Furbabies and babies

[sloppybananasplit]

How are you planning to introduce your new baby to your pet? 

I ask because I was visiting my sister this afternoon, and her dog tried to bite mine (fear anxiety/owner protectiveness) and managed to bite my sister's hand pretty hard! She's pregnant too, and is now a bit worried about introducing a dog with aggression to a new baby... if anyone has experience with that, do tell!

[akraus2015]

I moved Lou's crate and toys out of the room that will become the nursery, and I'm going to be sure to shampoo the carpets in that room several times to make sure the dog's scent will be completely gone. I want to give him several months to establish a new room in the house as "his". MH is going to bring one of my shirts and something with the baby's scent home from the hospital and put it in Lou's crate so he can sleep with it and get used to the baby's scent. So far that's all we've got.

[mrsmuq]

A dog that's aggressive needs to either be retrained, or trained to begin with. We hired a professional trainer when I was pregnant with DS to re-teach our dog.

Also, we relocated (about 4 months in advance) all of his "things" to our master bedroom. Our dog has only ever slept in our bedroom overnight, so this wasn't a big deal.

We also brought home the baby's hat/blanket to let the dog sniff it before our actual arrival home.

[bee]

With DS we brought a receiving blanket to the hospital and wrapped him in it for a while. When DH went home to take care of our dogs he brought the blanket with him for them to smell. We only had a little bit of jealousy. One of our dogs thought she was DS's mom and was so protective. We had a wonderful experience. Our dog and DS just because I love this picture.

[akraus2015]

Jul 5, 2015 20:37:33 GMT -5 bee said:

With DS we brought a receiving blanket to the hospital and wrapped him in it for a while. When DH went home to take care of our dogs he brought the blanket with him for them to smell. We only had a little bit of jealousy. One of our dogs thought she was DS's mom and was so protective. We had a wonderful experience. Our dog and DS just because I love this picture. Snip!

Love it!!

[shan]

Our beagle barked every time the baby cried for a solid week when we brought dd home. Suddenly, he just acclimated. The new-walker phase was very scary for him bc she was unpredictable and crazy looking.
Every age comes with new concerns with our dog, and we are vigilant on never leaving them alone... No matter how wonderful/loving our pup always is.

[wicked22]

My dog Belanna is jealous of Joseph because of lack of attention compared to prebaby. Now that Joseph is a little older Belanna has fun cleaning up his crumbs and licking him. I'm not a fan of the licking but she's so damn sneeky. By the time the new baby arrives I hope Belanna will be a little more playful with Joseph and vise versa.

[musicalsilver]

I'd be very wary about introducing a baby to a dog that's shown any signs of aggression towards non-stranger people (one of our dogs shows aggression towards strangers, but is totally chill with family and friends). One of the mom's on DS's BMB had a dog that showed only two isolated incidences of aggression toward non-strangers, and they were concerned enough to send their dog for an intensive behavioral training program to make sure that it was under control. I think that's the approach that needs to be taken, as I wouldn't want to risk a LO near a potentially aggressive dog.

We've been training our dogs for kids since they were puppies. We trained out any instinct to snap when their ears or tails were pulled. One of our dogs had a weird tendency to snap if you blew in her face, so we trained that out of her too. Sticking hands in their mouths, pulling their fur, etc. They've weathered DS like champs. One of our dogs will let DS get away with quite literally anything. The other - just about, except for using her as a jungle gym (she just gets up and walks away).

Our cats, well, we just figured they would keep distance as necessary. Even the not-as-nice one has infinitely more patience with DS than I ever expected.

For the actual introduction, DH brought home one of LO's beanie hats from the hospital that he'd been wearing before we all came home together, just so they could learn the smell. We made sure to have everything set up for LO for a couple weeks before LO was born so they could get used to the new stuff.

Most importantly, we tried as much as we could to keep their routines as normal as possible, so despite the reduced attention, things were as close to normal as we could manage it.

[virginiaorjohn]

I have heard and I agree with everything posted so far. It's so worth it to put time and effort (and money as necessary) towards getting your fur babies acclimated to the new baby.

I've also heard that it's important for mom to lavish attention on puppies and kitties when she comes home from the hospital with baby. That way, pets don't start off immediately feeling ignored by mom and dad.

For our dog, we are already planning on having him go to his usual doggie daycare for every other day for a week or two after the birth. MH will go back to work almost immediately after the birth,but at least on the days I have the dog at home with me and the baby, he will be extra tired from daycare the day before.

[lindseyp2012]

I have been reading about this a little. I plan to try to acclimate my dog to all things baby throughout my pregnancy.

Smells: buy baby lotion, powder, soap, etc. and let him get used to the abundance of new odors (even the odor of new diapers). Hubby will bring receiving blanket home for pup to sniff before baby comes home.
Sights: Once nursery is starting to get set up, let him explore it (if you're allowing the pup in the baby's room, of course) and get used to the new set up. We only use future nursery for a storage room now so my pup will have to get used to that room being a new place where things happen.
Sounds: This may sound strange, but I don't think it could hurt - when crib is set up, put laptop in it and play YouTube videos of screaming babies loudly.

If there is any sort of aggressive behavior, get that pup into more obedience training quickly! Hopefully that protective nature will generalize and the dog will be that protective of the baby, but you don't want to take any chances! My pup has zero aggressive behaviors, but gets really excited with anything new. He's 85lbs so his excitement could cause some damage with a newborn. I need to get him as used to all the new things as possible.