So you’ve probably noticed by now that we have a new addition to the pack, little Mr. Parker! Read all about his arrival here. When you’re getting close to that big day when your baby comes home, there are a million things to do. Buy a crib, paint the nursery, baby proof… if you’re an overachiever. I am not even ready to think about that yet. I have time right?? But one thing that you do NOT want to leave to last minute or put on the back burner for later is setting your dog up for success with your new baby.
Every year, hell, every day, dogs are surrendered to shelters and rescues around the world because couples bring home a new baby. They either return them out of fear, because they simply think their baby is suddenly the only important thing in the universe, or because they didn’t take the time to prepare their dog(s) for their new human sibling. Don’t get me wrong, Parker is my world, but my furry family members were here long before him and I am not about to dump them because my life just got a bit more complicated. So what do you do? You put in some time and effort BEFORE baby comes home to ensure as smooth of a transition as possible.
How to Introduce Your Dog to Your New Baby… Smoothly!
1. Exposure:
Introduce your dogs to other babies. Babies are WEIRD little creatures to dogs, especially if they have never seen one before. They don’t smell like the rest of us humans, they cry a lot, they’re loud. Your dogs are bound to either be curious or a bit put off by your new addition. If you have a friend with a baby or young child (and your dog is calm enough), try slowly introducing your dogs to them in a safe, relaxed way over the course of a few weeks before your delivery date. This will make the sudden appearance of their own little guy or gal a lot less startling
2. Baby’s Smell:
Dogs, as we know, rely heavily on their sense of smell. After your baby is born, wrap them in a blanket and let them get all those delicious baby smells all over it. Then, before you take your baby home from the hospital, have someone bring it back to your house for your dogs. This way, they can smell it, lay on it, and just get used to having this new scent in their home. Then when the baby comes home, they will already be familiar with his/her scent.
3. You go in first:
If your dogs are anything like mine, they probably get a BIT excited when you walk through your front door. Whether I’ve been gone for a few days or I just walked to the end of the driveway to check the mail, all four of our mutts get a little overly happy to see me. I think it’s awesome, but I also wanted the energy level to be much lower and more relaxed when they first met the baby. So, I went inside first and had someone stay in the car with Parker for the first few minutes. I went in, greeted my overly excited pack, let them outside to run around and get some energy out, and THEN brought the baby inside.
4. One at a time:
If you have a multi-dog pack like we do, it can be helpful to do introductions one at a time. We do this with visitors too, because Ringo is/was fear reactive. It just helps to again keep the energy in the room calmer and quieter during this important first meeting. We let our dogs out in the yard and then let them in one at a time, starting with our calmest, most trustworthy dog first (aka Boomer). Once one dog has sufficiently sniffed and examined the baby and is “over it” for the most part, repeat the process with your next pup.
5. Basic Obedience:
This one sounds like a no brainer, but it really is a crucial component in this introduction process, as with most any situation involving your dog(s). Even with all the preparation, our dogs were OVER THE MOON excited to meet Parker when we brought him home. In order to make sure there was no jumping and no accidents, we used three of our favorite commands. Sit, stay, and leave it. Every aspect of this process should be under your strict control.
Once the dogs were let in and smelled Parker from afar, they were instantly very curious and couldn’t wait to get their noses all up in his business. To keep things running smoothly, I’d ask them to sit and stay and then bring the baby to them to smell. This way, if they get too excited, you can just stand back up and give them some time to calm down before trying again. Or if they get too wiggly and stand up, put them back in a sit/stay. If they try to pull a Boomer and lick your baby’s entire face in one swoop, this is where the leave it command comes in handy! LOL
6. Baby (Dog-Free) Zone :
Once the initial introductions are done, your dogs are bound to continue to a little extra excited for the first few days. Keep interactions safe, short, and on your terms. It’s super important to monitor all interactions closely, now and for the foreseeable future. This is easy to do when the baby is in your arms, but they obviously can’t be there all the time. During naptime and at night, make sure you have designated baby areas that your dogs can’t get to without an invitation.
