worried about how my dog will react to the new arrival....

[lonelyhousewife]

I have a lovely flat coat retriever, he is 6 yo and still acts like a puppy. I am really worried about how he will react to baby when it comes!!! He is very boisterous and loves to play fight. How can I train him in advance of the baby arriving??? I am really worried! I love him to bits :-(!!!!

Hi,

We have a very 'merry' 6 yo welsh springer, who will be very unimpressed by the arrival of a human baby

I think it's important that they don't feel pushed out. It will be difficult, but try to maintain as much of his normal routine as possible.

We have a doll that we carry around with us and he's learnt - to some extent - not to be boisterous when we're holding it.

Introduce him to the baby's scent before you return home, a blanket or clothing the baby's worn, for instance.

Much as we love and trust our dog, we'll certainly take precautions once the baby is here and won't leave them alone together.

Don't worry, I grew up with flatties, they're such good natured dogs

He needs to know you're the boss - he eats after you & others and from his bowl. Take his bowl away from the floor when he's had his meal - even if it's still got food in it. You decide when he eats (on a good dog meal amount)as you're the pack leader.

When you go into a room he's in you ignore him as you're more important than him. If he jumps at you you look straight ahead and don't acknowledge him. He should stop jumping when there's no reaction.

When you say go rug/basket he sit's on his mat/basket & stays. You can sit in his area but he can't sit on your chairs, settee or bed.
I'd stop the rough & tumble play. The things he can chew & play belong to you & other people but your things & theirs are not for him.
In doing this he needs lots of good encouragement.

With my littlr one I carried her around with me as I bf on demand. So she was always with me. My dog wasn't bothered at all. He can't go into other parts of the groundfloor without being invited so she could crawl in places other than the kitchen - which is where the dog stays. Otherwise he's outside.

I know they are good natured, he is so good with my nieces and nephew but I have heard that they are not good with newborns as they are two lively and don't know how to react to baby.

I did some research and found some sites but this was 5yrs ago. I had a doberman cross and a lurcher. Few things I remember install the baby gate before baby gets there and put the dog outside of it for 5 mins every now and then and give a treat to make it positive. So when baby comes and you need to shut the gate its not the baby making it negative because you have done it before. Another thing was playing a tape of a baby crying as some dogs dont like it. I did not do this as I had no baby or knew no baby to record. The dogs were ok with it but were more upset and sometimes would "tell me" in the morning if DS was waking up before he cried! They were great.
Also when you come home with baby let someone else hold the baby not you and you go into the house first and greet your dog. After a fuss and a bit of attention bring baby in the house. Sorry thats all I can remember! My dogs were sooo excited about the baby we let them see for a bit then a bit longer and so on. They got used to little man. The main thing was to let them except the baby as a pack member and to give them dog for positive behaviour towards the baby. Treats, fusses whilst baby is around. Good Luck hope this helps?

I think it is natural to worry.

When we came home I came in first to greet the dog and then DH brought DC (2.6) in in the car seat for dog to have a first introduction.

We had multiple baby gates but had these from a puppy so no issues with those, but we also bought a play-pen and put the moses basket, and then floor play mats inside it in the living room so that moses basket couldn't be knocked over or DC stood on.

They are best buddies now and the dog has been absolutely fantastic all the way through :)

You can buy 'sounds' cds for nervous dogs which include the sound of babies crying if you felt this was necessary.

Sensible advice is to never leave them alone no matter how much you trust the dog.

Good luck, in the event it was all a lot less stressful than anticipated for us and I think it is a positive benefit having a dog as it gets you out of the house on a regular basis. I did invest in a head collar so that I could confidently manage walks with the pram in the early days and it worked a treat although obviously my dog is exceptionally well trained and never pulls

lonely if you post this in the Doghouse board you'll get some helpful expert advice on how to deal with this (not saying anything so far not helpful!)

I have a very bouncy and excitable 3 year old retriever and when I had my first baby he was only 2. People looked at me like I was mad and he was going to leap all over the baby, but do you know what? He has this funny sense of just knowing that the baby was delicate and he was/still is, the calmest ever around him. When my baby was 4 weeks old I could lay him on his playmat and the dog would just lay next to him, gazing at him adoringly.

Seriously, people who know us just can't believe how he is with him and that's with no training or anything special. Your dog may surprise you too.

However, the one problem we did have was with the dog regressing wtih toilet training and found out that was because he was adjusting to having a new pack member. We had underestimated what a change it would be for him and probably pushed him out a little too much (sitting upstairs with baby in the evenings etc). so we had to make a big effort to include him in everything. We started letting him upstairs with us and making sure he got some one on one time with us, even if only 10 mins a day and that solved it.

Good luck.

Don't make a fuss of any introduction.

When you and your baby come home from the hospital, treat the dog exactly as you normally would. Come into the house and do what you'd normally do, carrying the baby in the carseat. Make a cup of coffee, sit down for a while until the dog has adjusted to you being in the house again. Don't over fuss over the dog more than you normally would.

Once the initial 'coming home' excitement had died down, a very low key introduction could happen. It won't be necessary I don't think, your lovely dog will have absorbed the arrival of the new thing as just that. A new thing which has it's own place in the house.

