TLDR: Wife very nervous about our dog meeting our newborn. What are some things you think we should do/not do to make this as safe and happy as possible?
Hey all! Went to post on Reddit and saw the upcoming blackout and figured I'd post here instead/too. We brought home our first a few days ago. Everything is fine, just normal tired parents and lots of poop. Actually, it's not fine. It's amazing. We've thoroughly enjoyed parenthood so far (I know, I know, baby's gonna make me eat those words).
To the point at hand, our dog has been staying at my mother in law's while we've gotten settled. I went today to bring our dog back home. My wife has been extremely nervous. Our dog is sweet, but very energetic. I walk in with the dog, and did the whole rub-a-baby-blanket-on-your-dog thing before we got out of the car. Dog's excited to see her mom, jumping (something we've been trying to train out of her), wagging her tail, doing her little excited whine thing. I've still got her on a short leash and baby is laying in the bassinet in the living room. Dog makes her way over to the bassinet and does some sniffing (mesh walls she can see through) and then starts barking (all while on leash). Not aggressive, just sort of excited "something is happening" barks. This sort of sends my wife into a serious whirlwind of emotions (which of course she's been dealing with a gambit of the post partum emotional load). She's crying really hard, very anxious, and worried the dog will think the baby is a toy, etc.
Things have settled down, and we've done what we can to make the dog feel very normal (read some ASPCA and AKC posts about the topic and we had done a little prep before). My wife is still extremely nervous about their first real "meeting" where baby is in her arms and dog gets to sniff and say hey. We have no reason to think our dog will be anything but friendly, but do worry about her energy. What are some things you have done to make this transition go smoothly? Thanks in advance.
TLDR: Wife very nervous about our dog meeting our newborn. What are some things you think we should do/not do to make this as safe and happy as possible?
Introducing our dog and our newborn
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1. This is an inclusive space
2. Be kind
3. No nudity
4. No violence
5. These rules will evolve as the forum grows and changes
Re: Introducing our dog and our newborn
I don't have much advice because our dog is incredibly low key and lazy.
I'd imagine your dog is keyed in on wife's anxiety though so that probably isn't helping.
If the dog is small enough, maybe hold it when it meets the baby?
I'd imagine your dog is keyed in on wife's anxiety though so that probably isn't helping.
If the dog is small enough, maybe hold it when it meets the baby?
Re: Introducing our dog and our newborn
So my baby is like 2 days old now so we've been doing introductions to our 2 cats and big ole dog. The dog is a retired racing greyhound and is a super sweet dog, and is also very lazy. Today she sniffed at the bassinet that the baby was in, and that's about it. The cats have done the same. Everyone seems generally uninterested in the baby.
For the introductions, we didn't really do anything special, we're just super careful when one the animals approaches the baby. If there is any sign of any kind of negative behavior we acted. One of the cat picked his paw up, as if to slap, and my wife gently put it back down and he was fine. He moved on. I think it all went well.
No other info here, and no real advice because I don't know shit lol, but there we go.
For the introductions, we didn't really do anything special, we're just super careful when one the animals approaches the baby. If there is any sign of any kind of negative behavior we acted. One of the cat picked his paw up, as if to slap, and my wife gently put it back down and he was fine. He moved on. I think it all went well.
No other info here, and no real advice because I don't know shit lol, but there we go.