PSA: pet meets baby

TheThornBird · February 2016

Hey everyone!

I'm a dog trainer, and I stumbled across this today and thought you all may benefit from it. Of course, let me know if you have any questions!

https://www.americanhumane.org/interaction/programs/humane-education/pet-meets-baby.html

baby-2-due · February 2016

I'm glad you posted this! I've been reading up on ways to introduce my fur babies to LO. My female boxer is not good with anything eye level or smaller and it makes me worried. She doesn't bite but she circles and barks uncontrollably.

ETA: We have her scheduled for visits with a behavioralist. They have a 4 block system set up to help with her anxiety and fear of smaller children. I also bought a baby alive to help adjust the both of them

hoping it works!

yogahh · February 2016

Awesome! thanks for sharing

LadySamLady · February 2016

Thank you so much for this! Printing it out now and excited to dig in on the train ride home.

PYLWhammy · February 2016

Thanks, will definitely take a look at this!

tgortney · February 2016

https://youtu.be/CNrluRPfLP4

This thread reminds me of this video

Merciel · February 2016

On a similar note, Colleen Pelar's book Living With Kids and Dogs is a really great resource that I often recommend to adopters who come to our rescue wanting to adopt a dog for a home with kids.

It's just as good the other way around too, though, if you're bringing a new baby home to a household with dogs.

artteacher19 · February 2016

This has been on my mind too! I played audio of a baby crying for 5 mins for my cats the other day. One didn't care at all. The other got upset, attacked my arm (holding the phone), bit my arm, then paced around until biting my knee! He's always so chill! Everyone says he's the best dude. He's diabetic and let's us give him shots no problem, and check his blood sugar with ear pricks no problem! But he hates the sound of dishes clanging... I never expected him to react like this!

businessmama · February 2016

Merciel said: On a similar note, Colleen Pelar's book Living With Kids and Dogs is a really great resource that I often recommend to adopters who come to our rescue wanting to adopt a dog for a home with kids.

It's just as good the other way around too, though, if you're bringing a new baby home to a household with dogs.
I knew someone had recommended this! I picked it up and am reading through it/taking notes now. Thanks for the recommendation!

Pregghers · February 2016

@TheThornBird I've been thinking about this a fair bit. I'm not all that worried about my dogs' individual reactions to the baby (though I will take recommended and necessary precautions) but I am concerned about the dogs as a "pack." Any experience on this? The dogs are all individually good with kids, just not sure if the 3 together will cause problems.

Pregghers · February 2016

@TheThornBird I've been thinking about this a fair bit. I'm not all that worried about my dogs' individual reactions to the baby (though I will take recommended and necessary precautions) but I am concerned about the dogs as a "pack." Any experience on this? The dogs are all individually good with kids, just not sure if the 3 together will cause problems.

TheThornBird · February 2016

@Maybaby0519 Happy to hear you are working with a behaviorist! They should be able to get you all set up.

@Pregghers: Problems can definitely be amplified when multiple dogs are in the mix, since they can escalate each other's behavior (if that makes sense- if one goes after the baby, there's a good chance the rest will join in). The biggest thing is never, ever, EVER leave them with the baby unattended. Also, check out familypaws.com; they have a ton of good information. Here's one of their free webinars:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjEpBdl4skc

@tgortney Ha! I love that the guy thinks they'll have to choose between the baby and the cat. My favorite funny pet video (although not baby-related):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbycvPwr1Wg

kp90 · February 2016

Thanks for this! I plan to download and read tonight. I have 3 dogs and I'm not worried about my male lab mix and female border collie.. but my 3rd female is very moody and dominant. None of my dogs have ever really been around babies but when kids have come around they pretty much run from the kids and like to be left alone. I'm hoping this will help.

emma+karen · February 2016

Sort of related but I wanted to add, if anyone has a pet that likes to eat things...

Our dog is GREAT with our toddler, and has been since he was an infant. We never had any issue with the two of them getting along. However, since he was born she has had three surgeries--or I should say, the same surgery three times--to remove pacifiers, bottle caps and teething toys from her intestines.

If you have a dog who likes to chew, be hyper-vigilant with the many soft, rubbery baby toys you'll inevitably have. (Sophie the Giraffe is quite possibly the world's most expensive chew toy if your dog gets a hold of it.) We are considering having our pup go live with my parents for the first 6 months or so when this LO comes because as careful as we are, if baby drops his paci and you don't see it, or a midnight bottle gets left in doggy reach by a sleepy parent, or you leave a teething toy sitting on the couch without thinking--our dog, at least, will have swallowed it in a jiff.

Just wanted to throw that out there from personal experience!

mrstmoose · February 2016

Awesome, thanks for sharing! We played a baby crying the other night on the laptop and put it in the crib. Our shepherd just stood at the crib and watched it while our husky sat in the hall and was confused. Lol

yogahh · February 2016

I have been randomly playing baby crying videos for my cat.She doesn't seem to care at all. Even let me clean eye boogers from her eye while playing one last night. Hopefully she is as chill when the baby is actually here! She was a feral cat and it took years for her to come out of her shell, mainly because my other cat HATED her and constantly terrorized her. After he died, she finally started to show her true (adorable!) self. So after all this work of getting her to be comfortable with us, I am worried that she might take some steps back.

amovin21 · February 2016

@thethornbird, DH and I rescued our dog from the local SPCA over 2 years ago and whenever DH touches me our dog will stop whatever he's doing and stare down DH. If DH kisses me the dog comes running and barks, he's never tried to bite, but likes to make himself known. It's so odd to me since DH and I got him together not like I had him prior to DH and I getting together. What I'm worried about isn't that our dog will go after the baby but will become protective like he is with me and that anyone who tries to touch the baby he will "go after", again, he's never been overly aggressive just barks. DH and I have tried to correct the dog over the past 2 years, but he doesn't learn. Any suggestions and/or advice?

YouGoGlenCoco31 · February 2016

TheThornBird said:

Hey everyone!

I'm a dog trainer, and I stumbled across this today and thought you all may benefit from it. Of course, let me know if you have any questions!

https://www.americanhumane.org/interaction/programs/humane-education/pet-meets-baby.html

Thanks for this! I knew someone on this board was a dog trainer, and I was searching threads to remind myself who it was.

I might be back to bother you with questions!

TheThornBird · February 2016

artteacher19 said:

This has been on my mind too! I played audio of a baby crying for 5 mins for my cats the other day. One didn't care at all. The other got upset, attacked my arm (holding the phone), bit my arm, then paced around until biting my knee! He's always so chill! Everyone says he's the best dude. He's diabetic and let's us give him shots no problem, and check his blood sugar with ear pricks no problem! But he hates the sound of dishes clanging... I never expected him to react like this!

Sorry I missed this! What you could try instead is play the audio at the lowest possible level you can; even if you can't hear it, assume your cat can. If all goes well (no attacking/biting), then the next day bring it up to the next level, then the next day to the next level, etc. If at any point he shows signs of distress (even small signs- try to notice it before he goes to biting/attacking), take it back down to a level he can handle for a couple days, then try slowly bringing it back up. Does that make sense?

TheThornBird · February 2016

@emma+karen Thanks for bringing that up! Yea, those surgeries can be EXPENSIVE, and dogs eat the weirdest things sometimes.

artteacher19 · February 2016

@TheThornBird totally makes sense! Commense baby sensitivity training!

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