For many pet parents, their dog might be their first “baby.” But when you’re ready to bring an actual baby into the world it can be stressful to plan and anticipate how your pooch will react. You want to ensure everyone’s best interests here while keeping everyone safe, which is why we’ve established a guide on how you can do just that when introducing your fur baby to your new baby.
Starting Before the Baby is Born
1. Nesting: Dog Edition
As many pet parents know, dogs thrive off of a routine, and any sudden changes to that can cause them stress which can escalate to behavioral issues. To help put your canine companion at ease here, you need to make sure you don’t wait until the last minute to start rearranging furniture in your home for your new member of the family.
You’ll want to do things like setting up the nursery and building the scribe weeks, if not months, in advance so that Fido will have an ample amount of time to adjust and investigate their new surroundings. The last thing that you want to do is throw boatloads of change in their direction all at once.
2. Introduce Crying
It’s only a matter of time before your pup will have to deal with a new noise: crying. Instead of springing this new and (for some dogs) frightening noise on them on top of introducing a new baby, try playing crying noises ahead of time. Luckily the world of technology makes this an easy thing to accomplish. Spotify even offers a baby crying album that you can start it acclimate your canine to.
3. Bring Your Pup Around Kids When Possible
If you can, try to introduce your pup to other kids you know or even take your pooch to a park to get them familiar with either people, kids, as well as loud playful noises. Playdates with other children you know can be incredibly helpful as they’ll get your dog familiar with what’s to come. These interactions will also give you a better idea of how your canine responds to this kind of new energy and can help you determine if there are any behavioral issues that might need to be corrected ahead of time.
4. Don’t Forget About the Basics
Before a new family member joins your home, it’s important that you make sure all the basics are still being kept up with for your pooch. Get a vet visit taken care of to ensure all of their shots are in order and that there aren’t any health issues to be concerned about. Additionally, get your pooch to the groomers and stock up on treats, toys, and food so those aren’t things you’ll have to worry about on top of a new baby in your home.
A Plan for Coming Home
5. New Baby Smell
As a pet parent, you’re probably well aware that your furry friend’s sense of smell is far more powerful than ours. Therefore, alerting your dog to the new scents of your baby can help the adjustment go a lot smoother. To help ease into this introduction have someone bring home the baby’s first onesie or blanket for the dog to get a good smell from. This way, when you bring your baby home to meet your furball they’ll already be a bit familiar with their scent.
6. Positive Reinforcements Can Go a Long Way
Just like with any type of training routine, positive reinforcements are always helpful and highly recommended if you want to see lasting change. Rewards can range from treats to toys and praises. When it comes to bringing your new baby into the home, though, positive reinforcements can help the transition run much smoother. This will help your canine companion associate the baby with these positive words and rewards.
7. Keep Up with Your Dog’s Routine
It’s definitely not easy to keep the same routine you had with a new baby added to the mix, but for your dog’s sake, you want to try to keep their routine consistent. A physically and mentally healthy dog needs a consistent routine and if you anticipate that this routine will need to be altered when the baby arrives, try to slowly alter it beforehand so that the dog doesn’t associate the baby with any sort of stress. A consistent schedule will help keep your pup’s stress and anxiety down while dealing with a big change to their living environment.
Try not to let all of this overwhelm you, as everyone has trouble with new exciting changes. As long as you keep Fido in mind and try your best to be accommodating towards everyone – things should run smoothly.
