Introducing Dog and Baby

Now that you've done your best to prepare the dog for the baby's arrival, here are some ideas for introducing the dog and baby.

But before I get into that, there is a time in between preparations and introductions that should be dealt with: when Mom goes to the hospital to have the baby.  Make sure there is a plan in place for who will take care of your dog when Mom and Dad are at the hospital for many, many hours while Mom is in labor (or scheduled for a c-section in some cases).

Now that Mom is recovered - or at least enough to come home - and has that bundle of joy in her arms, now comes the arrival home.  Mom and Dad left home as 2, but they'll be coming home as 3 (or more if there are twins or multiples).  You probably can't wait to introduce your dog to his or her new sibling!  However, there is a way to do it correctly so that your dog isn't thinking WTF when you get in the door.

In the last post, I mentioned that Dad should take home an article of clothing that the baby wore the day before coming home so that your dog can get the baby's scent ahead of time.  Now that your dog has probably gotten that baby's scent, he or she is about to find out what that smell is.  And here is how to introduce your new baby with the furry sibling:

* Mom will enter the home first.  After all, the dog has not seen Mom for a few days and will be excited to see her.  Expect an excited dog.  If you have had a c-section, like I did, it would be a good idea of enter the house with a boppy pillow to place against your abdomen to protect the incision area in case your dog tries to jump up on you.  If you've done a good job of training your dog not to jump on you or anyone - which since I have a small dog, I admit that I have not - this may not be an issue.  Give your dog time to greet Mom and welcome her back home.  He or she has missed Mom!

* Dad will bring the baby in the house AFTER Mom has entered.  It would be a good idea to keep the baby in the car seat (if you have one that you can remove from a base that stays in the car, like ours).  If the dog seems excited to see everyone and is hyper, give him or her time to get it out of his/her system and calm down.  We needed to let Sydney settle down before letting her see Taylor since she was very excited to see me.  It probably took about 10 minutes before we thought she had settled enough to see Taylor.

* If the baby was wrapped in a receiving blanket upon entering, let the dog sniff the blanket first (Remember that scent??).  Then little by little and with CLOSE supervision, let the dog sniff the baby.  While you wouldn't want the dog to lick the face area if the dog feels inclined to show some affection right away, you don't need to scold him or her.  If they lick the hands, you can always wipe them clean - but do it shortly after.  Scolding the dog to not lick the baby will only make the dog associate baby with scolding, which is not a good start to their relationship.  To get the dog to not lick without scolding, distract him or her with a toy. 

* When the dog shows signs of being gentle with the first introduction, don't forget to praise him/her with a "Good boy!" or "Good girl!" and maybe even give a training treat.  The dog will be very curious about the baby, but make sure not too curious to where the baby is being bothered too much.  Again, create a diversion (like with a toy) rather than scold.

* Memo to Dad: Remember that you're probably in better physical shape than Mom right now.  You'll need to be supervising and probably handling the dog portion of the introduction while Mom will handle the baby part of the introduction.  In my case, I had a c-section and was still very sore, so it was easier for me to hold a sleeping newborn Taylor while Matt and my mom were more able than I was to handle a very strong and excited Sydney.

Remember this VERY important tip when living with an animal and a baby:

**** NEVER EVER LEAVE AN ANIMAL AND A BABY ALONE TOGETHER! ****

Even if your dog is the most gentle dog in the world, you just never know what could make him or her snap.  Even if you're going to the kitchen or bathroom for just one second, that's all the time it takes for something to go wrong.  Take one or the other with you if you need to leave the room.

Below is a pic of Sydney meeting Taylor for the first time.  See how gentle she is in going to carefully sniff the baby while I watch closely?

Preparing Your Dog for a Baby

Hi, name is Jodi, and my husband, Matt, and I have recently undergone a major change in our lives... we bought a house recently, and 4 months after moving in, our daughter, Taylor, was born.  That's enough right there to change our lives, but three years before all that, we had another addition to our family that made us a family as opposed to just a couple.  In June 2008, we had brought home a Shih Tzu puppy, whom we named Sydney.  She is the sweetest puppy we had ever met and still is at age 3!  We became Mommy and Daddy to her as if she were our own.  We have both loved her, taken care of her, and based some of our home-buying decisions based on her needs -- and wants.  We had actually enjoyed having her so much and thought about making her a big sister by getting another Shih Tzu puppy so they could keep each other company while we both worked during the day.  Sydney did become a big sister all right...

I found out that I was pregnant!

We really weren't planning on having any human children.  We had always been aunt and uncle to kids in our family, but we never thought we'd want our own.  We fell in love with being  Sydney's parents that we thought we'd be parents to dogs.  But it's amazing what surprises life throws our way.

