Prepping the Pups for Baby

Something that we have started in the past few weeks is preparing Royce and Reba (our two large breed dogs) for the baby. Obviously we could never have them fully prepared, but given their size and excitement when there is a "newbie" in the house, we decided to start taking baby steps with them (pun intended). Many people have told me already that there is no need to do this with the dogs because they will adjust after the baby comes. However, I feel that having a baby jump into their lives (and take away some of their attention) all in one week could be a little traumatizing and unfair. Plus I want them to love their little brother or sister. So, for the past couple weeks we have done little things around the house to let them adjust. I started with the nursery door. Whenever I was working in there I would leave the door open so they could see what was going on... either put the gate up (if i was painting) or  allow them to lay in the doorway and occasionally come in and sniff around when I had added something new. This will continue after the baby comes. Last week we put up the baby swing and rearranged the furniture in the living room to accommodate it. This meant moving (one of three) Royce's toy box. My fear with the baby swing is that Royce, being the big special boy he is, would just walk right into it while it was swinging, send the baby flying across the room from the collision. (Obviously this is very far fetched, as the baby will be buckled into the swing seat) However, the first thing he does when he walked in to discover this new "toy" in the living room....exactly as I predicted. He stood there and let the swing hit him over and over. (I did find this humorous at the time.) We were unable to put up the stuffed toy mobile attached to the swing, because someone thinks its a game. The next step that we plan to introduce this week is the activity center. Obviously the baby will not be able to use it until they can hold their head up, etc, but the biggest challenge with the dogs will be keeping a drawn invisible line with baby toys vs. dog toys. Now that I am home during the week, I am also bringing the dogs inside to be with me whenever possible. Normally, they are outside (weather permitting) everyday and brought indoors to be with us in the evening when we get home. However, the excitement of being let indoors every evening causes an earthquake when their tails get wagging and body's get to pushing for attention. The excitement is #1 because Royce gets to eat and #2 because they are just excited to see us, or whoever else is here if we have guests. I know they will always be excited to see us, and showing that excitement is fine, but when I am carrying a newborn up the stairs after letting them in, I cannot have them pushing on me and catching me off balance. I have already seen an improvement and the last time we had company, they were on their best behavior. They are the best pups any baby could wish to have in their new life. I know we will all be just fine.

Reba and Royce