Moms to be with dogs

I have a list of things to prepare our dog for the baby that I found on this site.
I have 2 questions...

1. Did you use a "fake" baby to get the dog used to the idea of a baby being in the house and how long before the baby actually came?

2. How long before the baby came did you have the nursery and other items set up?

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Hmm, I never thought to use a fake baby to get my dog used to it... I figure the doll wouldn't smell like the baby anyway, so I'm not sure how that would work.

What we do plan on doing is this:

- Any toys/baby items that make noise or sounds/music, we will try to play every so often in the weeks before my due date. That way our doggie will start to get accustomed to those sounds and get her curiosity over with.

- When the baby arrives, we'll have DH come home with the baby's hospital blanket every day and give it to the dog so she can get used to the baby's smell.

- When we go home from the hospital, I will go in first, alone, greet our dog and give her lots of love and affection. Then have DH come in with baby in the carrier and have our dog sniff her feet and her blakie, etc.

I'm hoping this is a good start. I am hoping to get more ideas so that we can have as smooth as a transition as possible. Our dog thinks she's our real baby (and we love her and treat her as such!!) so we just don't want her to be too jealous with the new baby.

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i plan on having DH bring home the blankets they put the babies in.. so the dog can smell them.. know that something is up.

i might try the fake baby thing too..not sure.

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No we didn't use a fake baby. We had only moved into our house 1 month before DD was born, so we set stuff up maybe a couple of weeks before she was born.

My dog has been around little kids since he was a puppy so we were not worried about him. He is a bassett hound and very laid back, easy going. He was fine when DD arrived.

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We have three dogs, and we have been preparing since I was 12 weeks.

We put a "baby" gate up for the hallway where the baby room, and our rooms, is, and the dogs only go through the gate when we let them. This way, they cannot just go into baby's room whenever they please.

I will not be using a "fake" baby, as the entire purpose is to ready the dogs for the smell, etc.

They already know something is up, so we'll see how it goes..lol!

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We use a cabbage patch kid. We put baby powder on the body and we use the baby lotin on the dolls face. I pretend to burp it, feed it, make it cry and give it attention. We think our dog is going to be a pain in the @ss. He is jealous already. He is a mommy and daddys boy and I hope the transition will go over smoothly!

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we have a 5 yr old shih tzu who is seriously our little baby girl, so we're a little nervous how the transisition is going to go, but here's the plan:

Have DH bring home from the hospital the babies blanket or anything that has the scent of the baby on it for her to get used to

when we come home from the hospital, we aren't going to have family over right away, it will just be DH, me, baby and the dog. i'll walk in the house first and give her lots of love and attention and we'll introduce the baby to her that way.

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I am not really sure what we are going to do...We are not doing the fake baby, bc I dont want him to think its a toy and him play with it when he sees that we arent paying attention to it all the time. I want to do the baby blanket thing while I am in the hospital but my dog LOVES to play with towels and stuff so I think he will just take the blanket like its a toy. I just hope to introduce him to the baby when I get home. The nursery is upstairs and he is afraid to use the stairs, hes never used them before and he is a year and a half.

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I have to start walking around with the doll and doing all of that. When do you start? I am 25 weeks today.

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I am 32 weeks and we havent started. Im asking bc I have a Jack Russell Terrier, her personality is not typical of a JRT (shes very loving and extremely friendly, we have heard many are very nasty) but she is VERY hyper.
So far we only have the stroller and she doesnt even seem to care. The list I had says to use a fake baby, but like other people said its the smell the dog needs to get used to.

Re: Moms to be with dogs

we have two horses.. i mean dogs and did very little prepare when ds was born... but they adapted fine.. the few things we did was:
1) took away all squeaky and plush toys as soon as we found out which was a bonus because they have never taken any of ds's toys (minus the toy ds handed to one of them covered in food)
2) we set up the swing pnp about a week before i delivered which would have been a month prior to my due date so that they would get used to it (and ran the swing so they would realize not to walk and get hit)
3) the day ds was born dh brought home blankets from the baby for each dog and repeated that the following day
4) when we came home dh carried in ds so that they wouldnt go crazy while i was holding him and any time we were feeding ds the other was petting one or both of them

they really have done very well with ds and when he was first born they were quite commical.. they took turns being on watch at the top of our stairs (which has and always is gated form them).. and if ds would cry they would constantly pace until we tended to him.... once ds was in the crib at 3 weeks i would constantly hear sniffing over the monitor as they would be checking on ds...

Re: Moms to be with dogs

Just curious as to what type of dog everyone has...... I have a german shepherd dog and right now she is still a puppy, a VERY BIG puppy, jumping, teething, pulling.. She is almost 6 months and 65 pounds already (will be over 100 by the time the baby comes) but still training. anyone else in same scenario? I wouldn't be so nervous if we already had an adult trained dog.

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We have 2 shi tzus. A senior and a pup. The pup is extremely bratty. We are sure he won't handle the transition well but have started little by little to get him used to the new habits.

For a while I would go on You tube and get recordings of babies crying. I would play them all the time. We have been using a fake baby doll that cries and laughs since 24 weeks. The pup has now gotten used to the noises the doll makes. To the point that he even ignores the sounds.

We would always separate the pup from the senior when we weren't home. The pup would be gated in the nursery. Now we have moved him into the kitchen and put a gate up to close off the kitchen area. We always keep a gate up in the nursery now since my dad is finishing up fixing the room. Once he is done, we will keep the door closed as we do with other rooms in the house we don't want the dogs to go into.

The pup also would sleep on our bed all night. He is now only allowed on the bed early in the morning when I get up to use the restroom. It took a while to get him used to this.

Lastly, DH will be bringing home the blankets that the baby will be using while at the hospital.