Baby due 1st June - how do I prepare dogs ?

[janmk]

We have had two rescues since Sept and they still have some 'issues' we are working on - barking ,pulling , on lead aggression to other dogs. What do we need to do to prepare for baby as a minimum ??

It sounds like resolving those issues as much as you can would be really helpful, so step up your training with the dogs or get a behaviourist in (one that uses positive training methods). Work on basic training like sit, stay, leave it, if they aren't good at that already. You could also think about who will walk the dogs when you aren't up to it - if there are times when your partner isn't able to help, will you get a dogwalker, for example?

You can put put pet gates in place too so that you can restrict the dogs and have safe places for the baby.

Victoria Stillwell has some useful suggestions [http://positively.com/2011/08/25/top-10-tips-for-dogs-and-babies/ here]]. I'm sure other posters will be along with advice too.