Hello questions for new baby and my bully

Submitted by Dgordon80 on October 18, 2012 - 11:56am

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Hello..hope all is well with everyone.. My wife and I have a baby coming end of November and I have been trying to get my lola used to the changes. LOla is a very spoiled doggie.. spoiled in a good way.. she has got 5.5 years of our undivided attention and love.. I have got basic obeideince down with her (sit,stay,Leave it) she wil go into her crate on command BUT willing its alot harder for her to listen when A no treats are involved or B when she is in flip out mood (company or dogs on tv). We are working on it.. I have started to introduce her to the car seat,rockers,bassienet,bouncer etc as she tends to react to new objects.. its been good compared to where we were.. I even started putting my phone in these objects and played sounds of babys.. she was little upset or curious about that but is getting better.. after I feel she is good with these crazy baby objects my biggest fear is the actua baby.. she has only been around toodlers once or twice and seems very very scared and timid.. I know that she will get used to my baby because it will be with us day in and day out.. Lola warms up to almost everyone after a few visits but she can be pretty scary getting used to people at first.. NO biting just barking right at them.. would it be good to get a baby doll that cries/talks etc and start having my wife pretend to carry that around and put in the cribs seats etc? Lola is very jealous of my wife and I think that is my biggest fear is when my wife is giving attention to the baby... I have thankfully saved up time and plan to take Dec off to help with this transistion so any tips suggestions links info would be great!

Congrats on the new baby and

Submitted by Vern-Rory-Teresa on October 18, 2012 - 12:16pm.

Congrats on the new baby and on preparing Lola.

My feedback would be to watch your emotional state when dealing w/Lola. Dogs pick up on nervous energy and that can be exacerbating your problems. You need to have a calm, cool and firm demeanor and retrain her that you and your wife are the pack leaders in your home. If she was solidly obedient, she would listen and obey with and without treats.

You have time, limited amount, but you do have time. It might behoove you to hire a trainer to help train you, your wife and Lola before the baby arrives.

Good luck and wishing your wife a quick and easy delivery :)

Congrats on the baby.

Submitted by karonelaine on October 18, 2012 - 12:18pm.

I have raise three children all with at least three dogs. I will say let him smell the baby. Let him be a huge part of everything most of all Talk to him tell him everything you are doing. Tell him how great he is and a huge help with lots of kisses. Everyone will be fine and good luck. Remember he Been with ya Five years. He is just like a child nothing wrong with him being apart with things. He will grow to be the best sitter you will have. Post us some baby pictures.

__________________

Karonelaine

Thanks!

Submitted by Dgordon80 on October 18, 2012 - 1:40pm.

Yes I think I will def have to remember to keep a cool head and relax..

congrats! one thing my

Submitted by Pegsy on October 18, 2012 - 3:27pm.

congrats! one thing my brother did was introduce the baby's scent to the family dog...

my sis/law had a caesarean and she stayed @ the hospital for about a week

also they included apollo w/any kind of activity they had w/the baby then there was another one 5 yrs later

he truly was the most sweetest and gentlest dog...i'm sure it will be fine w/lola

some family friends of our have a bullie named lola..she was raised along w/the kids and

they truly are inseparable literally she has grown up w/them in every stage she is

currently 9

our experience

Submitted by Katie and Tucker on October 18, 2012 - 9:51pm.

Tucker is now about 2 1/2 and we have a 15 month old baby. I was in the hospital for about 5 days after having our baby and my husband brought home a blanket from the hospital for Tucker smell before we brought our daughter home. He hadn't been exposed to babies before just older children.

Overall it was a easy transition for Tucker. As we got baby furniture and "equipment" before Olivia came along we put it out for Tucker to get used to it, so he could sniff it etc. He wasn't allowed in the nursery for about the first couple of months but that was more for me not wanting too much dog hair in there. We never had an issue with Tucker chewing any of her toys although he destroys his. Olivia has two very squeaky "Sophie" the giraffe's and suprisingly he doesn't touch them even if she is squeezing the heck out of it in front of him.

The funny thing is that she LOVES to grab his kong and climbs in his bed even when he's in it and he never gets rough or territorial with her. When Olivia was tiny and we sat her in her bouncy chair on the floor Tucker actually used to bring his toys to her. I think it was his was of saying "I'll give you this if you give me that soft doll of yours".

Tucker also seems to get that he needs to be more gentle around Olivia because if he's playing and bumps her over he immediately stops and sniffs her as if to say "Are you ok?"". Our biggest issue now is around food. Tucker sits and begs at Olivia's high chair and if Igive her a snack and it's within Tucker's reach he almost always tries to get it from her so we're working on stopping that behaviour. It doesn't help that Olivia has learned to flick her food off her highchair when she's had enough!

One of the tough things was all of the visitors we had. I know Tucker felt very overwhelmed at times. He LOVES people and attention but didn't get that people came to see Olivia and not him. That's when he would get hyper and try to get right in the middle of things. That's when baby gates were an awesome tool.

Your baby and your bully are going to be awesome siblings and just think of the day when the two will be running down the street together. Now that we have Tucker and our daughter we see what a great match bullies can be with kids.

Good luck!

Here are some pics of the past year.

This is Tucker on Olivia's first night home. He was pretty curious about what was in the bassinet :)