introducing dogs and babies
Introducing dogs to babies?
Do you really think dogs can tell if your pregnant? Does anyone have stories? And whats the best way to introduce pets to new babies? This is my first baby to be born so i’m not sure how to handle this one.
Oh yeah, my dog is part Golden retriever which i know is a good family dog, but she’s just barely a year old and i’m due around halloween sometime……
My dog is primarily labrador retriever and I just had a baby on August 9th. She is just turning a year old so hopefully this will help.
While you are in the hospital, have your significant other bring home a blanket or something the baby has worn so the dog can smell it. This will get the dog used to the baby’s scent. When you come home from the hospital, have your s.o. hold the baby so the dog can greet you freely and not feel as if the baby is competition.
When we got home, my husband bent down so the pup could sniff the baby; she smelled her a couple times and went back to her rawhide. Then when the baby woke up later and cried a little bit, holy crap, that dog ran so quickly to her bassinet and was like “it makes noise?!”
We have a gate on her bedroom door so the dog can be with us in the baby’s room while we are in there, but she can be kept out when the baby is alone in her crib or no one is in there. This allows her to feel like she is a part of things without putting the baby at risk (I don’t think my dog would hurt her, but she is 65 lbs with a lot of puppy left and I worry about accidents).
The more I let the dog sniff Addison, the less interested she has become. I let her lick her feet, but not her head. Hopefully they will be great buddies in a year or so, but for now I just don’t want the dog to feel threatened which could turn into aggression.
Also, I try to take at least five minutes each day to sit with the dog like I used to–let her put her head in my lap or I rub her tummy. I breastfeed so there are a lot of times when I just cannot interact with her physically, so I talk to her instead. So far, no problems! In fact, Zoe is super protective of me and the baby. When we were out walking the other day, another dog approached too quickly and Zoe positioned herself right in front of us and would not let the dog near us.
Good luck to you; this was one of my greatest worries when I was preparing for my little girl so hopefully this will ease some of your fears.
Dogs and Babies in 2008
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Childproofing Your Dog: A Complete Guide to Preparing Your Dog for the Children in Your Life $9.12 Master dog trainer and author of Good Owners, Great Dogs Brian Kilcommons shows readers how to encourage children and dogs to be perfect companions, in a comprehensive manual that demonstrates how to train an older dog to acept an infant, choose the right breed, and more…. |
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Your Dog and Your Baby: A Practical Guide $11.50 International Bestseller since 1991, now in its completely revised fifth edition. Includes detailed information and 16 step-by-step action plans on how to treat and avoid Jealousy, special pre-baby training, hygiene, safety, car training and much more. Also contains lots of Real Life Examples, Stories and Case Examples to Illustrate What Can Go Wrong and How You Can Learn From Their Mistakes & Di… |
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Bow-Wow Orders Lunch (Board) $4.9 A dog orders a lunch of bread and cheese in this picture book that introduces patterns. |
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Mi Pequena Enciclopedia (Paperback) $3.91 Introduces dogs, including their wild cousins, dog breeds, canine behavior, caring for a pet dog, and working dogs. |
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Meet the Boxcar Children $4.94 Let Benny and the Alden family’s faithful dog, Watch, introduce younger readers to this magical series. In this first book of the series, readers learn the original story of the four orphaned children and their search for a new home. |
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13 Words (Reinforced Hardcover) $17.71 A dog attempts to cheer up his friend, a despondent bird, in a tale that introduces a series of words from “baby” to “haberdashery.” |
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Perfect Pets (Board) $4.9 Rhyming text introduces different kinds of pets, including dogs, goldfish, rabbits, parrots, and kittens. |