home my husband went out back with the hat and let them get use to the smell before bringing them in to meet baby. They did awesome! Our biggest dog Zeus is so protective over here. For the first couple days he would wine every time she cried. It was so sweet.

tetchy · September 2015

Seconding the blankie to sniff and lay with. Keep the baby up high for awhile while the dog gets slowly acclimated maybe up in a bassinet for a while or in a wrap type carrier on your body. From my experience our little terrier was a wrecking ball of pure joy when we brought our first home. She jumped up on the bed and tried to ram the door down when shut out. Just too excited to be safe.

Rawr052992 · September 2015

All of my family has babies and pets. I personally have 3 dogs of my own.

How we plan to do introductions, we've wavered around a bit, but we're going to:

1. have baby items set up a little early, everyone says to pretend your doing things in the crib or to use a doll, but when I feel like Im 100 lbs weighing foward, I think having it set up for them to get use to will more than suffice.

2. HIGH VALUE TREATS! This works in nearly any greeting situation, as you have the dog(s) full attention. We'll be having them sit and lay down and just WATCH the baby for the first few days, until seeing baby is no big deal, and treating them for calm behavior, gentle smelling & for giving baby space during tummy time. Just like any training, eventually the treats wont be needed.

- For anyone who doesnt know what a high value treat is, its a treat with a strong scent to grab your dogs attention, and also has a flavor your dog adores. We use Papa Psuka here in our house, but not everyone can find those, so look into a dog food roll, & then just cut it up, natural balance is easily found in Petsmarts & Petcos.

3. Cuddle Time! We want to keep our dogs as close after baby as they were before baby. So we already have movie time every night before bed, where all the dogs are laying on the bed. My feet are usually propped up on one of my pitties, my other pittie is at my side, and my bf's spaniel is at his side. Baby will ofcoarse be joining us, whether sleeping or awake, and be between us. So we'll be keeping a routine they know.

I think the most important thing to remember when introducing baby into your lives and your pets, is that even though baby is first, your pets lives shouldnt have to change. Remember they were there first, your not just adding to your lives ,your adding to thiers. Theres no need to disrupt thier lives by forcing them to be outside more often, less play, or the special one on one time theyr use to. They are also still your baby, even if you have a human one now.

Remember to be gentle in your behavour changes.

EXAMPLES:

~~~ If your dog is use to being on the couch and you've decided that needs to change, dont be aggressive in training, give gentle reminders that the couch is now off limits, and treat them when they lay down by your feet or in thier bed instead of the couch.

~~~ If your dog is use to begging while your eating, due to you feeding table scraps, and you no longer want them to beg since you dont want them taking food from baby's hand. Treat them AFTER meals in thier food bowl, no longer give treats from the table, it will take time, but eventually they wont feel a need to beg, as food doesnt come from the table. ( we did this, took us 4 months to truely see a breakthrough, but was well worth it)

~~~ If your dog is use to being a Free-range dog, meaning they have NEVER been kenneled, and you want to teach them now, at whatever age to use a kennel. Remember to use the kennel for GOOD! A Kennel is NEVER a punishment. I personally trained all my dogs to use thier kennels when they were younger, except my BFs dog, who I taught at 9 yrs old. But we start with moving the bed they already know into the kennel and placing treats on it. Once comfortable with walking in. SITs were done in the kennel, & once that was easy. SITS & the door being closed. Treats are given through all of this, including verbal praise and petting as well. I now have one of my dogs who WILL NOT go to bed unless you go lock her in her kennel, if she can push the door back open, then shes not happy and will come and nudge you until its actualy closed (she was trained at 5 months old). Our Old man (hes 10, trained at 9 yrs old), hell go into the kennel and lay down for a treat, and you can close him in for up to 3 hours before hes had enough of being in his kennel, pretty much just a little longer than his nap. Our Little pittie, she prefers to lay outside of my other pitties kennel than in her own, but by placing the two side by side, she'll lay in hers forever, whether the door is opened or closed (shes 4 months old now, started training last month)

TomekiaB · September 2015

My dog is good with kids, so we are mostly just planning calm introductions. I do plan on setting meal time reminders for the first month to make sure we don't mess up the dogs routine--which has happened to some of my friend's dogs in the first couple weeks. I'm also not planning on boarding the dog overnight within the first 4-8 weeks of LOs arrival, so any holiday travel will be dog friendly. I will need to have him practice riding in the car with the carseat. I may practice walking with the stroller before but my dog has run with a bike so I am sure he'll figure it out quickly. The dog gets scheduled walks so I may wear baby if I need to walk the dog by myself (DH usually does the dog walks so we will gradually start getting the dog to walk with the stroller when we are both there--for practice when one of us will have to both at the same time!).

kepoole · September 2015

I got my 6(almost 7) yr old pit when I was pregnant with my older daughter. He was a puppy at the time and would always sniff my
Belly and be cautious around it. He kind of grew up with my daughter, and as hyper as he is he would stop dead in his tracks when he realiZed she was there. This pregnancy he's gotten very protective of my belly and will come sniff me, then my stomach, and then lay his head on my belly lol. I'm really not worried as he seems to be aware of what's going on and remember from last time, though I will be gentle as I introduce them and of course won't be leaving them alone together

slabancz · September 2015

Something that I have read was that before baby comes even though it pains me but to start giving your dogs less attention then you normally would, since of course when you bring the newborn home your main attention will be on him/her.
Also I'm trying to accustom my dogs to baby noises by playing baby crying and laughing videos on YouTube so hopefully the baby screams won't startle them too bad.

USCnurse42 · September 2015

Our dog is use to us bringing babies home now that this will be our third. We have let our fur child be around while we are setting things up to get use to the sights and sounds of all baby things. If you have a friend with a little one, see if the friend is willing to let their little one meet your fur child. My husband brought blanket home so Tiger could smell it. We left the baby in the car seat and my husband brought them in. This gave Tiger a chance to love on me and me make sure he is calm before letting him meet the baby. We let him sniff the baby in the car seat first while petting him and making sure he didn't get too excited. Then we took the baby out and held them while petting Tiger. He did great with them. He will lay next to the baby where ever they are. Make sure you are calm. They feed off your energy

Stellasmom13 · September 2015

I second all the previous advice. We have two huge German Shepards and one thing that helped them bond with our daughter was letting them in the room when I was rocking/nursing her. They would both lay beside us and just chill. The female is extremely protective over her and has really become "her dog". All that being said, we will never take a chance of leaving our small kids in the room alone with the dogs. They're animals and may interpret a behavior from the baby as a threat and react. Always better safe than sorry!

sarahdanielleg · September 2015

I have the same problem with my frenchie. We have had him just under a year. The problem I have is that I me and the baby won't be living with him. My partners mother has disowned me but still wants the baby to go to theirs but I don't want the baby and the dog to be introduced and I won't be there

bekaadams49 · September 2015

My husband brought home our DD hat the day before we came home and let our bulldog smell it. Once we got home she smelled our DD and was very gentle. DD is 5 now and you can't raise your voice at her without the dog getting offended and very protective.

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