Bringing a new baby home to your dogs can sometimes present a challenge, but there are a few things you can do to ease the transition. We have two sweet dogs that are always so excited to see anyone, but we weren’t sure what they would do with a little tiny baby. The tips below are what we did to make sure our dogs stayed happy after bringing Baby B home.
Let your dogs smell the baby from a distance
Even if you have the kindest dogs ever, it’s always a good idea to ease them in to meeting the new baby. We let our dogs smell the babies feet first, before they got any closer. Eventually, they would come up and sniff her face when she was in her bouncer or swing. Now Baby B will get a big lick as they walk by! I think by taking it slow, and not just putting baby on the floor with them right away, helped our dogs get to know her first.
Get new dog toys
New babies come with lots of things, so its nice to get the dogs something new too! Our dogs love stuffed toys, so we made sure to get them some new things over the first few weeks with the baby. This also helped them to leave her stuff alone since they had something new too. Our dogs still don’t bother baby toys, even the ones that look like dog toys
Make Sure your dogs Get Plenty of Exercise
They say a tired dog is a good dog, which may be true. Exercising your dogs in general is good for them, but they may need a little more during this change. One of our dogs is super anxious, so playing with her a little more than usual helped her calm down.
Include Your Dogs When Possible
Try to give your dogs the same amount, or even more, attention than they were used to before. I try to include them in activities whenever possible. They will go for me and baby on walks or ride with us in the car to pick up groceries.
Keep things normal when visitors come over
This is a personal preference, but when visitors come to see the baby, I tell them that two happy dogs are going to be there to greet them at the door. We have never put our dogs outside or in another room when people come over, so I didn’t think it would be fair to them to start now. They get very excited to see new people, but will eventually calm down. When visitors come, I try to make sure they have a treat or new chewy to distract them, but we try to keep it like normal.
These are just some tips that worked for us when we brought Baby B home. Now, our dogs will usually ignore Baby B, but sometimes put their head on her lap or give her a kiss. She thinks they are so funny and always smiles when she sees them. Dogs and babies can be so fun, especially when they learn to love each other.
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