Hellobee

Oh, dogs and babies. As an expectant parent, it was one of my biggest stresses – how will our dogs do with the baby? How should we introduce the dogs to him? What if they hate each other? What if the dogs love him TOO much?

(Jackson insists on being outside anytime the dogs are!)

We have three dogs and we had a lot of worries when it came to our dogs and bringing a baby home. Our dogs are super spoiled and were our only babies for a long time (we’ve had our oldest dog for five years), and they were all very used to being our primary focus when we’re at home. Lots of cuddles, lots of play time, and they pretty much never got ignored.

Until this little guy joined the family. And then? They had to come to a pretty quick realization that they weren’t the most important things in our lives anymore. For the first couple of months with Jackson, it was almost impossible to give them any attention. We were so focused on him and figuring out our new normal that everything else flew out the window. Now that we’ve settled into a good routine, the dogs get much more love than they were getting, but they still aren’t quite as prioritized as they used to be.

When I was pregnant, we were pretty sure we knew exactly how the dogs would react. We discussed it extensively and we figured that we only really had to worry about one of our big dogs who has a lot of anxiety issues, and that the other two would love the baby instantly. We were right about one of the dogs – he immediately fell in love with Jackson and couldn’t spend enough time near him. From the day we brought him home, he had to be right next to the person who is holding Jackson, and if Jackson was on the floor, he was down there with him. He loves to lick his face and sleep next to him, and I honestly think he’d sleep in his crib with him at night if we let him.

The other two surprised us, though. They’re both big dogs – Hadley, our doberman, did not like Jackson when we first brought him home. He stole our attention from her, he made annoying sounds, and she was just generally not a fan. We never were afraid that she would get aggressive, but we watched her extremely closely anytime she came near him. She would often act like she was trying to bury him by pushing pillows or blankets toward him with her nose, which made us nervous, and she was just uneasy around him in general.

Now that she’s used to him, she doesn’t do that anymore and she even has started to want to play with him now. She still runs away whenever he tries to grab at her, but sometimes she’ll try to initiate play with him (and we have to teach her that she can’t play with him like she does with the other dogs!) and she loves to lick his fingers clean during dinner (when he’s nice and contained in his high chair!).

Our other big dog, Ranger, is probably the one who surprised us the most. From day one, he accepted Jackson as part of our “pack,” and has been very protective of him and very gentle. If Jackson cries, Ranger has to make sure he’s okay, and he’s constantly checking in on him to make sure he’s not in trouble. He follows Jackson around the house as he crawls around, and loves to greet him every night when we get home. It’s so sweet to watch, and we know he’ll love Jack even more once he gets bigger and can actually play with him more. He is definitely Jackson’s favorite dog – he calls for him every morning when I’m nursing him, and says goodbye to him specifically every day when we leave for work. I have a feeling those two will be best friends some day.

I think we’ve gotten off surprisingly easy when it came to getting our dogs used to having a baby in the house. We thought it would require a little more work, but I honestly think that the preparations we did in the very beginning were enough to make a huge difference, and I’m so glad we thought ahead!

So, what did we do to prepare the dogs for the baby?

First off, when I was pregnant I made a conscious effort to start giving the dogs slightly less attention so it wasn’t too much of a shock when he arrived. I didn’t totally ignore them, but I’d make them wait several minutes after I got home before I talked to them, and I just generally started to try to decrease the amount of direct attention they got. It was something I had to put a lot of effort into remembering to do, but I think it was effective – they learned that they weren’t the center of the world anymore, and they started to be a little less needy.

The biggest (and I think most helpful) thing we did was how we brought Jackson home and introduced the dogs to him. We had the dogs boarded at the vet while we were in the hospital, and we got ourselves home and settled before we went to get them. I stayed home with Jackson while Mr. Garland went to get the dogs, and he brought some of Jack’s clothes from the hospital with him. When he picked the dogs up, he immediately let them smell the clothes, and kept the clothes with them the whole way home. While they were out, I got Jackson settled in his room so that we could spend a few minutes with the dogs before introducing everyone.

When they got home, I closed Jackson’s door and came downstairs, and we spent a few minutes just us and the dogs, giving them as much love as we could. We also gave them a few more things that smelled like Jackson so they could be very familiar with his smell. Once they had calmed down from the initial excitement of being home and we were ready to introduce them, we headed upstairs with the dogs and brought them into his room. We let them check him out through the crib for a few minutes, and took it all very slowly. We just left him in his crib until the dogs started to lose interest, so we could be sure they weren’t too excited when we got him out.

When I grabbed him out of his crib, the dogs were curious, but calm. I let them sniff at him and was careful to stay quiet and not yell at them – if they got too close or started to get riled up, I’d calmly tell them to stop and would move away. They quickly learned if they wanted to see the baby, they had to do it gently.

After that initial introduction, it has been pretty smooth sailing. The dogs definitely love him and they know he’s a part of the family, but they leave him alone for the most part and have all been very gentle with him. Recently, Jackson and Ranger have even started to play fetch together! Jackson will throw the ball and Ranger will chase after it, bring it back to him, and softly nudge it over. It’s one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. Of course, we never leave Jackson alone in a room with them, and we never let ourselves get too comfortable with them together – we know dogs can be unpredictable, so even though they’ve been awesome so far, we never take that for granted.

I’m excited to see how they all do together as Jackson grows and begins to be able to interact with them more. I think they’re going to love having another human in the house who can give them attention, and I’m glad Jackson will grow up with three amazing dogs who already love him.

Do you have pets and kids? Any other great ideas on introducing them and helping everyone get along?