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TOPIC: Pets and Newborns - Any advice?
 

Daddy Troy
Pets and Newborns - Any advice?
1 Year, 11 Months ago
Looking for advice for couples bringing home a baby to a dog or cat (or snake or hamster or insert pet here).
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concretin_nik
Re:Pets and Newborns - Any advice?
1 Year, 11 Months ago
We had an old dog, and still have 3 old cats.

We let them smell the baby clothes and blankets lots and lots before "introducing" them directly. They were all fairly indifferent, but I think that had just as much to do with their age as their personalities. 2 cats aren't very social, but will let him pet sometimes, if he goes for a tail or a big hug, they run. The other has just this week began snuggling up to sleep with TheBoy. He was the jealous animal, crawling up in my lap when I was rocking the baby to sleep. But he never showed any aggression towards him. Just gave me the 'stink eye' quite often. Now he is VERY tolerant.

It really depends on the animal. If the pet is known to be territorial or unfriendly to strangers... I'd be very cautious.

Definitely need some experts to weigh in. (Dog trainers/Vets)
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bobjr79
Re:Pets and Newborns - Any advice?
1 Year, 11 Months ago
When we came home from the hospital we let my in laws watch him for a few minutes before we brought our son home. Unfortunately..I mean fortunately they live just down the street from us. We had been gone for over a week and knew that our dogs would be excited to see us. We wanted the introduction to be as calm as possible. After we had spent a few minutes with them and went on a short walk we brought him home. After all the worry and concern they sniffed his little head then went about their doggy business. They could care less for the most part about him. They are about 10 years old so I guess that doesn't surprise me. I guess it could have gone either way though. We are really lucky that they are happy to coexist. For now anyway. I'm sure things change...

Also make sure to check with your vet and get everything up to date. Our vet also recommended a parasite test just to make sure they weren't carrying anything they could pass to the baby. It didn't cost very much at all.
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cab
Re:Pets and Newborns - Any advice?
1 Year, 10 Months ago
We have two cats and a dog, with our first kid on the way. Our main concern is with the cats when we are asleep, so we bought a "crib tent" to keep cats and kid apart. It looks like it'll make changing the sheets a bit more trouble, but it should be sufficient to keep out the cats.

Time will tell.
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audioandy
Re:Pets and Newborns - Any advice?
1 Year, 3 Months ago
I would tend to agree with Nik.

I think anything you can do to introduce your dog to your new baby/ person/ dog is helpful.

With our dog, she is pretty good with people. To warm her up to our friend's dogs, we met somewhere that wasn't her territory and had them walk together. Now they are like best friends.

With a baby I would say: Baby clothes, anything that has the babies scent... even diapers. Dogs get a lot of information from scent. So long as you have a well balanced and well behaved dog it shouldn't be a problem. Don't force the baby on the Dog, let the dog come to the baby and sniff. Otherwise you are putting the dog in a position of power.

I would suggest reading "Ceasar's Way" but Ceasar Milan. It will GREATLY improve your relationship with your dog, and drastically improve their behavior!!
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dougj
Re:Pets and Newborns - Any advice?
1 Year, 3 Months ago
We have a 70lb Pointer/Boxer and a cat. What I did was start increasing the animals tolerance levels early on...stuff like gentle pulling on ears/tail, things that babies do to animals. My animals trust me so it wasn't long before they'd adapted and accepted this type of play. We also used a lifelike baby doll to introduce them to the idea of another being in the house.
When our first son was born, right away I began to bring home a blanket or onesie from the hospital and setting it out for the animals to inspect and get his scent.
When he came home from the hospital it didn't take long for the animals to accept him as part of our pack. It took even less time with our second child.
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