Early Steps To Take With Your Dog
It is essential to devote time and effort upfront towards building the relationship between your “kids”, especially since neither your baby nor dog is going anywhere. Spending more time today will allow for a lifetime of harmonious family memories. Here are a few steps that can help ensure a positive transition.
The first and most critical step in preparing a dog for a new baby is to ensure the dog is familiar with children in general. Children can be a scary concept to dogs that are not familiar with such small people, so it is essential to expose a dog to children at the earliest age possible. Exposure to children can include monitored visits with family children, neighbor children, or visit a local park.
Children should always ask permission to approach a dog before they do so. Then they can be encouraged to slowly approach the dog and hold out their hands to allow them to become familiar with their scent. Once the dog has smelled the child’s scent, allow the child to gently stroke the dog, preferably on their shoulders or ears. Exposing dogs to children as often as possible will make children a common feature of everyday interactions. This will reduce the likelihood that your dog will become startled by a new baby in the home.
Setting up the nursery in your home is a big step to show your dog that changes are taking place in the home. Not only will setting up your nursery allow your dog to see that something is changing, but it will also allow them the chance to investigate the nursery and take in the new smells of the baby’s new room. For a dog, scents are a huge factor of life, and to be able to investigate the baby’s nursery and its new smells ahead of time will help reduce the curiosity when the infant comes home.
By showing your dog what to expect in the nursery and allowing them to get used to changes, you reduce the chance of increasing curiosity about the nursery later on.
Baby proofing includes the addition of baby gates throughout the house. Teach dogs about the baby gates and other protective changes for the new baby. While baby gates may not seem like particularly scary items, they are new for your dog, who may need time to adapt. Placing gates, cribs and other new item before the baby comes home can reduce the risk of canine overstimulation.
Why do female dogs attack puppies?
Some female dogs will accidentally harm their puppies because they are either lazy or careless. Large breed dogs will sometimes lie on puppies, smothering or crushing them.
Why does my dog bump me with his nose?
Your dog can’t talk to you (though he might try barking), so he has to use nonverbal signals to tell you what he wants.
“[Dogs] cant communicate with humans in the same way [that] they communicate with other dogs, so they try and get your attention by nudging you or bumping into you,” Rice told The Dodo. “When a dog bumps or nudges you with their nose, it is usually because they want your attention or they want something from you.”
Your dog probably learned to bump you with his nose. If you pet him every time he nudges you, he’ll learn that it’s an effective way to get your attention. Dogs can also learn to use their noses from their mothers.
“They may have learned this behavior from their mothers, who used it while they were nursing,” Rice said. “This behavior is also exhibited by other animals and is thought to have originated as a way of getting the attention of the mother when they are hungry or in need of comfort.”
This behavior can also be an instinct. Herding breeds will often nudge you in the direction they want you to go. They’re basically herding you (instead of sheep).
To figure out what your pup wants when he bumps you, take a look at the rest of his body language and the context.
“If he is bumping you with his nose and wagging his tail, this means that he is happy and wants to play,” Rice said.
These are some common reasons why your pup likes to hit you with his nose.
How an experienced dog mother teaches her 8 weeks old puppies to be calm. www.sentfromheaven.at
Many couples begin their family together with a dog. While this dog is their first “child”, they often become concerned when deciding to add a human child to their family. Their concerns frequently revolve around how their dog will react to having a new baby in the household, and it is not uncommon for new parents to be worried that their dog will harm their new child.
However, most family dogs react very well to a new baby in the household, and while it may be a new situation for the dog, they adapt well, and most of the time, they adapt more quickly than the parents do. Table Of Contents
Dogs care for their pack, and as your dog’s pack, when you bring a new pack member home, your dog will respect that member as a part of the group. When issues do occur, it is often because parents allow the dog to become confused about the new baby’s place in the family pack. This can be prevented quite easily by understanding how to introduce your dog to the family’s newest member.