For us, we have a baby gate on the hallway to the nursery for night time and a Pack ‘n Play set up in the living room. While the dogs technically COULD get into the Pack ‘n Play if they wanted to, we made it clear right away that this was off limits to them. They can stand near it and look at the baby, but cannot jump up or put their paws up on the sides. This is where that training comes in. Be consistent and they will catch on quick.
7. Set Aside Time for your Dogs
Babies are time consuming. They need you for everything, pretty much all the time, especially in the beginning. If this is your first baby, your dogs are probably used to getting all of that attention. Now that your baby is home, your dogs are probably feeling a little ignored.. and bored. Do your best to set aside some time just for them.
When Parker takes a nap during the day, I take the baby monitor outside with me and play outside with the dogs. Now that he’s getting a little older, we have started taking him and the dogs on hikes together as well. Short ones, but it’s been so great to get everyone out together. As he continues to grow, the adventures will get longer and the dogs will get more and more exercise. For now, I’m grateful that they’ve been so patient and well behaved, even without the crazy hikes that they’re used to.
Good Luck!
Bringing home your new baby should be a joyful time, but it can be stressful too. I hope that by sharing these tips, we can help make the transition an easier one for people with furry family members waiting at home. With proper planning and the right mindset, it really can be an easy transition. Our dogs welcomed Parker with open arms (paws?) and just love their new human brother. We are so excited for them to have a lifetime of adventures together!
Have questions or comments about introducing your dog(s) to your new baby? Or other things that worked for you and your family? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Thanks for reading,
Debbie & THE MUTTS (+ Parker)
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26 Comments
What a fantastic post! Too often people think “the dogs will just get used to the baby” and do the minimal to enhance the relationship and ensure the four-legged fur kids bond with the two-legged kid. You are building a bond that will last for years and will enhance life for everyone.
Anita, The Purrsonal Assistant for The Tribe of Five at Feline Opines
YES! I couldn’t agree more. We expect our dogs to just roll with the punches and adapt to any change we throw at them. Then if they don’t adjust as well as we assume they “should”, too many people just dump them and blame the dog. We brought them into our weird world, it’s our job to help them navigate it, happily! I can’t wait for Parker to grow up with our awesome pups!
Congratulations on your new baby, and thanks for the wonderful tips! You’re right, every day animals are dumped in shelters by people who are either afraid of having them in a house with babies, or more often than not didn’t make a plan as to how to introduce one to the other. With your tips and experience hopefully there will be a lot more happy families.
Thanks for the congrats! I have the same hope. It’s really not hard to help navigate your dog(s) through new situations, you just have to put yourself in their shoes and plan ahead. I hate that people are so lazy and self-absorbed and would rather dump their furry family members than put in a little bit of effort. Thanks for reading!
Great tips and congrats on the new addition! It’s important to set the dogs up for success instead of just expecting them to adjust to a lot of big changes all at once.
Yes! That’s exactly it. Dogs are so malleable, you just have to work with them and give them the confidence they need to accept new changes in their lives. They give us so much, we owe them at least that!
This is so important, I have learned that sometimes dogs or cats are let go after a baby is born. That is not cool so I appreciate that you are making awareness on how to make this introduction the right way. At the end everyone benefits. Who can live without a dog or a cat?
It really is SO SO sad that people have babies and dump their pets. Working in rescue for years, I have seen it happen WAY too many times. The hardest part for me is knowing that it is SO preventable. All it takes is a little time and effort. I hope this post finds someone who needs that nudge to put in the extra work to benefit the whole family. Thanks for reading!
Congratulations !!!!!!!!!! What a fantastic post that all soon to be parents should read. I am so happy you are bring up Parker with dogs as that is the best way to do it. Love the photos and he is just adorable
Thanks Ruth! I’m so glad you enjoyed our post. And that pic, I know! One of my new faves for sure. I hope that this post finds expecting parents and helps them feel more confident about introducing their dog to their newborns. It can be stressful if you let it be, but with proper planning and preparation, it can also be such a fun thing to watch. Our dogs were SO excited and super gentle.
