02/11/2024
Our family is delighted to share that we bought home our second baby, Eleanor, last week. Introducing the baby to Charlee for a second time around I was super glad to see she was pretty non-plussed. The first time we bought home our eldest, Jack, as a new born Charlee was pretty excited by the baby - especially those new born squeaks. I have been asked a couple of times if we did anything special to prepare Charlee both times? I have to admit we did a lot more prep work with Jack our eldest than we did with Eleanor this time around, though due to house Reno's and other contributing factors, we didn't have much opportunity to do the same level of prep this time. I have compiled a few handy hints on what we did below.
Preparation
With Jack we prepped quite early, and nothing too major, i.e. bringing new furniture in way before the birth so charlee didn't associate the change with the baby. In Charlee's case we also bought in her vet behaviourist early, so we could titrate her meds quickly if we needed to and made sure she had a good handle on her anxiety in the lead up to the bigger changes. On our VB's advice, we followed the guidelines set out in the book, How to tell your dog you're pregnant, some of it is a bit outdated (i.e. references to corded landline phones 😂) but a lot of It was great. It also has a series of recorded baby sounds so we could see how Charlee reacted to the sounds and start desensitisation early if need be. It should be noted she had minimal reactions to the noise which was quite comforting for me.
I also did the Family Paws preparation course. The course looks a lot at body language, so if you're not confident reading what your dog is saying, definitely check it out. The big takeaway I had from the course was having some really robust conversations with your partner about the expectations you have of your dog and make sure you and your partner are on the same page. This really resonated with me because in the past this is where tensions can arise and my partner and I can get frustrated with each other (setting up a tent or moving house anyone?! ;) ). Having these conversations before the baby arrived meant that we had a common understanding and were (less) likely to have tense conversations if the dog started interacting with the baby in a way that made one or both of us uncomfortable. Remember dogs are great are picking up on patterns so if you or your partner becomes tense each time the dog is near your baby you may be inadvertently signalling to the dog that the baby is something to be wary of.
In our case, with Charlee's previous history with separation anxiety, we knew it would cause her more distress feeling "shut off" from the family, so we would have to be somewhat comfortable with Charlee and the baby interacting and with this, the baby might have their head sniffed and/or licked. As a couple we were comfortable with this, but others may not be, so if you aren't (or you aren't but your partner is) have this conversation long before the baby arrives so you can agree how you will manage these situations. Tummy time, nappy changes and feeds are some of the situations you should have a plan for. Where do you want you and your baby to be? Where do you want your dog to be at these points?
Behaviour cues
If your dog doesn't have strong behaviour cues e.g. a down position, go to bed and a wait, start training these straight away. Kiko pup on YouTube has some great tutorials. If you have never done training with your greyhound, it might be worth having a session with a trainer to help you build value in the training process before trying to teach them these skills at home. Greyhounds are bred to be independent workers (like huskies) rather than cooperative workers (like Kelpies) so they may not naturally be driven to work with us, we instead need to build our value in this in the first instance.
If you don't have time to teach strong cues, luring with high value treats and licki mats is a great alternative. It really needs to be high value though, so set your dog up for success by having a stack of these prepped ready to go.
Bringing baby home
When we bought Jack home, I kept a lot of high value treats in glass containers everywhere so if Charlee looked towards the baby or interacted in any way, she got a treat. I could also use these as distractions and lures if I needed her to be elsewhere than where she was. Any positive interactions with the baby got her a treat, any negative ones were ignored and redirected (so we didn't use any stern voices or anything so she didn't have any negative associations around the baby). Again, dogs are great at picking up patterns, so all she knew was that baby appeared and so did treats.
Initially for intros, we let Charlee greet me first as she would want to get her sillies out with me, we then had the baby in a bassinet with mesh sides so Charlee could get a good sniff but I felt confident that we could manage the interactions well. We let her interact as she felt fit and then gave her lots of high value treats which were more interesting than the baby.
As described in the start when the baby first came home the new born squeaks were quite exciting for Charlee, for us pairing with high value treats saw this behaviour settle quite quickly. If your dog is showing far more serious body language, such as not being able to break focus or showing extreme interest in the baby, pull in a qualified dog trainer sooner rather than later. Bringing home a new family member is a lot! Use the village around you, and where possible grab video of behaviours to help people understand how and why the dog may be reacting in one way or another.
If you have any questions, pop them below! 👇 I will be off on parental leave until the end of the year but in the interim if you're looking for help, do reach out as I can absolutely connect you to partner trainers.
Great resources to follow:
Family Paws Parent Education
Dog Meets Baby
