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Last week I started a series on how to introduce your newborn children to the household pets. I stressed that the most important thing you can do to make the transition as smooth as possible for all family members, human and animal alike, is to make sure pets still receive some exclusive attention. Today I’ll look at some other things you can do before the baby arrives to help prepare your pet.
Both expectant and new parents have several options to prepare and properly train pets to be around babies. The nine months of pregnancy afford you invaluable time to accustom your pet to some of the upcoming changes.
Introduce your pet to the sounds of a newborn. You can do this by purchasing the cheap toy dolls that replicate baby noises, and walk around the house with the object swaddled in your arms from time to time. This familiarizes pets both with the sounds a baby makes and the sight of you constantly carrying the child.
If you have any friends with newborns invite them over to your house. This way you can see how your dog behaves around a baby, and start training it to do so properly. Later this week I will go over the steps you can take once you have an infant (or have one visiting) to teach your pet how to act around it.
Don’t let your pets into the nursery. Continue this practice from the time you begin setting up the baby’s room until the baby is a bit older and the pet is comfortable around it. However, rather than just shutting the pet out of the room so all it sees is a closed door, leave the door open but put a gate in the doorframe.
By doing so, you help the pet not to feel entirely shunned from the new member of the family, or the other family members, when they are in the room. It still is able to feel at least a little like a “pack member.”
If you have any concerns about your dog’s behavior before the baby arrives, maybe it’s time to enroll it in obedience classes. You can inform the trainer that you’re specifically looking to teach your dog how to properly behave around infants, and he or she might have some special tricks to teach the dog.
You can also consult both your veterinarian and your pediatrician about how to tackle potential negative pet behavior towards the baby. They might have some tips for how to teach your pet to behave, particularly for cats (given that feline obedience classes are rare).
Any behavioral problems that your pets might have should be addressed as soon as possible in the months leading up to the birth. Make sure that dogs know common and soon-to-be-even-more-essential commands like “down,” “stay,” and “leave it.” These will help you control your dog around a newborn child.
Later this week I will conclude this series by detailing what to do once you bring a newborn home.
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*(This image by Matthew Routley is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
