New Baby and family dogs - Page 1

Hello All,

We are going to have a new baby in our family soon and we have a 4.5 months old GSD puppy. The puppy will be about 9 months old when the baby will  be born. So how do we introduce the baby ? Should we allow the dog to come near the baby under supervision and a leash or wait till the baby is about 4 - 6 months old ...........???

Thank you all.
Inc

 There are a lot of things you can do with helping introduce the dog to the baby. For the moment, let me simply say that you should NEVER, EVER leave the child and the dog alone. EVER. This is not to say that your dog would hurt the baby, but it is your responsibility to make sure the child is safe. The reaction of a dog will vary. One thing you will want to do initially is give the dog something like a blanket with the child's scent on it. Include the dog, but yes, keep him essentially at a safe distance until the child is much older and the dog has become accustomed to the dog. When the child is older, you must even more carefully supervise both, and teach the child what is appropriate behavior around a dog. Don't let the child hit, or pull fur, or sit on the dog, or crawl around the dog unsupervised. In other words, use common sense and hopefully you will have a wonderful experience. In the meantime, while the pup is young get busy teaching the dog obedience skills and socializing the dog properly. It will become harder when the baby is there. The worst thing you can do besides failing to properly supervise, is ignore the dog when the baby comes. You bit off a lot, but you can make it work if you think it through and are disciplined and realize a successful relationship is dependent on what you do now, as well as later on when the baby comes.

Good luck.

Great post Hodie!

I brought home  my daughters hospital linen and placed them on the floor in her room so my GSD Sasha could smell them.  All went well, Sasha grew very attached to my daughter and in the beginning would sleep in my daughters room in front of the crib.

Thank you Hodie and Turk and others  for all your advices.