Introducing The Dog To The New Baby
A few folks were asking on Instagram for some specific info about how we introduced Burger to Clara, and how we tried to make the whole transition from living with a dog to living with a dog and a baby as smooth as possible for all parties involved. We certainly did a little googling and even chatted with our vet about what we could do to make things easier on Burger (and us) when this whole GIANT LIFE CHANGE happened, so here is what we ended up doing, and how it worked out.
1. John left the hospital for about half an hour to bring Burger a blanket with Clara’s scent on it after a day of us being there (we stayed for 4 days due to our complicated birth experience), so John simply dropped that blanket into his crate for Burger to sniff and snuggle for the next few days. He was being cared for by John’s parents, but Burger’s one of those dogs who in fact likes his crate, so he spent plenty of time with people, and plenty of other time in his crate with his new blanket. We like to think that helped him get used to the scent of his baby sister from day one.
2. When we at last came home with Clara, Burger was already back at home waiting for us, and when we walked in carrying Clara in her baby seat, we also carried in a treat and a toy for him. We had heard that you can assist a pooch associate the arrival of someone with something good if they get something excellent and exciting when that person enters the house. So giving him a treat and some pleasant snuggles along with a new toy while carrying Clara into the house for the first time seemed to lay the groundwork that she was a good thing, so he hopefully associated her arrival with excellent times.
3. We simply generally tried to give him enjoy whenever we could while juggling the whole “caring for a newborn” thing. Of course we had our hands full with Clara, and we were adjusting ourselves, but we were surprised how much time she spent either nursing or sleeping, which certainly freed us up to sit on the sofa with Burger snuggled right next to us, and we doled out as many rubs and snuggles as we could spare, simply so he never felt replaced or ignored. I am sure he sensed that something major had changed (we went from a family of three to a family of four) but we did not have any issues with him having accidents or acting out in any way, which we heard could happen. So we are truly grateful that it seemed to go fairly smoothly for the Burgs.
How did you folks introduce a new human to your pet? Do you have any other pointers for folks who are nervous about it? I like to say that Clara shot up the list swiftly a “Burger’s go-to” because she consistently has crumbs and sticky fingers (two of B’s go-to things). So I think they are a fairly strong pair.
