As many of you know, I am a dog lover and my furbaby Daisy has been a light in my life during these very long and trying 7 years it took to get to this point. She never judged me for not wanting to be social and was always willing to curl up for a good snuggle. On days where I had personal pity parties and would just lie on the floor crying, she would let me go for a few minutes and then start barking at me to get up and not feel so sorry for myself - after all, I had my wonderful DH and her right?
My DH and I have been talking a lot about how we are going to help her to adjust to the new situation. I know she will come to love our two little girls but there will be an adjustment period and we want to help her through that as much as we can. Once she discovers that they will share food with her, she will be their devoted slave forever.
Actually, we started getting her ready as soon as we got her as a puppy. We constantly touched her paws, grabbed her fur and pulled her tail, all gently of course but we did it just the same to make sure that we desensitized her to the sensation just in case a small child did it to her one day. She's very tolerant of us and she just looks at us like we're crazy and she's doing us a favour by "letting" us have our way. Have I mentioned that she is the best dog ever?
We are also looking into buying a 2nd family car, most likely an SUV and we want to do it in advance of the birth so that we can get her used to sitting in the back - the very back...you know, the hatch back part of the SUV. Right now, she sits behind us and stretches out across the bench - she's never had to share the space so why would she start now? We don't want her to associate being demoted to the back area with the kids so we need to do this far in advance and reward her so she associates good things with sitting so far back there. She was pretty funny the first time we put her in the back of my parents' SUV - she kept on poking her head over the back seats, a little confused, looking at us as if to say "Mommy - why am I so far away? How on earth are you going to feed me cookies from all the way up there?"
We also found this great website which sells a 12 minute soundtrack of all the sounds a baby makes from laughing to screaming. Check it out:
The news article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/and-baby-makes-four/article1270252/
The website where you can get the soundtrack: http://www.dogmeetbaby.com/
My DH was pretty funny and remarked that Daisy wasn't going to be the only one who needed to listen to this recording to become used to the sounds a baby would make!! It will do our family a world of good!
Many people have offered to take Daisy off our hands since they assume that we will be too busy with the girls but there is no way that we would give her up. She is a part of our family just like I am, my DH is and our two little girls.
We will all have to adjust but we are doing everything we can to make that adjustment easier. In my eyes, it is no different than asking a first born child to adjust to the idea of siblings. At first, they will be wary and maybe a little jealous of one another but they will soon become friends. We will still get her outside for her daily walks, run around with her and spend time being silly with her just like we are now. We need to make sure that we praise her when the babies are around (again, positive association with the two new screaming bundles) and make sure that we don't ignore her needs. We have an awesome dog walker who loves Daisy as much as we do and she has already volunteered to help us when the babies arrive so that will also ease the transition.
If anyone else has any good tips on how to make the adjustment, I would love to hear them!
For Good
12 years ago
9 comments:
That baby-sounds CD is an awesome idea... for my pets and my husband and I. Get our ears used to the invasion. :)
As for tips for the transition, the only thing I've been told so far is that when we first bring the baby home, to introduce her/him to the dog outside the house, before bringing them both inside. I can't remember the reasoning for this, but my cousin who brought it up was quite adamant, and it made sense the way she explained it!
(I guess I'd better ask her about it again...) :)
I swear I could've written this post. That's the way we feel about our shih-tzu Buttercup. She has been there for us during our most darkest of times, never judging and always loving us. We've been preparing her ever since she was a puppy back in 2001. We did the same things you did - pulling her ears, fur, tail, etc.
People told us that once the baby gets here, we would have no time for her so we should give her up. There is no way we could do that - that's just like asking us to give up our first born. There will be adjustment period, but like you said it'd be the same as if we'd already had a child.
What kind of SUV are you thinking about? We bought our SUV (GMC Yukon) when we did our 1st IVF back in 2006. Oh how naiive we were to think that we'd get a bfp the first go around in our hometown. Anyway, good luck car shopping!
Awwww, furbabies are the best! It sounds like you guys are doing everything to help her get ready...it'll be an adjustment but I'm sure everyone will be just fine.
Wow neat idea on the baby cd. My hubby and I brought a hospital blanket home with us and let the dogs sniff it for a while. Then when we did introduce the dogs to our baby my husband held our son because he's the boss and the dogs look to him as there boss. They listen to us both but they are most afraid of him. So seeing him holding the baby taught them that it was his not to mess with him. They have been great ever since. They are very protective of the baby. They sleep next to his door when he's in his crib. Its cute.
Good luck training yours.
Great ideas on the furbaby! I can't believe people would tell you to get rid of her! I would bite someone's head off if they said I should get rid of my dogs! I will definitely get them ready for the baby and introduce her to them in the best way possible (plus we've gotten them ready by stealing my mom's little 6lb chihuahua from her recently), but I'd never ever think about getting rid of them b/c we were bringing a baby home. How awful.
I love the idea of that CD...I think I'm gonna look it up. Everytime either of mine hear a baby, they get so excited and curious (they end up licking the little face that is making the noise) that the noise might settle them down a little.
We placed a diaper on a doll to get our dogs used to the smell of a baby. We would hold the baby doll on the couch and walk around with is. Both of our dogs have done awesome with our little man.
Our dog was was pretty much a natural when the baby came home - she camped out by the bassinet and would come to get us when the baby started crying (although she did learn after a while that the baby cries a lot!). We did bring home a blanket with the baby's scent on it for her to sniff before we brought the baby home, but that was about it for the introduction.
I will have to admit, my patience for our beloved furbaby was tested when the human baby came home. It took almost a year for all of us to adjust back to some semblance of a normal life/routine. But fortunately, she (the dog) took it in stride.
A minivan is not sexy, but it's great for dogs. We had a company car/minivan for a year - and our dog settled down so well in it. If it was our dog's vote - a minivan would be it! (With two car seats - room becomes an issue, even in an SUV).
Anyways, I do tell our dog that she still is "our first child"! Sounds like you are doing lots to prep Daisy to be a perfect older sis!
Andrea
Brian Kilcommons, http://www.familydoginc.com/about.html, has a very good book on "Childproofing Your Dog." It's small but helpful. We also got a baby doll, which made noises ahead of time too and once the baby comes, bring home something that smells like the baby ahead of time. Good luck.
I agree, I would not get rid of my dog or cat just because we're having a baby. They are like my children. I'm so curious to see how it goes. I'm going to be following to see. :)
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