A New Baby Joining The Dog's Household

Gaining any new permanent member in your household can be very exciting. While most of the posts on this blog focus on that new family member to your household being a dog or cat, this post focuses on what to be aware of when you are getting a new human baby in your home (and you already have a dog).

Most people can spend so much time focusing on mom and baby that some times the dog gets the short end of the stick. I want to help you avoid some of the main pitfalls in order to have everything be a win-win-win for parents-new baby-dog.

My quick and easy points to making the transition with a baby is this:

1. Establish a routine with your dog right away.
2. Increase exercise as best you can as baby gets closer to arriving.
3. Ask a dog walker to help with exercise if you are having trouble getting it all in for your dog.
4. Consult with a dog trainer if you have bigger concerns about your dog's personality with a new baby on the way.
5. Continue to go for long walks with dog and baby every day.

**(HumbleBrag By Dad)** In August of 2019, my wife and I had our baby, Elaina, join our family with our already crazy household with 3 silly dogs. So, I understand the challenges that can arise with dogs already in household.

First strategy is to give more exercise to your dog. Most dogs could benefit from even more exercise than they have now, but starting a routine of regularly scheduled longer walks helps with lowering your dog's energy. Simply making your dog tired helps in so many areas of your house, but starting it before baby arrives helps set the tone that you want to get dog's energy out outside of the home. You'll find that attempting to keep the household quiet as best you can helps with baby. The opposite of a not tired dog is a dog that is on edge and gets excited by every little movement and noise. Newborns can sleep through about anything, but as they approach infant and toddler stage, then you'll crave quiet moments.

Along that same route of more exercise, you'll want to make sure your dog has some good boundaries and/or training. If your dog's energy and is already on the high end and you feel your dog needs constant management, then training is something that can help. A good trainer will be able to give you the tactics to get your dog's attention and redirect it to more productive activities. If your dog has a problem with being "too close" to every human, a good dog trainer will help you set some boundaries. Every dog is different, so even if you ask us or any pet professional to give you an evaluation on your dog's personality and what could work, you'll be much happier that you did that BEFORE baby arrives.

A good general rule to follow is never leave a dog alone with a newborn or an infant. Our dogs are very well trained, but they get annoyed once in a while by bumbling toddler running all over the house and screaming. They tend to just grumble and walk away when they are annoyed, but be proactive and work to redirect your child from approaching even your animals with reckless abandon. Sadly, as pet professionals, we hear about the horror stories of a child jumping on a sleeping dog or running up to a dog while eating and the dog instinctually reacts and/or redirects on the baby. You do not want that for you, your baby, or your dog. You are responsible for managing this at all times.

Most dogs that we have in our world are friendly with dogs and humans and babies, however, when the a new baby (along with new smells) comes into your house they may react differently. For example, our 3 dogs (yes, you heard that correctly) are very high drive and high energy. We walk them on a long walk EVERY SINGLE DAY. They were already in a routine of exercise, so they won't over the top annoying, but they were excited when we came home with our baby.

Our bloodhound was very excited but confused by the new smells when we brought baby home. Our other 2 dogs (German Shepherd/Malinois and German Shorthair Pointer) had other plans right away. My wife wad our baby in the back basinet in the back room and they immediately thought baby was some new toy in the house that they had to have right now. They were sniffing and jumping and trying to get to baby. As I mentioned, they are well trained so we easily got them to sit and place away from the baby, but they were excited. If we were not there to buffer and control the situation, who knows what may have happened. We were in control so we weren't worried at all.

After the initial excitement of the new baby went away and they realized she was here to stay, they very quickly knew she was part of the family. The hardest part was slowing them down from loving and licking baby. At the time of this post, our baby is 15 months, so now she runs around and they play with her all the time. They especially love her as she is fantastic at chucking her food off her highchair when she is finished eating.

One thing that we found that really worked was keeping our routine with walking the dogs and having baby join. We actually found that getting more outside time with baby helped her sleep much better than when she stayed inside all day and night. The outside world and nature really helps babies with development and sleep. Don't forget to enjoy the journey!