Anyone that knows me personally knows that my dogs have always been my babies. Our family is very involved in dog rescue and I have always been a huge animal lover. My dogs definitely think that they’re people, and sometimes they act like they’re permanently in their terrible twos stage of life!

So when I got pregnant I was a little nervous about how they would react to a new baby coming in and stealing any of their attention. I had heard about friends of mine that had very well behaved dogs that turned into monsters when my friends were pregnant or brought home their baby, and I think we’ve all heard horror stories of dogs biting babies and things like that. I wanted to make sure we were extra prepared for the changes that were coming, so here are some of the things that we did:

**Just a quick disclaimer- I’m not a dog trainer by any means, but these are tips that we tried and worked for us!

1.) Playing baby noises on Youtube

I hadn’t thought about how I was going to prepare until I was at work one day and my manager asked me if I had started playing baby noises for my dogs yet. I hadn’t thought of that, but he had said he thought it helped when he brought home his daughter to his pup. I don’t know how much this works, but we did it for our dogs. They didn’t seem fazed by the noises after a few confused head tilts, and I think they were a little bit more ready for the real baby noises when we brought Max home.

2.) Bringing home Max’s blanket

Brian was able to leave the hospital after Max was born to come home to shower (which isn’t always the case right now with Covid), so when he came home, he brought one of the blankets home that smelled like Max so that the dogs could smell it and get used to his scent. I’ve read that it’s important to show the dogs that the blanket is yours, and you’re allowing them to smell it, but not let the dogs think that it’s theirs. From what I understand, this is because if the dog thinks that the baby is theirs, they are more likely to do things like corrections (snapping or growling), like they would on another dog or puppy if it was being annoying. I’m not sure that our dogs really understood any of that, but it is something that we tried.

3.) Gradual changes in sleeping arrangements

Our dogs have always slept in our room with the option to sleep in our bed with us. We knew that when the baby came, it wouldn’t be safe to have the dogs in bed with us because I would be waking up in the middle of the night to nurse, and we weren’t sure how the dogs would react to that. We attempted to make them sleep on their dog beds in our room, but after that failed, we ultimately decided they would be more comfortable being able to sleep in the living room on the couch. We did this a little bit at a time over a few weeks. It’s best to do any changes like this before the baby comes so that the dogs don’t associate them being kicked out of bed with the new baby coming home. They don’t really seem to mind the couch, and with how loud my husband snores I think they actually prefer it!

4.) Slow Introductions

When we came home, I think we were both pretty nervous about how our two 65+ pound dogs were going to react to our 8 pound baby. We decided to put them both on leashes, and I would hold Max for them to say hello to him while Brian kept the dogs calm. This seemed to work but we did have to put them on leashes around him for the first few times that the dogs were with him, but they did calm down eventually.

5.) Safe space

One thing that we’ve learned over the years with having rescues is that it’s really important to have a safe space for your dog that they can go to when they’re scared or overwhelmed. We use their crates as their safe space. We have both crates covered with crate covers, and extra cozy beds and blankets in them. We leave them open all the time so that if one of the dogs feels overwhelmed, they can just go in their crate. It’s very helpful with anxious dogs!

6.) Don’t forget your dogs

I have to admit that I was a little bit guilty of being so nervous that our dogs would hurt our baby that for the first two days that we came home, I don’t think I left our bedroom very much. Luckily my husband was able to take care of the pups, and he gave them lots of attention and treats to make up for my hiding. I was talking to my mom a few days after we came home and she said “don’t forget your dogs! They love you so make sure you give them attention too!” After she said that I realized what I had been doing, and I snapped out of it. So even though your world is different, make sure to give them attention too because their world is different too!

All in all I felt pretty prepared when we came home from the hospital, but our dogs were still a little overexcited to meet our baby for the first few days we were home and I still felt overwhelmed. I think it’s pretty normal because they can sense the change coming when you are pregnant, even before you know you’re pregnant sometimes! Before I knew I was pregnant, our dog Bru was being so cuddly and sweet with me, I knew something was up with him I just didn’t know what it was. So the changes of bringing home a baby can be a lot for them, but if you go slow and make sure to do what feels right for your pup, you’ll be one happy family!