Whatever happens, don't over compensate for the change, or make a fuss about it. The dog will fret if he works out that something new has happened which he has no hope of understanding, but can feel through your actions is important, worrying and possibly stressful.

Treat it as a normal, no drama, calm thing and your dog will too.

As an aside, the pack theory has been discredited by many, many people as a dated method of dog training and treatment. It really would be worth posting something about this in the doghouse section for more advice.

How can being in a pack be discredited? Would be interested to read your link to info on this.
imho once your dog knows it's place in the pack it's a happy dog.

I have heard this before but I think it's a load of nonsense personally.

Our dog wasn't 'treated' in any specific way, from about 9 weeks old he just latched onto my DH as his 'leader' and follows him around, does everything he says, actually sits staring at him with love (!!) and is really happy acting like his deputy!

When we bought the baby home I think he felt a bit unsure of how he fitted in and the new noises (crying) and us being up in the middle of the night unsettled him. As soon as he got more involved he was happy again.

I think it's assumed that dogs are treated in some way wrongly to get them into a pack order, but often they just look for it because it's in their nature.

There's lots and lots of info on the discreditation of the pack theory - here's one link I've just dug up is this one and another.

There's also a lot on Mumsnet minimu for example is a qualified dog trainer/behaviourist see her post here. I own and work 3 labradors and all trainers I work with or meet are of the same opinion.

Pack theory and dominance of dogs is viewed as bunkum by many. I agree with them. In some hands, it's even cruel.

Interesting links daisydot.

The pack idea is presented with ideas of it been a cruel thing & done with agression but you don't have to use mean force to achieve this. imho a dog in a pack is in a safe place.

My dog is on the bottom rung and he knows this. He eats after us, on a walk the one who holds the lead determines what happens. Sometimes he has a training lead on in the house. We are always nice and calm with him.

I think it's about respect for the animal and making sure the dog knows how to behave.

I see dogs who aren't trained like this and they can be dangerous to people and other dogs.

Dessen you might find the following links useful, they explain it well.

www.4pawsu.com/dogpsychology.htm

positively.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=600

Dogs need to know how to behave and they do, to an extent need to know we are in charge, so we need to be consistent with them, but pack theory has nothing to do with that, good training does.

My dogs are almost always fed before us, it is convenient to feed them when I am cooking/making breakfast. Sometimes I even give them food from my plate. They go through doors before me, they sometimes sleep on my bed, they are occasionally to be found on the sofa. All things pack theorists would say make them think they are above me in the pecking order. Yet they do what I ask when I ask and they are impeccably behaved, purely because I spend a lot of time training them.

We had a nutty 4 year old Weimaraner when my son was born...He was fine - very interested in sniffing the baby for the first few weeks, then lost interest. We put an extra baby gate up so that we could easily separate baby and dog. He soon learnt to associate the pushchair with a walk and that he got long walks with the baby!
I agree with what others have said about making sure the dog knows it is bottom of the pack and that the baby is higher. I haev always reacted very strongly to him even sniffing food that's in my LO's hand.

First rule I used with mu dog was no talk, no touch no eye contact for the first ten minutes of returning home, advice off of ceser millans show The Dog Whisperer, its a great show u should watch it once or twice before the baby is born, he does this "bite" with his hand and makes this "cchhhh" noise and i tried it with my staffy and he stops and stays still as soon as you do it.
If u dont already have ur pram borrow one and take your dog out once or twice a day with the pram with a doll or blanket inside it, make ur dog walk nicely, camly and slowly NEXT to the pram, dont let him try and walk infront.
Also have someone talk home a blanket from the hospital with the babys scent on it then let him ly with it and give him a top or a jumper of yours with you and the babys scent on it so he knows that you come with a baby now :)

RileysMammy, CM is cruel and his methods are damaging to dogs. There is a huge thread in The Doghouse section if you search, with many behaviourists and vets posting on it as well as extremely experienced dog owners and rescuers.

I agreecsome methods he uses are very cruel but the "bite" is very useful, u put ur hand into a claw shape and use ur fingertips to tap the dog on the side of their neck it works really well because other dogs actually bite the dog there when theyre acting up :)

Dogs don't behave like that, that is the point. Biting would be an absolute last resort for a dog and only after other ways of displaying their displeasure, such as body language, growling etc had been exhausted. Bitches also do not nip their puppies as CM claims.

Here is the thread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_doghouse/1108699-Send-your-questions-to-The-Dog-Whisperer-Cesar-Millan

Obviously, do stuff suggested above with scent etc...

But just to maybe reassure you a bit, I have a CRAZY spaniel who in the past has seemed frankly, untrainable! Soooo many puppy schools, DH works from home so he was never alone, a big garden, a run in the park 5/6 times a week... But he never seemed to calm down so I was really worried.

Fast forward, my DD is 3 months old and you would not believe the change in him! He absolutely adores her, he's so spacially aware of her and seems to completely know that she's fragile and 'ours'...

We never leave them alone together, but I was concerned I'd never be able to lay her on a playmat etc, but it's been amazing.

We just kept letting him sniff her while one of us had her all wrapped up, and it just happened. He sleeps under her crib, comes to find me when he can hear her crying, and just seems to really love her.

He does steal all her dummies though!! It's costing me a fortune :p