How do we tell the dog?

[Fluffypuppygal]

We have a little 7-year-old shih tzu who has up to this point been the adored baby of the family. While we have other pets, she has always been the princess who gets held, loved, and pampered.
How do we break the news to her that her quiet days of napping are coming to a close? She has pretty much been around adults only, and while we are trying to expose her to smaller people, she clearly doesn't like rowdy tots checking out her ears and chasing her!
She has never shown any kind of aggression, so I'm not worried about that, but I'm hoping she can adjust. I'm picturing myself walking around the house with an 8 pound baby and and 8 pound dog in either arm, both wanting attention!
Anyone have any tips?

[kholtan]

I'm not saying this will happen to your dog. . . BUT. . .

My Dad and my aunt had shih tzu's and neither one showed any aggression toward anyone until a baby arrived. My Dad's dog was 4 years old or so when my nephew was born and by toddler time the dog HATED him and bit him numerous times one week. Fritz now lives with my other brother. Poor fella just hates babies and kids. My aunt's itty bitty shih tzu "Bitsy" was great with older kids but out of no where attacked her friends baby who was somewhere around 10 months. My father read further into and found that they are notoriously bad with small children. Just to give you a heads up.

On the other hand my friends have one that is EXTREMELY spoiled and he loves their son now at 3. They said they had to keep him away for his 1-2 year stage but it wasn't bad and now they are best buddies. Good luck!

[CT_Michele]

It is amazing that for all of these years our "fur babies" truly are our babies! I read it best in chicken soup for the new moms soul, after 5 years, the dog is now just a dog and same with the cats.

My dog is an older dalmation who does nothing but lay around all day. even though I knew she would not be interested in the baby I took all the advice I could. The big one was to take something home from the hospital ahead of time so the dog can get use to the scent, like a hat, onesie or blanket. My dog just did not care, except for all the visitors who came b/c that meant she got more attention too.

My cats were a little trickier. they hid for like a week, so i just gave them space. They came around on thier own time and now ella loves them, all smiles when she sees her kitties. When Ella was sleeping I made sure to give all of my pets some extra attention just to reassure them they weren't being replaced.

I never went, but while i was pregnant, babiesrus had free classes you could attend. One was a workshop for how to introduce your baby to your pet. You may want to check it out. good luck!

[kholtan]

With our black lab we almost had to keep her away from the babies. From day one she had to be touching their bed to sleep? She was attached to them like glue and often woke them up with her moving around but what was I to do? She was insanely in love with them. She still loves them like mad but must be tired of being climbed all over every day! What a good sport she is.

IMO it's worth all the worry about introducing them to each other and even if I had to keep them seperate for a while I would do it. Animals are soooooo great for kids!

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Great topic as I'm wondering the same thing? I've got two Maltese's and they are the sweetest dogs ever. They aren't aggressive and actually tend to run away from a fight, but love to bark. They've been around a few kids in the past and are more curious than anything else. My youngest one doesn't understand the little kids because they are about the same size as him and it blows his mind. He sigh's alot when little kids are around as he doesn't know what to do. My older one just walks up and sniffs them and when they try to grab him, he thinks the are playing and starts running around like a madman. I'm not too worried about it because they are well behaved dogs, but you never know because they are still animals.

[bdantonio]

I have two dogs and both are large muts i was very nervous with my first child iwht 1 of them. The largest dog i knew wouldnt care the younger one i was worried. It turned out that she was extremely protective of my kids.. she sleep to this day at their bedroom door against it n unless its me or my husband you are not entering. When they are in the crib she lies under it. She acts as if they are hers. My older bigger dog is like a great big toy for them to climb and lay on. With both my kids the day b4 i left i asked the nurses for an extra hat n i gave the husband the blanket and hat the baby was in that day and he took it home to the dogs. one took the hat and one took the blanket to their beds. My vet told me to do this so they would get the sent of the child. It worked. I have never had a problem. GOOD LUCK

[lynniecat]

I definitely have this issue too. I have a 3 year old doberman. He is quite the spoiled baby and is the best dog in the world. He is not comfortable around children because he has not been exposed enough. And guess what, its hard to expose him when you do not have children cause everyone is afraid of dobermans! Sigh!


