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Celebrity vet Dr James Greenwood shares his expert tips. Reversible Handle Stroller
Introducing your fur baby to a human one can - rightfully - cause a bit of angst.
The arrival of a newborn brings about huge changes for everyone in the household, including cats and dogs, who can find the presence of a squalling littl'un overwhelming, confusing and scary. In some cases, it can even trigger a dog to feel 'baby jealousy' as the newcomer gets all of the attention that was once lavished on them.
Dr James Greenwood, the resident vet on BBC One’s Morning Live, and his partner have recently welcomed a baby boy via surrogate. Here he shares some of his expert - tried and tested - tips for how to safely introduce a new baby to your four-legged friends.
I think biggest misconception is that we tend to focus all attention on the day the baby arrives, but in actual fact the preparations should ideally begin many months in advance.
As humans, we know a huge change is on the horizon, but of course our dogs don’t. If we haven’t prepared our dogs – the transition can be far too abrupt and lead to unwanted behaviours. Some things you may want to consider include whether you would be happy with your dog jumping up if the baby is held in your arms? Or jumping on the sofa if you’re feeding the baby? How confident you are in their recall if you plan to take both baby and dog on the same walk?
My suggestion would be to compile a ‘wishlist’ of behaviours you might like to address before the baby arrives then work alongside a clinical animal behaviourist to start a positive approach training programme well in advance. That way, these behavioural adjustments will already be established by the time the baby arrives.
Babies are generally a fairly epic onslaught on a dog’s senses! They make an array of different sounds from high pitched screams to quieter babbling. They come with a number of smells from the dirtiest of nappies through to the new shampoos and various ointments and wipes. And they move, unexpectedly, with an increasing frequency as they get older! Depending on your dog, each and every one of these things can potentially be quite triggering on their ability to cope. A particularly sound phobic dog might really struggle with the sound of the cries if they can’t see or work out where the sound is coming from and a dog that loves to scavenge might find a nappy bin an overly intriguing challenge to investigate. It’s important to remember that every dog is individual – and therefore what might frighten one might not another. Knowing your dogs own individual personality is key to predicting what they might struggle the most with.
Start months in advance and use food rewards (my dog Dolly cannot resist the new chicken and liver ‘Meaty Bites’ by Forthglade!) to create a positive association between the dog and all the new changes in their life. Have the cot and pushchair already set up and introduce baby gates early if you want to partition your home into dog-free zones. Quietly play YouTube clips of baby cries to introduce the new sound. Consider carrying a doll around to help introduce the physical presence of another ‘being’ in the home.
One essential tip is to create a den which is the dogs own safe space to retire to if they want some time out. Also introduce going for a walk with the pram as some dogs will find walking alongside a pram very scary to start with. I recommend the use of calming supplements and neutraceuticals, such as a pheromone diffuser, set up weeks in advance to help the dog cope with the change. Hopefully then, by the time the baby does arrive home, your dog will already be well prepared for the change.
On the day, they will probably be very excited to see you! Greet them as you normally would and once they have calmed, introduce them to the baby. Keep the baby in the car seat rather than in your arms and place out of reach but within sight and smell of the dog, maybe on a safe surface or behind a baby gate. Be ready to praise your dog with a treat when they move away from the baby and focus back on you.
Open social media and we see dogs lying in close proximity to a baby, babies lying in a dog’s bed with them, toddlers hugging around a dogs neck whilst the dog is frozen on the spot. All this might pull on the human heart strings and it’s easy to think these are signs of ‘love’ but in actual fact most of the time, the dog is showing mild to moderate signs of stress. As boring as it may sound, I think the best way to tell if a dog has truly accepted a baby into ‘their’ home is when they ignore them! If your dog does all the same things they would have done before the baby arrived, without any regard to the baby being present or not, it shows they’re pretty chilled with the change and have accepted the baby. This is the perfect foundation to keep building up the relationship as the baby grows up.
The temptation here is to focus on telling the dog what not to do. Try instead to give clear instructions on what you would like them to do.
Take, for example, a dog that is highly energetic – the temptation might be to say ‘no’ or shrug them away if they are acting a bit too enthusiastically around the baby! The problem with this is the dog hasn’t received any sort of pro-active instruction as to what they should do instead! We need to give them something to do - make use of interactive feeders, long lasting chews, and positive training techniques to teach a specific behaviour when around the baby. This might be a simple sit cue or link it to some sort of action – such as ‘find a toy’ – to occupy their inquisitive nature.
If it is the baby they are intrigued by – I would consider implementing any training techniques using a doll instead of the baby. Dress the doll in your babies clothes so it smells the same and that way the dog can sniff and interact with the doll, safely. Teach them to sniff feet instead of hands or face, reward calm interactions with positive praise and with time they will be less and less intrigued by the new arrival.
A lot of the same principles apply exactly the same to puppies as they do for adult dogs, except their learning may be slower and reactions more erratic or playful. However, raising a puppy is a huge undertaking in its own right and takes up a large portion of your time and attention (and sleep!) at a time when your priorities are probably taken up by the baby.
Therefore, even though I can understand the temptation to think how lovely for a baby and puppy to ‘grow up’ together – I think the reality is that this is a huge amount of work at an already very busy time so I would really encourage some proper consideration before you embark on a puppy at the same time as a baby.
As the baby grows into a toddler, it is equally important to teach our children how to act around dogs – learning some ‘doggy etiquette’ is an important life skill, knowing how to approach a dog, where dogs like to be touched, when to give them space and to respect the important ‘no go zones’ such as pulling on tails or chasing dogs.
If the dog has retreated to their den – that is their way of communicating that they want some time out and should not be disturbed. Of course, we all hope that one day our children develop a loving, healthy relationship with our dogs, but don’t feel any pressure to rush this. Initially, it is a good idea to establish a fairly neutral co-existence between toddler and dog. To start, we almost want the child to view the dog as just another part of the furniture! That way, as the child’s development continues, so too can their understanding of how to interact with the dog and this is the best foundation to build a healthy friendship with time.
Each breed of dog carries their own certain breed traits, such as the herding instinct of a Border Collie or the retrieving instincts of a Labrador. But, I do not believe a dogs personality is determined simply by how it looks, but far more by the relationship it has developed with humans through training and socialisation. Of course, there is a wide variation in size, strength and energy levels between a larger breed versus a toy breed of dog but we need to view all dogs as individuals and actually their breed, I believe, plays only a very small role in determining an individual dogs overall ability to happily mix with children.
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