Please help!!!! How to get used to new baby?

[MaxiesMom]

Maxie is a very good girl, she is 3.5 years old. This weekend we had a training session to prepare Maxie and us on preparing for parenthood with the dog. Our trainer, who is very knoweledgable about our breed and loves Maxie to pieces told us to go buy a doll that cries and makes baby noises. Once we got the doll we put baby lotion and other baby scents on it. Needless to say, things did not go well at all. Maxie was upset, she kept jumping to get the baby doll and jumping me and trying to hump me. We would do 5 min intervals of this hoping she would eventually get used to it. Nope. My heart is absolutely breaking over this. I can't put my baby in jeopardy and live in fear that our dog is not going to adjust. The trainer said how she reacts to the doll is a very good indication of how she would react to the baby. The last thing I want to do is get rid of Maxie, any thoughts out there?

[RottiMomCT]

How long have you had Maxie? When is your baby due?

Keep working on it. You only did one weekend of traiing with her to get her used to the sounds of a baby.

Carry the doll when working around the house, borrow a stroller )if you don't already have one) and the two of you take the 'baby' for a walk with Maxie, sit and hold the 'baby' while you watch TV. Make this 'baby' a real part of your every day life starting from today.

Praise her for calm interest in the baby noises. If the 'baby' is in the other room 'napping' can you set it crying to see how she reacts when you and the dog are together and the baby 'wakes up'?

Also, make lots of time for Maxie - her time as an 'only dog' is going to end soon - even after the baby comes you'll need to spend time with her solo.

When the baby DOES come, bring a blanket home with baby smells on it and wrap the baby doll in it. have someone carry that doll around for the time you are in the hospital. When you come home, have someone else carry the baby and you greet Maxie, calmly, and spend a little time with her while someone else comes in with the baby and gets baby situated.

From my end of it - my boy Ben does not like crying baby noises - barks and gets very agitated. I have no human kids. My friends do. Ben is great with sleeping and otherwise quiet babies...just not crying babies.

[MaxiesMom]

We have had Maxie since she was 7 weeks old and I am due in 5.5 weeks. Every time I try to carry the baby around and she constantly tries to jump on me, which is not normal for her. I am worried about falling down, which I have done twice (non dog related falls). If I try sitting she jumps on me. She keeps barking in an aggressive manner, pacing the stroller, pack n play and crib. She has never been around children or babies.

[RottiMomCT]

Have a leash on her when she's in the house - CORRECT her for jumping! I would also recommend signing up for a refresher obedience course, something you and Maxie can do together, once everyone is settled at home.

She is very curious as to what you are carrying around. If she will sit calmly, allow her to check out the baby's foot - a sniff is all she needs, then off you go walking with the baby.

The stroller, pack & play and other empty baby furniture are not threats - although she certainly sees them that way! Don't tell her to knock it off, but encourage her to quietly investigate these items and praise her when she does this. Laugh at her when she's acting like a fool around the baby furniture and tell her she's being silly.

[Burnsway]

Along with the other ideas, keep in mind that dogs can be extremely smart, and knows the difference between a doll and a real baby. My dog would have seen a toy doll shoved in her face just as that, "A TOY" and probably would have grabbed it and ran like she would with a stuffed animal.

I decided with our dog who has much dislike of small children and new things, to take it one day at a time and just be extremely careful and continue home training on a daily basis on how she "MUST" act around the baby, and she has really come a long way in seeing our baby as a top pack member and even respects her toys and space. But you can never be too careful, there must be 100% supervision. Our dog also had a lead hanging off her neck almost 24/7 the first month after our baby was home.

We also decided not to do this general advice of carrying a fake baby, using baby tape sounds and all that. To me that can just agitate and confuse a dog more when the real baby arrives.

A while back I read somewhere, the majority of problems and fatal bites on infants happen within the first month home and usually is when the dog is being let to roam the home and eyes are off the baby.

[Judi W]

I tend to believe that dogs know the difference between a toy/doll and real humans. Did she reach this age without ever having been around a small child or baby? If so, that would be very unusual. If not, then stand back and evaluate how she is in her general behavior around any and all people, small and large.

Unfortunately, that you were concerned in the first place, indicates to me that you suspect her balance in temperament might not be good (either that or that her education in meeting people of all kinds has been neglected). A crash course in getting out in the world and in obedience is in order. Get her to the park on a busy day, let her see the world, and at the same time enforce her obedience. See how she handles it.

[MaxiesMom]

Maxie is great around people and we have had her in training. When we got her we did not know anyone with babies and have since moved to a new area where we no nobody. She has been around 9 and 10 year olds and has done fantastic!!! Just never around infants and babies.

[Judi W]

Why are you distrustful of her?