I had heard people tell me, "Once that baby comes, you won't have time for that dog!"  I know there were families in which that happened, but Matt and I certainly didn't want that to happen to Sydney.  Certainly there must be a way for a new baby to arrive AND make sure that Sydney still felt like she was just as much part of the family as before!  Despite the distractions of buying the house, moving, and dealing with pregnancy (morning sickness, bodily changes, hormones, etc.), I still wanted to learn how to make things work between parenting Sydney and parenting a baby.

While I was still pregnant, Matt and I had taken an class at Animal Friends (in the North Hills of Pittsburgh) called Baby Ready Your Pet.  We had learned tips on preparing a dog for a baby, introducing a dog to a new baby, and living with a dog and baby.  The class also focused on cats, birds, and other types of pets, but our main concern had to do with dogs.

I would like to focus this blog post mainly on the preparation of a baby coming (for the dog, that is).

* Buy a baby doll to use as a prop so that the dog gets used to seeing members of the household holding a baby.  We used a prop baby for Sydney to used to seeing us with one.

* Play sounds of a baby crying and cooing so that the dog gets used to hearing those sounds.  Some find it disturbing while others are genuinely concerned for the crying baby.  It's a good idea to get them conditioned to baby sounds before the baby comes home.  We downloaded baby sounds and kept them on the iPod or on our phones to play at random.

* By using the aforementioned prop baby doll, train the dog to jump/climb onto your lap only when invited to do so.  Some lap dogs might jump on a baby that is taking a bottle/breastfeeding or just sleeping in someone's arms.  Train them early to get on your lap only when you invite them so you can avoid any safety issues for the baby in order to avoid it being an issue to begin with.  Also, make sure they know your signal for when NOT to jump/climb onto your lap as well.  It'll take some repetition (and probably training treats).  We did practice this with Sydney and rewarded her with training treats when she obeyed us.

* Allow the dog to sniff some baby stuff, like some baby clothes. We got Sydney used to seeing baby clothes and got her used to the baby's room by sometimes letting her go in there with us.  Sometimes we took a toy of hers in there to play with her in there so that she may associate baby's room with "good" and "happy."

* If the baby is sleeping in a bassinet at first as opposed to the crib in the nursery, it might be a good idea to train the dog to sleep in his/her own doggy bed instead of in your bed.  This is mainly to prevent the dog from finding a way to climb into the bassinet via the bed.  We personally did not feel the need to do this with Sydney due to the fact that the bassinet was located several feet away from our bed, and it's at a height and distance in which Sydney can't get to it.  But in other families' cases, training the dog to sleep elsewhere might be necessary.

* Start thinking about any possible issues with the baby having access to the dog's food when the little one starts crawling and walking.  If the dog's food and water need to be moved, the change can be made gradually before the baby arrives.  That way, it's not too drastic of a change for the dog.  For example, Matt and I would like to move Sydney's food and water to the kitchen and then put the baby gate between the kitchen and living room doorway so that a crawling and walking Taylor can't get to the food.  Sydney's bowls can be moved a foot or two at a time each day to gradually get her used to it not being in the same location as before.  The gate can be added after a while.  She will also learn with the gate there that if she needs to eat/drink, she'll let us know.  It will take some time for us to learn her cues as well. This avoids any hassles and potential danger to the baby if the dog's food is "threatened."

* If any family/friends have a baby, bring him/her over to a) see how your dog reacts to a baby and b) practice things like inviting the dog onto your lap and teaching him/her not to climb up.  We did not have anyone visit with a baby, so we had to hope for the best with Sydney's reaction to a baby.

* Make sure that there is no possible access the dog can jump into the crib or access the baby.  No pieces of furniture or anything that he/she can get into that would be almost like a stepping stone or two into the crib.  Same with a playpen or anything like that.  When we set up the nursery, we made sure that any other pieces of furniture (changing table, dresser, rocking chair) were all placed in separate locations where they wouldn't be touching or come that close to the crib.

* And this tip will lead into the next blog, which will be about introducing the dog and baby when Mom and Baby come home from the hospital... before Mom and Baby come home, have Dad take a onesie/article of clothing that the baby had worn or a blanket in which the baby was swaddled to let the dog get the baby's scent.  The baby's smell when he'/comes home with Mom should not be that new to the dog by then.  The day before Taylor and I came home, Matt took a onesie that Taylor had been wearing and let Sydney sniff it when he went home that night.


I'll post later about introducing the dog and baby.  Tips that we learned as well as our own story about Sydney and Taylor meeting for the first time!