Ottawa K9 School

WoW. It’s been a while since I’ve blogged. With a newborn, time slips by a lot faster.

While I was in my last trimester and my belly was obviously not a result of too much pizza and beer, the question I got asked the most often is: “Are you worried at all about your dogs and how they will handle the new baby?”.

My answer: yes … and no.  

YES because sometimes I thought that , as much as I can prepare them, there may be something I’ll have overlooked and not anticipated. 

NO because we are blessed with dogs that have a gentle, docile nature and have had a lot of exposure to young children.  

There is, however, a difference between exposing the dogs to children and bringing home a baby that will take up a lot of the attention the  dogs have been getting so far. 

The dogs will also have to ajust to living in a home with a new baby, lots of visitors and potentially in-laws who may (temporarily) move in.

When I was expecting, I followed some tips that I was given. Some were useful, others… not so much. Here are a few things we tried:

• We spent time in baby’s room and set boundaries right away. The dogs were allowed in by invitation only. This is not something I read anywhere, just something we decided to do. No regrets.
• I held a fake baby in my arms (I used a large teddy and put diapers on it). I spoke to, sang to, soothed, cooed at.. baby while ignoring the dogs. The point here was to get them used to seeing me pay attention to a little one while ignoring them. I did this for about a week, my husband never got around to it, and then we dropped it altogether. Honestly, I felt this was a waste of time. The dogs knew that the “baby” was not real.  With their super duper sense of smell, I can’t imagine that a teddy bear with a clean diaper has anything in common with a live baby in a dirty one… The only thing they noticed was that I had a new passtime, and they weren’t bothered by it much. “Whatever floats your boat, oh silly Human“, said they.
• We practiced, more than usual, basic obedience around the house. When you have a baby in your arms, you appreciate being able to reliably down/stay your dog, or send it to its mat, without touching it! This I highly recommend. If your dog doesn’t know any basic obedience, the Ottawa Canine School (www.ottawak9school.com) offers classes and private lessons
• We took a blanket with us when we went for the hospital tour and allowed dogs to sniff it when we came home.  This was another waste of energy, I think. Coming home with the baby is vastly different than coming home with a blanket. I’m not sure who came up with this idea, but it’s not a good one. Skip it.
• We taught the dogs that the stuffed animals were OFF LIMITS. We showed them the toys, and told them to Leave It. The toys were then put in different locations (on couch, on floor, on chair…) and when the dog approached, we repeated the Leave It cue. This was one of our biggest concerns, since Everest likes to “kill” stuffed animals. He learned quickly, however. Neither Everest nor Hemingway have touched any of the baby’s stuffed animals.
• We made plans for the dogs the day we would be bringing home the baby. Both Everest and Hemingway spent the night with friends, so that we could bring home our little boy then bring home the dogs. We decided to introduced baby to one dog at a time. Everest was first, Hemi’s turn was a few hours later. It worked beautifully.

Our baby is now 2 months old, and I must say that everything has gone very smoothly. Everest, the 1st to meet the baby was curious yet very gentle. He smelled my belly, then smelled the baby and looked at me with eyes that seemed to say “I got it. You had a puppy!”  Though Everest  mostly ignores the baby, his super sense of smell picks up on things faster than I do and he lets me know when a diaper needs to be changed (if I haven’t figured it out myself).  He smells the baby’s bum then looks at me with an “aren’t you going to do something about that?” kind of look. Hemingway was, at first,  just so happy to be back with us, I’m not sure he even realized there was a baby in the house.  He looked to us for direction on how to interact with this new being. He occasionally sniffs him but mostly, respectfully ignores him. 

If you are expecting, or have a little one at home and need help, contact us: (613) 296-3643 ottawak9school@yahoo.ca  We  have experience bringing home baby. We can help!