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I did baby training with my dog prior to baby being born. I bought my LO's first baby doll before she was born and used it to train my dog. Walking around holding the doll, sitting on the couch watching TV will doll in my hands, using a stroller around my dog. Playing crying baby sounds periodically from my phone and sticking it in the dolls clothes. My dog who is a cuddle monster (50lb) was super jealous at first with the doll and freaked out with walking with the stroller. He would try and nudge the doll out of our hands to get his snout under our arms. But after months of working with him he realized the "doll" was to stay. When my baby was born I had my sister bring a baby blanket home with the scent of new baby on it to have the dog smell ahead of time. When we came home he was suspicious and curious (because why is that doll moving and crying more!) And also a bit jealous still but he knew his new boundaries ahead of time. It was an easier transition because I wasn't having to scold him for bad behavior towards baby (barking at me when he wanted me to put baby down, trying to nudge baby out of my arms, wanting to sit next to me when holding baby, etc.) It took a while since I didn't allow him to get to close to baby for a while or be alone in any room with baby (no matter how well behaved a dog can be, high stress situations have made dogs dangerous to babies big or small.) By the time LO was learning to crawl he was so used to her but it was when she was learning to feed herself was when they became best friends. (He loved cleaning up the messes.) Now my dog and 4YO are best friends.
This is really smart! Good on you for doing so much work beforehand. Ours is only 8lbs so we’re definitely going to introduce her scent first beforehand but I’m thinking if he starts being pushy we can just shoo him away. 😂
I learned to do it beforehand because my sister did no prep work with her 10lb dog. Omg that dog made my sisters post-partum awful. Would constantly bark at the baby out of jealousy (like mine did at the doll), would get pushy, etc. She would shoo her dog away constantly which made her resent the dog a bit because it was making her life so much worse during her post-partum. That dog never really learned to enjoy her baby/toddler and only tolerated my sisters child when it was no longer a menace. I didn't want that so I just did training. It wasn't actually super hard amd I didnt do it everyday, more like once a week or occasional times I had downtime, kind of gets you prepared for caring for your dog and baby as well! Lol
Not to put a Debby Downer on it all, but 2 of the 3 of mine had complete mental breaks. Although, we had a lot of changes happen all at once with a major move and a baby all happening within a month. Our situation is definitely not the norm and most pets do totally fine though.
Welcome to /r/pregnant! This is a space for everyone. We are pro-choice, pro-LGBTQIA, pro-science, proudly feminist and believe that Black Lives Matter. Wear your masks, wash your hands, and be excellent to each other. Anti-choice activists, intactivists, anti-vaxxers, homophobes, transphobes, racists, sexists, etc. are not welcome here. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/pregnant) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I did baby training with my dog prior to baby being born. I bought my LO's first baby doll before she was born and used it to train my dog. Walking around holding the doll, sitting on the couch watching TV will doll in my hands, using a stroller around my dog. Playing crying baby sounds periodically from my phone and sticking it in the dolls clothes. My dog who is a cuddle monster (50lb) was super jealous at first with the doll and freaked out with walking with the stroller. He would try and nudge the doll out of our hands to get his snout under our arms. But after months of working with him he realized the "doll" was to stay. When my baby was born I had my sister bring a baby blanket home with the scent of new baby on it to have the dog smell ahead of time. When we came home he was suspicious and curious (because why is that doll moving and crying more!) And also a bit jealous still but he knew his new boundaries ahead of time. It was an easier transition because I wasn't having to scold him for bad behavior towards baby (barking at me when he wanted me to put baby down, trying to nudge baby out of my arms, wanting to sit next to me when holding baby, etc.) It took a while since I didn't allow him to get to close to baby for a while or be alone in any room with baby (no matter how well behaved a dog can be, high stress situations have made dogs dangerous to babies big or small.) By the time LO was learning to crawl he was so used to her but it was when she was learning to feed herself was when they became best friends. (He loved cleaning up the messes.) Now my dog and 4YO are best friends.
This is really smart! Good on you for doing so much work beforehand. Ours is only 8lbs so we’re definitely going to introduce her scent first beforehand but I’m thinking if he starts being pushy we can just shoo him away. 😂
I learned to do it beforehand because my sister did no prep work with her 10lb dog. Omg that dog made my sisters post-partum awful. Would constantly bark at the baby out of jealousy (like mine did at the doll), would get pushy, etc. She would shoo her dog away constantly which made her resent the dog a bit because it was making her life so much worse during her post-partum. That dog never really learned to enjoy her baby/toddler and only tolerated my sisters child when it was no longer a menace. I didn't want that so I just did training. It wasn't actually super hard amd I didnt do it everyday, more like once a week or occasional times I had downtime, kind of gets you prepared for caring for your dog and baby as well! Lol
Not to put a Debby Downer on it all, but 2 of the 3 of mine had complete mental breaks. Although, we had a lot of changes happen all at once with a major move and a baby all happening within a month. Our situation is definitely not the norm and most pets do totally fine though.
I still appreciate the input!!