[codglvr]

My girl had been around babies before, but was still quite the bonehead the night we got home with the baby. We refreshed obedience before the baby, and that really helped. Whenever the baby would cry, Saga would bark and try to see what was wrong with the baby. She was told to knock it off and go lay down. The first night I did end up sleeping downstairs with the baby, and the dog locked upstairs in the bedroom with my husband. By the end of the second day, she had it in her head that it wasn't her job to mind the baby.
If possible, try to get home with the baby earlier in the day, so you have time with the dogs before bed. We had chaos, and didn't get home until a couple of hours before bed. There just wasn't enough time to properly adjust. Once adjusted, life was much better, and the dogs learned each step of development, what is and is not allowed.

[MaxiesMom]

We did the refresher with our trainer on Saturday and the trainer felt Maxie would be great with the baby. My husband called our trainer this AM and told him of Maxie's reaction to the baby doll and me. He said it sounds like Maxie is insecure. I guess I am trying to do everything I can to ensure Maxie and the baby can co-exist. I know the obvious you never leave the two alone. We are going to take her back to obiedence training after the baby comes per our trainer. If she reacts the way she did with doll, we just can't have that. I am hoping it is the doll and she want to play with it and will know when we bring the baby home, that this is the baby and not the doll. I guess she will be spending most of her time on the lead when the baby comes.

[Mochasmom]

When Mocha was around my Neice and Nephew when they were babies she was fine. (yes always %100 supervised and Mocha on a leash)

to Mocha a doll=toy but a baby=human and was left alone.

[Ravenscrest]

I find remarkable the suggestion by a "trainer" that how a dog reacts to a TOY is how it will react to a person. My first suggestion would be to reconsider your trainer. One of the things I would encourage you to do is to crate train your dog is she isn't already. If she is great. You need to start spending time with her in her crate and you in the house-- and as well designate a "dog only" area of your house--do it now so Maxi does not attribute responsibiloity to the the changes in your patterns to your new arrival. What level of exposure to children has Maxi had to small children ( i.e. screaming/ fast, erratic movement) in her life to date. If the answer is limted, you need to immediately take her out to playground aeras and sit with her there so she is exposed-- and resist the suggestion by small children that they may come up and touch her- sounds like she needs to be desensitized. You having fear and apprehension when you were undertaking your fake baby experiment probably didn't help her

[RottiMomCT]

An obedience refresher will not be a one day deal. It will mean signing up for a 6-8 week regular obedience class, even if the dog is reliable with commands now, once the baby arrives, things WILL change.

We have taken Ben to the local ice cream place regularly for the past 2-3 years...he is great unless kids are yelling and running, and yes, the do that there...I hate it, but they are not my kids...and they rarely ask to interact with Ben - they are too busy teasing the cows in the barn

If kids ask to pet Ben, I often say "NO, I am sorry, he is in training and he needs to concentrate on me right now, but thank you for asking", and if I have to I walk away, I do so...most of the time the kids are polite and ask great questions about him, and it is a great experience for everyone.

[gomer9855]

Frau had never been around small children or babies ever until she was almost 2. We had no kids, had no friends with kids, etc. I also didn't trust her around small kids becuase she was so hyper. She would have licked them like crazy and probably knocked them over, scaring them.
When she did meet a smal child for the first time I was at a friend's house and her grandson was brought over. He was 1.5, Frau was running around the house with my friend's boxerX, but anytime she came within 10 feet of the baby she would stop, carefully walk past, then run again. She was very gentle about licking him too. I was very surprised.
My new little nephew just loves her. He's 1. He almost fell over one time and grabbed a big handful of her skin on his way down. Frau just stood still, looking at him till he regained his balance and let go. Then she gave him a lick and went back to what she was doing.
But if i brought a DOLL into the house, I can GUARANTEE she would grab it, shake and not be satisfied until all the stuffing was out of it.
Trust your instincts. You know your dog better than anyone.

[cathydownes]

Your Frau sounds like my Sherman - every new toy he gets experiences the same treatment - general mauling, copious amounts of slobber, and ferocious shaking ;-)

Both of my kids are grown and gone (and my daughter has kids of their own) but Sherman did get exposure to a 9 mo old and 2 year old when he was 3.5 months old himself. With the baby Sherman brought his toys over to the kid and dropped them at the feet of the person holding the baby and tried to lick him all over. With the 2 year old he chased him all over the back yard and some how knew he shouldn't jump (even though it's a constant battle to keep him from jumping on us).

His behavior with these two put aside the concerns I was having since my grandkids will be visiting in Dec. And the fact that my daughter just got a 3.5 yo Rottie/Lab mix helps as the boys will be learning how to behave around a dog too!

I can appreciate your concerns about how Maxie will behave but I also agree with the others - one weekend with a "doll" should not convince you that you'll have to find her a new home.

Best of luck to you and congrats on the new addition!!