Having a new addition in the house is always challenging for all parents or parents to be. Things can be even trickier if you already have a dog at home, and this is largely because you are introducing something a new human to them. To dogs, anything that moves will be of interest to them, and when it is something that they are not familiar with, it will be very difficult to predict the dog’s reaction to it. Indeed, it is very likely that your dog might react adversely to it, and hence potentially causing alarm to you and your spouse.
To prevent the untoward to happen to your family, we will strongly urge you introduce the baby to your dog! This will really help to acclimatize your pet dog to the new addition in your family! It never hurts to be prepared for an event that you are unfamiliar with. With that, here are the steps that you can take to introduce the new baby to your dog.
Preparing for post-pregnancy life
Once you realize that you are pregnant, there is a chain of events that should follows. Of course, apart from the usual pregnancy checks that you should be already going for, you will need to check if your dog is properly dewormed, or if your dog is free from parasites, the latter at which can be easily detected via a stool test. Of course, keeping the dog properly vaccinated will be important as you wouldn’t want unwanted diseases to be transmitted to you or your fetus.
If you can, you should also verbally tell your dog that there will be a new addition coming soon. Of course, the dog obviously cannot understand our language, but since dogs are highly sensory in nature, all of these helps to prep the dog especially if the dog has been noticing that your belly is starting to protrude and that they might be curious about it. What I love to do is to get the dog to be reminded that its baby brother is coming out soon, and I watch with glee when my dog starts to rest its head on my tummy!
Introduce new furnishings and behavior to the dog
It is inevitable that the furnishing and items at home will start to change once the baby is about to arrive. We will need to buy a baby cot, some cabinets for the baby’s clothing or even items like pram or a bathtub. As we start to purchase these items, it will be a good idea to start introducing the items to the dog too. This will get the dog to be mentally prepared for a change that is coming and trust us when we say that the dog will be anticipating it too!
One other good way to gauge the dog’s behavior or reaction to the new baby is by acting as if the baby’s already home. You can put a baby doll in the crib and as you carry the doll up, act as if it is really a baby and make sure to observe the dog’s behavior too. If the dog is acting adversely to this, then you might want to repeat this step till the dog starts to behave normally. If the dog continues to react negatively, we will urge you to seek professional help before the baby is born!
Another way to prepare the dog is by playing videos of baby to the dog. A simple search on YouTube will bring you tons of baby crying videos.
Demarcating no-go zones
If you haven’t done so already, you should start to demarcate places that is totally off-limits to your dog. The baby room should be kept off-limits as you would want the environment to be clean and safe for your new baby. To help demarcate places in your house, you can make use of baby gates or puppy gates that helps to keep the dog out. In some cases, owners utilize the usage of a citronella spray that dogs loathe, and the spray is used on the dog so that it helps to deter them from entering the baby’s room.
Meeting the baby for the first time
Remember that we said to introduce new dogs outside of the house with your family members? This is to familiarize the new dog to your family in an open area. For the case of introducing the dog to your baby, it works the same too.
For starters, you should ensure that the first meeting be conducted right outside of the house. Most owners do not use this step at all because they forget that dogs can be territorial by nature. If you skip this step and proceed to place the baby at home straightaway, it will cause the dog to react differently since they deem that their sanctuary has been broken into. In order for this to be prevented, we have to stress that you introduce both parties outside of the house!
You should also ensure that both the baby and the dog are secured and kept separated so as to protect the baby. Your dog should be on a leash, and the baby should be carried by either you or your spouse. Once ready, make sure to acknowledge your dog by calling its name first. This will help to prevent the dog from feeling neglected by you and hence preventing jealously!
Getting together
Even after the initial introduction, all isn’t that rosy yet. You will still need to ensure that the baby and the dog is kept separated at all times. Initially, you should get the dog to observe the baby from a distance, and gradually reduce the distance when you observe your dog isn’t acting badly when the baby is around. We will recommend you avoid any face-to-face contact, and you can opt to let the dog approach the baby’s feet for starters.
Giving time to your dog
If you get the steps right thus far, your dog will start to understand that there is a new addition to the family, and it is also its duty to protect the baby. But jealously can still ensue if you completely neglect your dog. Always make sure to give ample attention to your dog so that it does not feel neglected at all.