New babies and pets...

I've not had to do this yet but I have read up on the subject and from what I can gather it's best to leave the dog at home and introduce the baby straight away. Again from what I've read they can often be quite wary of the new baby.

Hi Charly I have two dogs and this is the advice I got from my dog trainer.
Make sure that if you are going to change the dogs routine you do it long before the baby arrives. So for example if you let the dog sleep on the sofa next to you but don't want them to when you have bubs stop the dog doing it now so that they don't associate the change with the new addition to the pack. So I would say have a good think about anything that you want to change even if it seems little. Like perhaps where the dog gets fed, where it is allowed to sleep.
For us it was quite easy as our dogs "live" outside, they are out there at night, they have never been allowed on the furniture, the bed etc and have their own beds which is where they are when in the house. They have been taught not to go in the kitchen and they also don't come in the house unless invited to do so, they eat there food outside, they have treats outside and they are only allowed to "play" outside, inside they must be calm. They are use to our 4 cats lording it over them.

I would strongly suggest that you do not put the dog in the kennel (just my opinion though)

What we did to introduce the dogs to the baby was first when I got home I went outside and said hello to the dogs, had been in the hospital for ages and they were totally over excited. Then we waited until they would normally come into the house (after they had been fed) and told them to go to bed which is what they always get told to do when they come in the house. I then took Spencer to them and let them sniff him and told them to back off if they got too in his face. The first night they freaked out when he cried but by the next day they where sleeping through him crying and now they barely take any notice of him.

I was actually more concerned about the cats getting in his bassinet and suffocating him than I was with the dogs doing anything.

And please please remember never ever leave you dog with the baby unsupervised for even 2 seconds the most placid dogs can still react in unforseen ways. (sorry if that sounds like a lecture but so many kiddies get hurt by dogs and it is totally avoidable)

I've also been told that you should get DH to take home a blanket or something that has been used on the baby while you're still in hospital. Let the dog sniff it and get a smell for the baby while in a calm environment.

As far as the cats go put either tinfoil into the cot (they hate sound of it) or blow up some balloons to put in it so when the jump in they pop and they get a big fright and don't want to go near it again. Obviously thi is all when the baby isn't in the cot!! I'm also planning on using a mosquito net thing that hangs from the ceiling, but this wouldn't work if your cats are climbers etc.