Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Prepping your dog for a new baby

Commands to teach and practice that will help once baby arrives:
PLACE, Leave It, Down, and Move
Please take the time to train your dog before your baby arrives and don't wait until there is a problem.
Work on Crate time with your dog. Make sure that your dog is comfortable in the crate for extended periods of time. That your dog will wait when the crate door is opened and come out calmly when invited. Also work on sending your dog to the crate and that your dog can go to the crate and wait there. When your baby is here I recommend Crating your dog at the same time that you put your baby down for a nap. When baby wakes up I let the dog out too. But controlled of course so that you can associate the baby with freedom, fun and enjoyment.
Often people do the opposite and this is where they run into problems: Put baby down for a nap then let dog out to play, as soon as the baby wakes up dog goes back the crate or banished to the backyard. You do not want negative associations with baby.

When the baby is up and out I bring the dog out of the crate and send him/her to place to hang out in the same room where you are with the baby.
Also work on Place being able to send your dog to a place from a distance and having your dog hold a place command for extended periods of time and while you go out of sight and come back.

Front Door Manners. Teaching your dog not to dart through the front door. With a new baby it is likely that you will have lots of friends and family coming and going more than normal and you will have enough to deal with you want to feel confident that your dog won't dart out the front door at the 1st chance they get.

Furniture by invitation only: Have you gotten lax and let your dog up on the couch or your bed when he she pleases sometimes. It's time to tighten up your rules. ONLY by invitation. Never can they jump up on their own when they want.

Start making the house feel like a baby.  Have a baby bottle with milk out on the coffee table and work on teaching your dog to leave it.  Leave food out on the coffee table.

Leave a baby blanket on the floor in the middle of your living room.  Buy baby toys... and binkies... and leave them all over just like it will be when you have a baby. Make sure your dog really understands which toys are theirs and which one are the babies long before baby even arrives.

Buy a doll baby that makes noise and cries and start carrying it around everywhere with you. When you start showing this all kinds of attention your pup will be interested. Teach them to keep a respectful distance. Teach your dog with this doll as if it is your babies 1st day at home.

I would start giving less attention weeks before as soon you will be busy with a baby and you don't want the dog to feel like the baby is the reason. If I start making changes now it will help make it more normal for the dog when the baby arrives.

Teaching Wait at doorways will help when going in and out of the babies room. I suggest not making the babies room off limits instead having a place somewhere in the babies room out of the way and teaching your dog to automaticallly waiting at the door the babies room but you can invite the dog in and have them on place out of the way if you are spending more time in the babies room.

Just make sure to remember a few things NEVER leave dogs unsupervised with kids EVER.

Make sure your dog can get away and have breaks from the new baby as it grows into a toddler.

Also there are a few great books on this as well that goes into more detail:

Childproofing Your Dog: A Complete Guide to Preparing Your Dog for the Children in Your Life Paperback By Brian Kilcommons    

Can be found on Amazon.com  










                                            
You can find thisbook here:  http://www.thatsmydogstore.com/Dogs_Diapers_and_Beyond_p/dogdiapersbeyond.htm