Anyway, I am not worried about aggression against the baby, I am worried about him getting depressed, seriously. We will have to make an effort to keep up his walks and attention. The only real worry is that he will get attached to the baby and *could* get protective. Its never happened so far, but I am pretty sure if one of the cats was attacked, he would protect them. I think its instinct! When the cats fight (not horribly), he runs over and paces and clearly is not happy about them getting angry at each other. He adores them!

[wolffie]

My dh and I have two large dogs (100 pounds each) who are each about 5 years old. When i was pregnant we began working with them very early to get them used to new sights, sounds, etc. We set up all the baby equipment long before my sons arrival (swing, pack n play, etc). This helped them get used to new items in their space and we were able to train them to stay away from things and not chew things. we also played with the noisy toys so the dogs would get used to the sounds. When I washed new bedding or clothes I would let the dogs smell the items before I put them away. No the clothes didn't have the baby's scent on them but they did smell of the baby detergent so I figured there would be a familiar scent on the baby when the baby was home. I work in a middle school so I was able to borrow a 'baby think it over' - the fake plastic baby that cries and looks real. We used this for a couple of weeks so the dogs would get used to the sound of a cry. Finally, when my son arrived my hubby brought back lots of blankets, hats, onesies from the hospital every night so the dogs could get used to his scent. We did work hard with my dogs and now they love the baby.

When the baby and I came home from the hospital I came inside first to greet the dogs and give them dinner. my husband came in a few minutes later with the baby. the dog trainer we spoke with said that the person who is closest with the dogs should greet the dogs and then the other person should introduce the baby. we also bought special toys for the dogs for the arrival day. When the dogs met the baby we gave them each a treat and their own toy so they would associate the baby with something good. We might have gone overboard with training them but I wanted to make sure that I prepared them as much as I could. that's what worked for us!

Good Luck!

dani

[Fluffypuppygal]

Wow!
Those are some really good ideas! I like them all! I have been watching Animal Planet a lot lately, and the dog trainers also use the treat-with-association technique to relate the new baby with something good.

[alreadyblessed]

Fluffygalpal~ GREAT topic! As insane as I still think I am, we got a puppy during my 2ww. Some people clean...some shop....we got a puppy. He is a lab mix. I now love him to death, but since he is only 8 months old, he is VERY energetic. He jumps up on everyone...runs around like a maniac, and although he plays nicely with my 4 and 9 y/o, he is constantly biting and chewing.(not skin breaking), but enough to make my 4 y/o upset. I am soooo worried about when I have the baby that he is going to jump up and tip over the bassinet or something worse. I will be reading this post daily for some advice. Good luck to us all and to our furry babies too.

[Fluffypuppygal]

Puppies are both wonderful and aggrivating! When Gizmo was at her puppy-cutest, she was also chewing, peeing, pooping, and making a mess every time we turned around! (Where does this sounds familiar?)
We had a lot of luck over time with dog training classes, and I bet your 9-year-old would get a HUGE charge out of it as well! 8 months is a perfect time to start him on a good training program. You could even sweeten the pot by making this one of your older child's chores -- attending doggie school and training the dog.
What doyou think?

[lynniecat]

Wolffie -- sounds like you did a great job! Thanks for all the tips, I will definitely be using them for my guy!

[alreadyblessed]

fluffygalpal~ My DD would love it! She is always looking to be the "mother hen". She walks him.....feeds him, and even picks up the poop . I've looked into trainers, but most of them start in the fall and don't have another class until late spring early summer. Then there are the classes at the local PETCO's. Do you know if those are any good? I was going to enroll him in class in October with a trainer but they said he was too young at the time. Thanks for any input!!