I’m so pinning this. I think this would be very helpful for new moms with furry family members. Looks like your doing a great job of navigating motherhood with the fur kids. Awesome! Wish you all continued blessings and good health.
Aww thank you so much! Motherhood has been amazing so far and the dogs have adapted so well. They really are great pups, which helps. The extra little bit of preparation we did ahead of time made a huge difference, I’m sure. Thanks for reading and for the well wishes, you’re so sweet!
A great informative post, with some well made and thought-out suggestions. When I saw the title, I thought, ‘Yes, how on earth do you prepare your dog for a new arrival’. Your post made it sound so much easier than I would have imagined and very calm indeed. Well done and what a fabulous photo of the dogs sitting around Parker. I’m sure Parker has already met his first 4 best friends for life and I look forward to reading more about their journey together. Congratulations!
Thank you Michelle for your kind comment. The idea of introducing a baby to a dog, let alone 4, can definitely be a bit daunting. Even I was a little nervous and I have all the confidence in the world in my pack. But with the proper forethought, it really was a smooth, beautiful introduction. I just wish I had an extra set of hands to video the whole thing. Parker definitely will be growing up with 4 of the best friends a little boy could ask for. So glad it started on such a great foot! Thanks for reading!
Parker is a lucky little guy! When we brought home our first baby, I was a little concerned how one of my dogs would react. She was always a little nervous around kids, but she loved the baby at first sniff. Of course, I never left them unsupervised, because why take chances? Their relationship flourished as the baby grew. Of course, mealtimes with kids in a high chair was probably their favorite part of having a baby in the house. Every dog deserves a toddler friend! I think that growing up with pets is one of the best experiences in life.
Aww, I’m so glad your introductions went well. I was a little nervous about Ringo and Roxie, but they both fell in love pretty instantly. I know they will be even more in love with Parker once he starts eating (and dropping) food. LOL I always wanted a dog growing up but was never allowed to have one. I’m excited for Parker that he’ll have that experience and 4 built-in best buds.
At least one challenge I won’t have to deal with anymore. I THINK. Cause you never know, I guess. I hope so, at least 🙂
HAHAHA.. so true, you never know. lol
Congratulations again on your new baby, adorable Parker! This is excellent advice. Starting early and introducing the dogs one at a time is smart. I’ve also heard some parents start training a few months ahead using a baby doll. They put baby powder, cream and other things the dog might smell on a baby onto the doll. They act like the doll is an actual baby in the home and introduce it to the dogs so they get used to some of the scents. I hear it helps. Great post!
Love & Biscuits,
Dogs Luv Us and We Luv Them
These are great tips for introducing your pets to a new baby! I can’t believe some people give up their pets after having children, that’s so sad. I bet new parents will find these tips very helpful!
I have a feeling Parker will be a super duper dog trainer and maybe even a great pooper scooper once he learns to walk and doesn’t want to get that poo on his shoe. Wonderful post. I’m so glad that you did your homework so that your crew can all live happily with your new family member.
Wonderful post and great step by step directions! I could see that this could be a stressful thing to just spring a baby on to your dogs, but if you introduce them to smells and “baby things” before that can definitely help!
Congratulations! And thanks so much for this post! This all seems very doable between now and August. Looking forward to Murphy gaining a new best friend when baby comes.
Thanks so much for the congrats! And congratulations yourself on your pregnancy. I hope Murphy just loves his new human sibling. With a little prep work ahead of time, I’m sure he will! So glad you found our post helpful. Thanks for reading!
I’m a labor and delivery nurse, and always suggest the family take home the first cap (we throw it away anyhow). It has all the birth fluids on it and lets the dogs know that their human mom gave birth. The dogs don’t care about our perfumes, they know our human scent. And they somehow instinctively know what birth smells like. I also tell Dad to video the dog getting the hat. They are fascinated! 🙂
Ahh, the cap is a great idea! My only concern (with my dogs, specifically) is that our littlest pup Roxie loves to carry around small things and hide them, so I’d be afraid that she’d bury it in the couch or something. LOL. The blanket worked great for us, but I bet the cap with all those extra fresh baby smells would work even better. Great suggestion! Thanks so much for sharing