Pets and the new baby...?

My dogs took to DS surprisingly well. One of them is quite possessive and he just adores DS, its so cute!

We just let them have a sniff around and keep things as normal as possible.

My moms cat used to pee on my things at every chance and her pet magpie (i wish that was a joke) was so aggressive they both had to be given away. The dog however, was laid back and i learnt to walk hanging from her fur and we were best friends until she died when i was 16!!!

I think the main tips are really obvious things like bring something of the babies home from the hospital in advance for the pets to sniff

Ban pets now from the nursery so they get used to not being allowed in the nursery

Train them not to jump up on you now

And keep a careful watch on things but don't get too crazy about keeping them apart since it'll just wear you out faster.

Our cat didn't take it very well in the beginning, he's very much a lap cat (he's a Persian) and quite possessive. In those first few weeks hid out under the spare bed and in places we couldn't get to easily. Poor thing, I felt really bad but eventually he got used to DS and although they aren't quite good friends yet, Merlin only ever leaves the room when DS gets really loud.

We also chased Merlin from DS's room ever since the cot went up and he knows not to go in and sometimes just sits outside the door at night.

We give him as much attention as possible when DS is having a nap or in bed for the night. We also bought him some new toys to give him when we got home from the hospital to keep him occupied.

We have 6 cats and 3 dogs here. We found they were really interested the first maybe 2 weeks then they lost interest and now completely ignore her! But one of our dogs would sort of 'guard' her and if she cried would come to me as if to say "Hurry up she's crying!!"

One thing you could do is get an item of clothes she's been wearing and get DH to bring it home and show the pets so they can smell it and sort of know the smell when the baby comes home if that makes sense.

Introduce them slowly, maybe you hold the baby and get DH to bring the dog in on a leash so he can see. They're pretty smart and will 'click'.

Remember to give the pets attention too and maybe take the dog for a walk with the baby in the buggy or whatever, dp could walk dog while you take baby...

Try not to get too upset with the pets either if they do something annoying or naughty because they can get jealous. One of our kittens has taken to sneaking into babys room or attacking my feet when I feed baby. The other one has taken to peeing on our bed

Just remember to not be too trusting though, just because your dog has never bitten anyone or anything before, for example, doesn't mean he won't...

Yeah, one of the ladies from my AN had a foxy and she was changing baby on the floor when he ran in bit the baby on the arm and ran off and hid. She couldn't find him for a couple of hours and luckily baby was OK but she got rid of the dog after that.

I guess try treat the dog as normal as possible. I often leave Lily on the floor in the lounge but we have a door to the kitchen and one to the hallway and we trained out dogs to stay out and I generally shut the door if I have to go toilet so they can't come in so I know she is 'safe'. Or I will put her in the cot. I suppose you could always hang about if she is on the floor or always keep her within eye sight. Does you dog respond well to your commands? Or if you tell him no for example he will stop what he's doing?

nicky he is usually really good, he picks things up after like two-three reps (blardy smart collies) like we ask him "what do you do?" and if hes around us he knows that means to sit, if we out walking and about to cross the road hell sit and wait for the OK and if we in the kitchen it means leave the kitchen and lay down and wait....hes pretty smart...jumping up is his only real major downfall...

 

Ooh if your dog is that clever you should be able to teach him to stay out of baby's room before she arrives. You could also give the "gentle" command a go, that one might be a bit trickier though.

jelly, he does sort of know gentle and has a very soft mouth and is very controlled, i can rub the ball on his muzzle and he wont touch it without my say so and i can put a treat in his head and tell him to wait and hell sit there till i give him the OK or release command...

hes also un-nuetered male hearding dog, being a collie so was a lil worried hed try and herd her on the ground, i guess its going to have to be a gradual thing...he loves sniffing eyes too, not sure why but he does it to us all the time, super gentle, it tickles, so worry about that being that bubs is way smaller and may move unpredictably instead of just letting him like we do

What you can do is have a mat or basket for your dog, so they have their place and that is where they sit when bubs is on the floor.

If baby is on the floor the dog goes on the mat. Put bub on a mat too LOL

We only have cats but we do have 4 of them. 2 have reacted with.. I'd rather not be in the same room and if I have to I will ignore you (towards her). The youngest is the only one brave enough to come near her and if she squawks gets very uncomfortable and isn't sure what to do when she is kicking and moving around (she isn't crawling yet or anything though so that will be a laugh). And the 4th cat just plain isn't coping, he doesn't like the other cats, he doesn't like her, he likes her room, and I have found him in her cot, at which point he gets kicked out. Unfortunately I'm trying to find a new home for him which doesn't include other cats or young children.

Anyway I found with cats just let them come close to you when you have bubby, make sure they still get lots of pats and cuddles, if bubby isn't in your room and they normally sleep on your bed keep letting them etc. They do eventually get used to bubby. (But so far none of our cats like it if she squawks or cries.)