Preparing your dog for the arrival of a baby

This article was written by Anna Pollard, Director of The Dog House Leicester. She outlines here preparing your dog for the arrival of a baby. 

Dogs and children are a much debated topic of late. I know when I was pregnant the main thing I was asked (bar what colour hair I thought my child would have) was: “What are you going to do about your dogs?”

My answer:

Prepare them the best that I can!”

And I am going to share my preparations with you.

What do I know about preparing your dog for the arrival of a baby?

You see, I did have a bit of an understanding of what I needed to do and put in place to help me dogs transition into babyhood. So I should have. I have, after all designed my career around dogs.

I am Anna Pollard, I own The Dog House Luxury Dog Grooming and Canine Spa in Leicestershire. I’m also an approved Kids Around Dogs professional.  I am mummy to Polly (she had red hair in the end!). I have three dogs; 2 German Shepherds and a senile old Patterdale terrier.  Along with my other half we all live in a 2 bed terrace that is still mid-renovation. So my life is chaotic, no picture perfect insta-worthy home; it’s the real deal!

In the excitement of getting yourselves ready for your new arrival buying prams, clothes, setting up a nursery, doing the Bump to Baby Chapter course (it’s amazing, I’m a graduate and would 100% recommend it to anyone who is still on the fence) the thing usually forgotten on this exciting journey is preparing your family dog for the arrival of a baby.

There are some pretty big changes ahead for them!

Even the most of relaxed of pooches will experience a large amount of change.  You’ll be tired, sore, some days you won’t know which way is up. It’s highly likely the walks will go out of the window for a while, meals times may vary and on the whole you’re not ‘there’ as much for your dog. It’s not through lack of love for them, it’s just because babies are massively time consuming and so they should be!

So lets make this transition easier for everyone starting now.

1. Get Set Up

Don’t wait until you’re off on maternity to start actually putting things together. Get your baby things set up so that your dog has got time to get used to it all. Baby gates are a god-send and really useful for have separate sections and easily keep everyone safe. They might not match your décor but they will save your sanity. Start getting your dogs used to baby gates especially if they wont be allowed upstairs or in your room anymore*  start as soon as you can with this preparation.

If your dog is a climber or a bit clumsy you might want to pop your Moses basket in a baby pen so that they can get used to it slowly. Ideally you want them to be ignoring all of your new baby things and not make a bit deal of it. It’s also worth considering keep the pen up whilst your newborn is tiny and no going far it’s much easier to keep the baby ‘penned in’ than restricting your dog’s movement.

Your baby and dog can happily watch the world go by and get used to each other’s strange sights, sounds and all of the smells at a safe distance. Your dog always needs to be able to move away and retreat to their safe, baby free, area. There’s no point giving your new little super-feeding, sleep thief run of the house when they are stationary.

2. Make a Plan

Take a look at desensitizing your dog to baby sounds start really low so they’re barely audible. Move the sounds around the house and in the equipment that you have set up. Over time you’ll be able to increase the volume. I highly recommend the Pup Sounds app (I think it’s about £2.99). It has all of the sounds that you might need.

Start looking into dog walker or doggy daycare options to help in those first few weeks to help take the dog walking burden off you. Find someone that you trust. Look at their reviews or recommendations and ensure your dog has met them plenty of times for walks before baby arrives.

*A note on dogs in your room. Newborn babies don’t have a day and night but your dog most probably does and to help them be happy dogs they need their sleep too.  Help your dog to get as much sleep as possible by making them a comfy bed outside your room or downstairs.

3. Grab a Dolly

Dolly work is really key for prepping your dogs. Walk around with a dolly in a blanket to get them used to seeing your having your arms full. Don’t make a fuss. It just needs to be the most normal thing in the world for them to see you with something in your arms. This is a great opportunity to use your baby desensitization sounds as mentioned above too.

Practise putting your dolly in a baby carrier or sling and walking around with it too. I did a lot of baby wearing in the early days, a lot of singing, swaying, bum patting and jigging! This all needs to be run of the mill. YouTube is your friend, get those nursery rhymes on!

Put dolly in your pram and have a walk around too so that your dog gets the idea of walking sensibly next to the pram and not catching their toes under the wheels. Be warned people will give you some weird looks!

3. Enrichment

Enrichment toys are amazing! Snuffle mats, stuffed kongs, scatter feeding all tire out your dog’s brain.  Sniffing and licking and chewing are super calming for a dog and the mental stimulation will do wonders for their calmness.

My top tip for Kong’s is to stuff them with really tasty (dog safe) treats and pop them in the freezer. Load them up in advance so that you have one to hand.

Same with scatter feeding. Start simple and easy by just scattering a handful of their food on the ground for them to find. Then you can make it harder and harder for them, eventually turning it into a full blown scavenger hunt that will keep their tail wagging and their mind busy so hopefully you can have a warm cup of tea whilst baby naps.

4. Visitors

‘Let me know when I can visit’ the words most new mums dread.  If you have a dog who will rush at the door or doesn’t like visitors, consider how you can manage this. Could you scatter feed outside whilst people come in and then the dog have a good fuss and cuddle with the visitors before you ask them to settle in another room whilst the visitors meet your baby.

Is there an option for your dog to go out with a dog walker?  Could you meet visitors at their house rather than them come to you?

Talk to people and manage their expectations and if you and your new family don’t want any visitors, then say so.  It’s such a precious time and can be really overwhelming for a new mum and your family dog with this new influx of people who want to meet your new arrival.

5. Don’t Rush the Pictures

Social media is a blessing and a curse. You see all these beautiful pictures of families and their dogs, picture perfect, right?  Wrong, so wrong!  If you look closely at the dog’s body language 9 times out of 10 they are telling their person to get out of their space.

You want a friendship that last a lifetime. Not a forced and fractious relationship that teeters on the edge of being dangerous for some instant gratification, dopamine hit from people we barely know.

Don’t force it, don’t push it.  Give your dog space and time….and then some!

No putting babies next to dogs. Or cute napping together photos. No riding or climbing on the dog as they get older.  It’s simply not worth it.

It took Prim a week to come and sit next to Polly and I after the initially greeting. She didn’t sit there for long but she chose to come and sit next to us. I was over the moon.

I know that as Polly grows, the relationship she has with the dogs with grow and develop and be an ever-changing thing. ‘m setting up my dogs and Polly up for success. I want her to be confident around dogs and have the ability to read their body language. It is all entirely possible for you to do this too! Hopefully that gives you a great starting foundation to get cracking with. It’s never too late to start this de sensitisation process and it gives everyone the best chance of coping with the new changes.

6. Ask for Help

Remember it’s ok to ask for help, you’ll more than likely need an extra pair of hands at some point. Those early days are tough. My favourite thing was to ask someone to pop round and look after Polly for half an hour whilst I just go out with one of the dogs for a walk to clear my head and have some ‘me time’ with the dog for a slice of normality.

7. Never Leave Baby and Dog Alone

Most importantly never leave your baby alone with your dog. It doesn’t matter if your dog wouldn’t hurt a fly babies are small little strange beings that they’ve never encountered before. They make noises like small furry animals and they’re super interesting for dogs. It’s not worth the risk of your baby getting injured and it’s unfair to even put your dog in that situation.

If you’d like any more guidance with integrating your new family then do get in touch with me contact@thedoghouseleicester.co.uk

If you try out these tips on preparing your dog for the arrival of a baby then let me know. Send me some photos or tag in socials FB @doghousecaninespa Insta @thedoghouse_spa