I had Brown Dog first. A friend of mine adopted her from a shelter, and she lived with his other two dogs for a year, but then starting picking fights with his other, older female dog. He didn't know what to do. He didn't want to send Brown Dog back to the shelter, but he had his older dog first, and she wasn't the one causing the problems. I offered to take Brown Dog. She came to live with me in December 2008, and we started some formal obedience training and working on her lack of confidence. She went on to earn her Canine Good Citizen title in November 2010.
White Dog also came from a shelter, the one where D and I met while volunteering. White Dog had been there for a while, was estimated to be about a year old, and was going crazy from lack of exercise. Because of an illness that was sweeping through the shelter, D and I fostered White Dog. He ended up fitting into our family really well, and we formally adopted him after a month. He suffers from an "overabundance of friendliness and lack of impulse control" and hasn't earned his Canine Good Citizen title yet.
As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I bought the book Childproofing your Dog by Brian Kilcommons. The number one reason that a dog is surrendered to a shelter is because the family has a new baby. We didn't want to add to that statistic. We had been lazy about their training, but we started being sticklers. No jumping on anybody. Walking on a loose leash. We tried getting them to stay off the furniture. Hasn't happened yet. It's hard to unlearn bad habits.
We slowly brought in the baby stuff. Too much change at once overwhelms our dogs, and stresses them out. We turned on the baby gear and the toys that move and make noise, so the dogs could get used to them. I started using the baby's lotions on myself, so they could get used to the new smells. We got a CD calling "Preparing Fido," which is a soundtrack of baby sounds. We put it on, and left it on all day and went about our business, so the dogs would learn that the noises were normal.
And despite all of our preparation, we still expected to have an adjustment period. And we did. White Dog was VERY fearful of the baby, and Brown Dog was stressed out, thinking it was her job to protect the baby from White Dog. It took about two weeks for the dogs to adjust. Brown Dog will still occasionally go on a food strike. White Dog still leaves the room when the baby cries.
One thing I want to stress is to never, ever leave the baby unattended with the dogs. No matter how well behaved your dog is, it's still a dog. Even the best behaved dogs, when stressed, can be react poorly. Please, if you have a dog, read up on body language. Dogs don't bite "out of the blue." They give non-verbal warnings, like yawning, licking their lips, turning their head, holding their tail high and stiff. And never correct a growl. A growl is usually your final warning before a bite — if you correct them for growling, they won't give you that final warning, and will just bite.
More recommended reading:
- Family Paws
- Living with Kids and Dogs
- Canine Body Language: A Photographic Guide by Brenda Aloff
- Babies and Beasts (particularly the "anxiety," "babies," "baby," "baby proofing," "desensitizing," "growl," "NILIF," "snap," "statistics," and "the MOST IMPORTANT post in here" tags)
- American Humane's Pet Meets Baby booklet
If you feel that your dog has issues that you can't deal with on your own, I urge you to contact a behaviorist, not a trainer. Find one by searching these sites:
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