Hello,
My wife, Kristin, and I are the proud owners of three dogs and have recently welcomed a sixth member to our family. Leighton Day Hardwig was born last August 27th and to say we had some reservations about how the pack would react to her arrival is an understatement. Bringing a baby into a dog-occupied home often creates a lot of concerns for parents like, “How will my pet(s) behave?,” “ Will my pet(s) feel neglected?”, and , of course, “What if my baby is bitten or worse!” If dogs are the center of your universe like ours are, the thought of any of the aforementioned things occurring can cause real anxiety and panic. In an effort to help dog owners keep their pets and children healthy and happy, we’d like to share what we did in preparation for our baby being born. We hope it will assist those who are dog owners preparing for a baby and are reluctant to keep their pets in the home, as well as people who have kids and are considering adopting a new four legged fur baby.
As I stated, previously, we have 3 dogs -- Ray is 5 years old and Gigi is 9, and both are Weimaraners. Our oldest dog, Rocco is a Doberman mix, so as you can see we didn’t have the easiest and most mild mannered of dogs to work with. Kristin and I knew we had to do something to prepare our dogs since giving them up was not an option. First thing we did was contact Rebecca, the weimaraner expert. We adopted Ray and Gigi from her and knew she would refer us to the person who could help the most. She gave us the name of the best dog trainer she knew, Diane. We called Diane right away and set up a series of training sessions. During her first visit she was able to diagnose that we had a pack dominance issue between Ray and Rocco. So the majority of our time involved trying to relieve the stress that occurred between the two of them in particular situations. Our hope was that with the additional stimulus Leighton would bring in the home, they would be prepared to handle it and still feel secure with their roles in our family/pack. Things we addressed in the training session included all of the elements necessary to be prepared for our baby’s arrival into our home such as establishing who's boss, walking etiquette, manners answering the door and when there are visitors, and addressing how to respond to their confusion over your new behaviors with this small smelly stranger in the home (i.e., bottle feeding, singing, cooing, etc). . . What we learned is that sometimes where you stand or how you say a command or simply being at a higher elevation than your dog is all it takes to show them you are the pack leader. A dog’s body language and vocalizations can also be very helpful when determining whether or not a situation is heading to a bad place. After 6 or7 sessions we were, without a doubt, in a more secure place with our dogs. We understood their psychology better, we were more aware of what they had trouble with, and we had a better understanding of behaviors that needed to be re-directed and therefore could react with confidence. We considered this some good training for the actual parenting we would soon be responsible for on a much larger scale. With all of this came a self-satisfaction and security that we had appropriately prepared our home for Leighton’s arrival. All we wanted was the best for our dogs and a safe place to raise our child.
In summary, with very little time and money we were able to train three large dogs and complete the necessary steps to ensure everyone in the family could coexist safely and happily. Our baby is almost five months old now, and since we’ve brought her home we have continued to be sensitive and mindful of all of the transitions for everyone and the dogs now consider Leighton as a part of the pack. We are happy to say that we haven’t had one incident of concern! It is really gratifying to know that we did the right thing for our family, and Kristin and I couldn’t be happier with our animals and how they’ve progressed.
Thanks, Sam
