Introducing Dog to Baby

Hi all

I have got a difficult subject but one I need advice on...
How to introduce Dog (who rules the house) to newborn baby. I have a very needy, but lovable and harmless dog. He gets very jealous when we just speak to the bird, nevermind touch it. He does not do anything wrong, he just whines and plays up to get our attention back on him. I am now almost 6 months pregnant, and have been wondering how to introduce baby without upsetting the whole house. Two suggestions so far

1. Bruno's previous owner was told the following by her GSD trainer and she did this with both her dogs (GSD's) with both her children (But not with Bruno, as he was not around then) :
When you bring baby home from the hospital, lay baby on a blanket on the floor, naked and "give" baby to dog. Let dog have full access to baby, sniff, examine etc, but no licking. Apparently, then the dog owns the baby, and they will never have jealousy for it, but will bevery protective over it. I am quite comfortable with this as I know Bruno will NEVER harm a baby or child, he loves them, but he might not want to share me.

2. A friend who recently had a baby says that Husband must bring things of the baby's home from the hospital to give to dog before he meets baby. Like bring home some worn clothes that have babies smell on them, and horror of horrors, bring home dirty nappies, that they can have access to.

What are everyones views on these two? What did you all do with your babies and dogs etc?

Tam

Please everyone ...
Any Info?????????????????????????????

sorry dont have any experience of introducing a dog to baby.

Ok relax. You are 6 months pregnant so you have plenty of time.

Buy the most realistic baby doll you can find. Do all the things with it that you will be doing with the new baby. Dress it, 'feed' it, cuddle it, etc. and include your dog. Make it rewarding for him when the 'baby' is around. Give him more attention when the 'baby' is present and lessen any attention if the 'baby' is not there. Reward him for calm interest in the 'baby'. If possible get a recording of baby noises and play it to get the dog accustomed to the new sounds. If the baby is born in hospital get your partner to bring home an article of baby clothing or a blanket that has the scent of the baby on it (not a used nappy). Allow the dog to sniff it, but DO NOT permit the dog to chew or bite the article. When you and the baby are home give the dog heaps of attention & fussing in the presence of the baby. The idea is that the dog will associate the presence of the baby with good things, e.g treats, praise, petting, and when the baby is not there he gets less attention. Do not reprimand the dog when he is showing a calm interest in the baby. He will naturally be curious. If you prevent him from having a bit of a sniff at the child his curiosity will be further aroused.

You probably do not need to be told this but, never, ever, even for one second, leave a dog alone with a child of any age. Accidents can and do happen.

Thank you shadowboxer. That is very very helpful!!! Any other ideas would be nice to hear too.

I should have added: the idea of 'giving' the baby to the dog may well work, I have no experience of this. However, I would think that you would need to be feeling ultra-confident in doing this. I would imagine that it would be quite natural for you to feel slightly apprehensive in this situation and as dogs pick up our feeling & body language so quickly and accurately it could be possible to give off the wrong signals to the dog.

P.S. You should also start working on giving less attention to the dog generally. If he 'rules the roost' this needs to be dealt with, baby or no baby. Do not give him attention when he demands it, only when you wish to give it. The Nothing in Life is Free Program is quite a good way to start.

Hope everything works out well for you. Let us know how it goes.

A very good point!!! As much as I have 100% confidence that he could never hurt a child or baby, I dont know how I will feel at the time. A very good point!!! [/quote]

I would go with bringing some of babies things from hospital home so the dog has the smell of the baby. When I was changing our son or bathing him I used to let Rocky come over for a sniff of Mikey then he was happy and he went away. I feel that if you shoo the dog away that's when the problems occur and the dog starts to resent the baby
Tracie

Yep I'll definately be going with the bringing baby scented stuff home idea, we already have kids so the dogs know they come first but they're not used to tiny babies although Jas used to get thoroughly bossed about by the 2 yr old madam who we used to live next door to
I'm going to try and bribe a friend into letting them meet her baby ... we'll see....
I was thinking it'll be a bit like getting Jas used to the idea of the pup we'd bring things back from a visit "puppy scented" and say "aww puppies Jas" when he showed interest so when we brought Bosun home he was more ready to accept him - ha ok he was a little bit terrified of him but he didn't want to eat him

Good Luck Tam please let me know how you get on

Another point to consider is the dog's routine. If you think that once the baby is home that you may have to change the times of feeding, walking, training, etc. or keeping the dog out of the baby's room at certain times if he has previously been allowed free access, then start doing that now so that the dog is used to it.