Preparing a hyper dog for baby?

[SarahTTCx]

Hi ladies,

Does anyone have any tips on how to prepare a hyper dog for a baby? I'm 27 weeks currently so want to start getting him ready but I don't really know where to start.

Just for info, he's a cockapoo so known to be quite crazy dogs, and he's only 18 months so still very much has the mindset and the energy of a puppy. However, he's very gentle and well trained so knows what no, go away, down, sit, stay, leave it etc mean. He's been around young kids before (3 year olds) but never an actual baby. Is there anything I can do so it doesn't come as quite a shock to him?

Also, any tips on how to actually introduce baby to dog when we first bring him home?

Thanks in advance! X

Hi!

I was in this position a few months ago with my cockapoo (she's quite a bit younger as I got her in February when I was in early pregnancy).

Knowing that I was pregnant when we got her I trained her in the early days for a few specific commands such as 'drop' which has proved very useful when I've seen her sneaking off with babies socks! My plan was to get out babies crib, pram, bouncer etc before he arrived so my dog could get used to them but unfortunately baby arrived 5 weeks early so I didn't get chance 🙈 I still think this is a good idea.

My dog went to my in laws while we were in hospital and I asked them to drop her off when we had settled back home. I had my husband take the baby upstairs while I made a fuss of my dog and sat with her for a bit (I'm very much her favourite). Then when she was calm I took her upstairs to meet the baby. I held my baby and let her have a sniff and told her good girl etc. She was surprisingly calm and has always been since around him. The only time I'm more cautious is when I've been out of the house with baby and I come back and the dog is excited to see us - we are still working on 'down' so that she doesn't jump up while I'm carrying the baby.

I made it clear from the start which were babies toys, play mat etc and that these were off limits. We also practiced sitting quietly in the kitchen for when health visitors etc are around (because I got my dog just prior to lockdown she's not used to having anyone but my husband and I in the house).

All in all it's gone very smoothly. My dog has definitely had to get used to not being the centre of my attention anymore but I make sure to make a fuss of her when my baby is asleep.

Hope that helps a little!

I'm also starting to think about this. Im now 8 weeks. I have a 3 year old springer and a 11 year old cocker who are as mad as each other. Both have always had soft toys and have very much h been treated as our "babies". The springer in particular always wants a cuddle of the sofa. We are now moving, so hoping new house, new sofa will mean he won't get on it. Any suggestions for when the baby is on the floor and to encourage them to not 'cuddles or lay on them?! I'm worried it will involve shutting them in the kitchen alot and them feeling very left out and resenting the baby

@Sarahlouise86 that's really helpful, thanks! Getting all of babies bits out early is a good idea. I think i'm going to set the next2me up in our room at about 33 weeks as the dog sleeps in our room and want him to know he's not allowed in or near it before baby comes.

I've also been trying to teach him not to touch baby toys and he's been very good with that but he's already a nightmare with baby socks (and any socks in general, my house is covered in them) so I definitely need to work on that.

I think like you say, they seem to know to be gentle so i'm not TOO worried about him being rough with baby, it's more just him getting excited and accidentally hurting him. I think we'll struggle with the jumping up too as we've nailed most of his training but that's the one thing we've struggled to train out of him.

Thanks!

I'm in the same position. We got a chihuahua/dachshund puppy, he will be just over a year old when baby arrives. He's very hyper and likes to jump up etc. We have been teaching him not too. He's crate trained, but I don't want to use that as punishment as that's where he goes to sleep or when he's had enough. Hopefully he will be ok. I'm planning on getting my partner to bring a blanket back from hospital with babies scent on for him to sniff etc before baby comes home other than that anyone got any ideas?

We set up the pram/cot etc a few weeks earlier just to let our Westie get used to it. My parents had her whilst we were in hospital and my mum took some of the dirty babygrows home for the dog to have a good old sniff of so the scent wasn’t new to her.

We had her home a few days after settling back in and she was good as gold, she seemed to sense that she needed to be gentle around the baby, we made sure we still gave her lots of attention though so she didn’t resent the baby. He’s 1 now and they are the best of friends, he gets kisses every morning

My cocker X Belington terrier was 14 months when DD was born. He is my dog much more than DH and hadn't spent a night away from me since getting him when I went into hospital to have DD (in hospital for 2 nights).

I bought a squeaky soft toy that I knew he would love and had it ready in the porch for when we got home from hospital with DD. I left DD in the car with DH and went in gave dog his toy played with him and gave him a really good fuss, then DH bought DD in and my dog barely noticed.

We had a playpen so that he couldn't constantly steal and destroy baby toys, and also to protect DD when on the floor as dog is very bouncy.

