Pets
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Dogs and babies
I'm curious to all of you who had a dog before a baby, how did your dog react to the baby? Did you have to gradually introduce them? TIA!
Re: Dogs and babies
We worked with our dogs during my pregnancy, reinforcing their obedience training, and getting them used to baby sounds with the "Preparing Fido" CD of baby noises.
The day we brought DS home, S/O went home earlier in the day to walk the dogs, and brought them a receiving blanket DS had worn. Then he came back to the hospital.
When we were discharged, we went home, S/O went inside and leashed the dogs while I waited with DS in the car. He brought them outside, let them run around, then I got out of the car and greeted them. Then I brought the baby out. We were going to do introductions outside (on "neutral" territory), but there were several other dogs out there for their evening walks, so my dogs were very distracted, so we did introductions inside instead.
Both took turns sniffing the baby (who was asleep in his car seat). My Aussie Shepherd was VERY anxious (panting constantly, wouldn't eat), and my pit bull mix was terrified of the baby (which was exacerbated by the fact that my Aussie snapped at him any time he went near the baby).
But, we stepped up the NILIF (mostly to teach our Aussie that it wasn't her job to guard the baby), and rewarded them with treats and praise for positive interactions with the baby. It took a couple of weeks, but they've adjusted pretty well since then.
Dawg is no the world's best behaved dog...and I'll admit through our own fault, not the best trained (n't that she's 'bad'...she's just energetic and distract able. )
We tried to prepare her ffor Buffy but she was indifferent to noises of babies crying when recorded and got panicky when other people's kids cried...so we knew she reacted to crying, but not sure what that reaction would be.
(we did bring home the hat from the hospital...the Mr. left it on a table and when he came back to the hospital, Dawg tried to eat it)
(we also put a screen door on the nursery so we could control pet access to the kid)
and the first day we had Buffy home, Dawg didn't leave the cribside. She stared at the crib and would come get me if Buffy got upset
The first time we put Buffy on the floor next to Dawg, Dawg tried to tuck her under her leg and nurse her.
Now that Buffy is 16 months old, there have been a few bruises that are Dawg's fault (knocking over just by existing) and the phrases "we do NOT sit on dogs!" and "we don't put things in dog's mouths!" and "we don't ride dogs!", etc are a normal part of my speech. And Dawg is as patient and as tolerant a dog as I could ask for. (and we are working on making Buffy a kid w/ good doggie manners. But we're obviously not there yet)
We also spent 8 months prepping and were good to go. MIL brought a blanket home for her to investigate the morning we were discharged.
She was a little intense when we first brought DS home. Very nervous, over stimulated, teeth chattering, lots of lip licking, trembling, staring. We ended up keeping them separate for about 3 days, we let her see him while we held him, but she wasn't allowed to actually actively investigate him until she chilled out a little bit.
Ever since then, she has been super amazing with him.
PS- I had a bit of a bad recovery. My dog is very sensitive to me and I think the catheter really freaked her out, I had been in the hospital and away from her for nearly 6 days, and I think it was all just too much- the tubing, the bag of urine, my obvious state of pain and stress, plus this tiny creature she may have known was the cause of my issues.
I thought I had the only indifferent dog!
We did all the dog prep beforehand - crying baby sounds, set up anything that moved or made noise beforehand, walked him with the stroller, carried dolls around in the carriers, etc.
We had planned to bring the baby home first, and then pick him up from "camp." But there was a crazy person shooting up the freeway, so we ended up picking him up on the way home. During the drive home he was in the front with DH and I was in the back with the baby. We kept trying to have him smell some blankets, but he wasn't interested.
When we got home he sniffed the baby and was pretty much done with it. Now he's much more interested in letting me know something's up with the baby than the baby himself. He'll come get me at night or during the day when the baby wakes up in his crib. He'll sniff the baby during tummy time or when we're playing on the floor - but he doesn't really show any other interest or desire to spend time with the baby.