3f6a Children and dogs are friends forever, or how to teach the dog to accept a child
Children and dogs are friends forever, or how to teach the dog to accept a child

To have a baby certainly is a great happiness for your family, but how do you make sure that your pet is ready to share the joy with you. That he is not jealous, that he will not start to spoil the lives of family members.
Caring for a newborn baby, even for a well prepared parents, needs a lot of time and energy. When a baby is in the house, you dog may feel that a place of a "favorite pet" is taken away. Well, that's frustrating!

Here are some tips to help your four-legged friend to accept his new role in the family.

Prepare your dog in advance to a change in the schedule of his day. Changes shell be introduced gradually, begin about one month before the baby is born. If, for example, you are planning to keep one of the doors in the house closed from the dog ( to limit the freedom of movement around the house for your pet), start to close it before birth. The appearance of a new member of the family will pass easier for your dog if you will make a change in his daily routine gradually and start in advance.

 

 

Allow the dog to sniff the baby's stuff. When the child is already born, but he is still in the hospital, send home some children's clothes with his scent, such as his shirts or diapers. Also you can record the child's voice, and let your dog to listen to the tape and get used to the baby's "sounds" in advance.

For the day when you will bring the child home from the hospital in advance prepare a collar and leash, so you can control the dog. Leash and collar is also useful if the dog is very excited and will jump on his owner. While the owner and the dog will greet each other, another adult family member may hold the child. When the biggest excitement passed and everyone calmed down a bit, let the dog on a leash to sniff baby's legs and arms.

Most important is the success of the first meeting of a child with your pets. Before the baby comes to the house ask somebody to walk your dog, and to check the response to the basic commands once again.

So, the baby is already in the house. How to get your dog to remain calm? Enough if one adult family member will care for the child , and the rest of the people ( guests and family members) will come and pet your dog. Then your four-legged friend will feel that he is still loved and will behave more calmly.

Do not let the dog jump to on you, but more so - on the child. Make your dog to sit down, and then pet him and say "hello". If your dog became naughty, do not pay attention to him until he calms down. Speak with the dog calmly. It will make it to feel better and also he will smell the baby's scent, which comes from your clothes and your hands. If you're primarily going to keep yourself calm, then the dog will be calm and should conduct himself peacefully.

Now you can bring the baby. Stay calm, do not try to specifically attract your dog's attention to the child. If necessary, tell your dog the command "No!" and pull the leash if he jumps.Then again, make him to sit down.
The dog, seeing the child is likely to come up to him, sniff him carefully, and perhaps even lick him, and then he will just return to his interesting "dog businesses". At this time, quietly praise the dog and give a treat.

Thus, the introduction already happened. Now you need to teach the dog to communicate with your child patiently. When the child grows up, he will start to push the dog, he may grab the dog by the ears and tail.
What the dog has to think in this case? A child can play with me? Now your child is still small and not making many moves, but he soon grows up and will start to do it intensively. Teach your dog what he should expect from your child before the child becomes mobile, that's your main task. Also you have to do your best to make your child to understand that the dog should be always treated gently and carefully.

Kids love to hug the dogs, how to react? Prepare your dog for that. Praise your four-legged friend while at the same time, gently and quickly embrace and then release it. Praise again! For a longer embrace you have to move slowly in a few days, when the dog would be ready to take such an action. Always let your dog free before he will feel uncomfortable or frightened. Until the duration of hugs will not reach twenty to thirty seconds, continue to work out this exercise.

Screeching and screaming. Children, when they are having fun, may moo, scream, roar, shout and laugh loudly. This can be very confusing for your dog. Loud voices in dogs are usually associated with troubles. If someone scared the dog, or hurt him, for him, usually, all this is associated with a loud voice. Therefore, the dog can feel some tension when he hears the cries of children who behave noisily. In the seclusion of your house start to train your dog to accept a variety of tones and volume, to eliminate this stress.
Record the noises that kids do on the tape and let the dog to listen to those records daily with a meal (just do not overreact with the volume). Then the children's voices in the mind of the dog will be associated with something pleasant.
 
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