The main thing we had to watch with the dog was that he would give gifts to DD and drop them on her. Fine when it was a soft toy, rather alarming when it was a log or large stone!!

Also for walking, a harness with a front attachment, and a bungee running lead with a waist belt works really well. It takes the power
out of things when my dog pulls and means i can dropped the lead to go hands free when necessary.

Following! I am 32 weeks and have a nearly 8 month old cockapoo. He is very good apart from his jumping up and craziness when we have people over....like everyone it has mostly been me and DH at home..he has been to parents and in laws etc but still get soooooo excited. Not sure how to calm him down

Get the book, 'please don't bite the baby and please don't chase the dog'. It takes you through step by step how to prepare and train your dog for a baby coming into the household.

Planning on a large playpen here, that way baby won't be at risk laying on the floor as someone mentioned.

Lots of long lasting chews, camel sticks are amazing, to keep him busy plus all the usual enrichment stuff like frozen kongs to keep them still and calm.

Getting baby equipment out in good time for them to get used to it as suggested.

Start amending their schedules a bit if you think you'll need some flex and they won't associate baby with the changes. We used to walk ours multiple times a day so he was always buzzing round the front door, but now he gets one good walk (breed specific of course) in the morning as has chilled out a lot knowing what to expect. Same with things like car travel, we moved him to the boot with a grill rather than a belt on back seats where baby will be. We've also stopped indulging some behaviour (e.g refusing a last toilet break then waking us at midnight) we know would be frustrating when we have busier lives

Mines largish and not a pup so its more when baby can move around I'm worried he'll knock them over but I figure he'll be nearly 10 by then and might have slowed down a touch!

@Sarahlouise86 how did you work on him staying calm in kitchen etc. That is our main problem, if we have visitors he just goes crazy and is so excited to see them. Will not stop jumping up at them! X

[quote ceebee21]@Sarahlouise86 how did you work on him staying calm in kitchen etc. That is our main problem, if we have visitors he just goes crazy and is so excited to see them. Will not stop jumping up at them! X[/quote]
I have a basket for her in the kitchen so worked on putting her in there for a little bit each day and telling her to stay. So usual command would be 'basket' and then once she's in it, 'stay'. I would do that every day and reward her for staying quietly (it took her a couple of weeks to get the hang of it). Then I tried doing it when my husband was coming in the house and eventually when we had visitors. She sometimes will whine but she's pretty responsive when I tell her no. It really has just been perseverance with this. Building up from learning the commands to trying to get her to do them when she's excited. And we still have to practice.

I now usually let her greet visitors (with either me or them telling her to get down etc and they will stroke her once she's sitting) and then I will put her in the kitchen after that if it's not close family etc.

It really is still a work in progress though! She's such a clever dog so picks up training really easy but she gets excited and it all goes out the window, which I guess is typical of cockapoos! We got a book called how to train a superdog (or something like that) and followed the training from there. I think just pick which commands you need and start from there, building up to the worst case scenario (ie house full of visitors). Now we've got a month of lockdown I'm going to make it my goal to remember to train her a little bit each day!

I completely second getting a play pen, but that’s for later on. Also get the dog used to the smells of your baby, blankets, toys etc. We have a very energetic border terrier cross and a not so friendly three legged cat, when our son came along I was SO anxious about it. I wish I hadn’t been so worried as I’m sure the animals picked up on it. Try to keep their meeting relaxed, very gradually let them come over to smell the baby and adjust. May sound silly but just as if you already had another child, make sure to pay your dog lots of attention. Unfortunately I was quite poorly with PND so really didn’t have the mental space to concern myself re the dog and cat but this time round I’ll be more careful. It’s taken our dog a long time to accept our boy. He’s three now and they’re very close.

@Sarahlouise86 thank you.

He is really good, just so so excited when anyone comes into the house, even with us but will calm down pretty quickly. The issue is with anyone else he just wants to jump up etc.

It's hard with lockdown, cant keep inviting people over to train....

Do you see other dog walkers when you're out? We usually do and she will try and jump up at them so I'm trying to keep up the training that way instead (and other dog owners tend to be understanding about training).

I get it though, it's hard to train them for a situation that they currently don't encounter. I do think that's part of the reason she's so excited by people and dogs became she's not really been exposed to them because of Covid. We have a dog day care centre near us and I've signed her up to that for the odd day so she can socialise with other dogs.

Yes we do, although must admit he is more interested in the dogs!

But obviously when people are here, he just doesn't stop. But just makes it so difficult at the moment, would love to say to my family can someone just pop over every day so that we can train him to at least forget about it after 5 mins... rather than an hour haha

He goes to Doggy Day care once a week and loves it, we wanted him to socialise with other dogs so it is definitely good for that. Just the excitement with people we are struggling with.

@Sarahlouise86