Below are 10 tips that every dog owner that is expecting a new baby need to know.  These suggestions will help the introduction of the dog to the new baby to be smooth and trouble free, lessening the associated stress that this situation can carry.

1.  Make sure that your dog is up to day with all his vaccinations and that he is in good health by taking him to the vet prior to the arrival of the baby.

2.  Ask the veterinarian for any tips that he might give you about what would be the best way to introduce the dog to the baby.

3.  If your dog has not been spayed or neutered, you might seriously consider doing so.

4.  If your dog has behavioral issues, it would be a good idea to start a dog training program or take the dog to a dog trainer to address those issues.  It is better to take care of these behavioral issues earlier on, especially before the baby arrival.

5.  If your dog is accustomed to jump on people it is in your best interest to stop this behavior at once.  You will need to train your dog to stop jumping on people, this will prevent the dog to jump on the baby in the future.

6.  Trim your dogs nails.

7.  If your dog has the bad habit of nipping on people you need to train your dog to stop this behavior.

8.  If you have friends or family members that have children, invite them over and watch how they dog interacts with the kids.

9.  Train your dog to become familiar with the children toys by placing some baby toys on the floor, and train the dog to leave the toys alone.  Make sure you do not use these toys for the baby in the future.

10.  Get a tape with baby's noise and play it for your dog so your dog becomes familiar with the sounds.

Hope this helps with the new baby arrival.

Dr. Alfonso

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 6:52 pm and is filed under Dog Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.