Babies and bulldogs..
Submitted by Dgordon80 on November 28, 2011 - 3:42pmHello Everyone.. this past Weds I found out my wife is pregnant! After all the emotions and celebrations my mind started to think of how my Lola girl will take to a baby. She has had some experiences with new babies but I will admit I really just didn’t like the vibe she was putting off. Lola is very sweet to those who see knows but very timid and dominant to strangers. I know I should have handled the interactions better with the babies she has seen but it’s hard to really use someone else’s baby for training. We are going back to the basics now since my wife is only 4-5 weeks in. She needs to assert herself more as Lola tends to now pay her any mind when it comes to obedience. I have read about all the things we should do but my main concern is when should I? 9 months is a long time and I don’t want to bring home doll babies and cribs and strollers until we are out of the early stages of pregnancy.. I think for now I should focus on basic obedience, dominance and some of her other tendencies that were funny but will be a prob later(barking at the TV when a dog is on it) After my wife is out of the early stages I think most people say playing baby noises helps as well as using a doll baby to get her use to the new life will help… I don’t want to overwhelm her at once, I also don’t want to start so early that we burn out by month 5… I like to think Lola will realize this baby is a member of the family and as long as I devote enough attention to her we should adjust.. Lola was such a sweet girl to everyone but after two knee surgeries and so much crate rest she really has lost a lot of socialization skills.. I assume and hope others on here can provide me some tips on when and how often to start this training and is my fear normal? It’s sad to think that I am worried more about this than being a Dad! I love Lola and would never get rid of her because I would never put her in a situation to hurt my child but I do want Lola to be a part of my family as she is now.. thanks for reading and hope all is well to everyone
I will let you know in 23 days!
We are due with our first in December! We don't have a ton of friends with babies that come over on a regular basis but our two have had interactions with babies. Oliver is sweet as pie with babies, Deuce really doesn't care one way or another but doesn't get the whole being "gentle" thing around babies. Our neighbors have a 9 month old and while both Deuce and Oliver are great with her Deuce will just run up to her and lick her face and run away, but mind you it is full speed ahead for the run to her, HUUUGE lick on her face, and the bolt away to do something else. I think it is his personality more than Oliver's. Oliver is very laid back, gentle, and sensitive. Deuce LOVES LOVES LOVES LOVES toys, gets soooo excited over toys, excited to see new people, etc. He is just more high energy than Oliver. I volunteer with bulldog rescue and had access to the names of some trainers so we did have a trainer come over to teach both my husband and I about how to handle Deuce with toys (since baby toys and dog toys look so similar), and she also taught us how to integrate the baby into their lives. When we got the stroller we left it out in the living room for a few weeks, the baby room has always had the door open so they could smell the furniture, see the changes, etc. Deuce has done really well with the toys, we have baby toys in baskets in the baby room and he has really learned "leave it" when we tell him. We did go to garage sales and buy some cheap baby toys to use for training though so if he ruined them no big deal. I will say it was great to have a trainer come because as much as we needed to teach Deuce my husband and I really needed to learn ourselves. We had her come beginning of August so we were about 5 months in to the pregnancy at that point. I think the earlier you can start exposing her to baby things the better. Maybe could you bring her to a park nearby your house and let her just see the children from a distance and maybe work your way closer week by week. And as you are preparing for baby, let her sniff things, let her in the room, let her see all the baby gear, etc. Our trainer did suggest getting a doll and rocking with the doll, carrying it around, etc. but unfortunately we never go that far, although I guess technically we still could since we still have a few more weeks. I would also contact a trainer, it was really beneficial to us. Also, Lynn K. is a trainer and hopefully she will chime in with some great suggestions as well.
Congratulations to you both!! Hope your wife is feeling well.
Go to dogwise.com
search by subject, there are a lot of books/videos on raising dogs with children, at all stages of development of both.
Good luck
Lynn King CPDT-KA
Some books our trainer recommended...
I ordered both of them used from Amazon for maybe $10 or so. She recommended Happy Kids, Happy Dogs by Barbara Shumannfang, and Living with Kids and Dogs Without Losing Your Mind by Colleen Pelar.
Don't have much advise but
Don't have much advise but just wanted to say Congratulations!
In our case, I believe Luca could sense something was very different when the baby came. All the attention from visitors, momma, etc. focused toward the baby showed him something was much different than before. When we would let him see the baby it was always when they were both calm and we were both hovering nearby to remove the baby and correct him if got overly excited. At first the baby is so small their interaction is rather limited and this gave Luca time to view the baby from a distance and learn how we interacted with the baby. By the time Bruce was crawling age Luca had learned to be gentle with him.
Good Luck and Congratulations!
Thanks everyone! I appreciate your responses
nm