7 month old lab + new born advice/experiences

[SneekyCarrot]

My wife and I are expecting our first child in February which will coincide with our puppy turning 7 months old. I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations regarding acclimating a puppy to the idea of having to share the house (and attention) with a newborn. At the moment, she is pretty mild mannered, but I would like to start working on anything that might help head off problems in the future.

[kelsyg]

No advice to give, but congratulations on your soon to be new baby!

[Snowshoe]

Long ago a gal at work got some kind of program that was basically her using a doll to simulate the interaction that was going to be taking place when the baby came. I remember her in tears one day, she'd put the baby doll down to change it's diaper and one of the dogs chewed it up. When the real baby did come though her two GR were in awe and loved her and were gentle and patient. Those dogs knew the difference between a doll and real baby.

Other folks will chime in but I suggest NILIF is good to use whether baby is arriving or not.

[Tanya]

try to really think about what behaviours the dog is doing now that are not a big deal but that WILL be an issue if you are holding a baby, putting a baby to bed, if the baby thros something, has food, ect ect. Or that are nto a big deal as he is still pretty small and will be growing a lot over the next months. Sometimes the bigger issues are things that were "not a big deal" before the baby but that when you have a baby/todler are nto longer accetpable. Nip those in the bud now.

This is also an age when exercise requirements go up considerably. Maybe look at doggy dcayre options, dog walkers or a friend that can grab your pup for a play date. Think an hour or more of free play (running around). There may be days when neither of you are able to get out of the house for long plays. not sure how fast you will be heading back to work and your wife will be alone with baby and dog but you want to htink of things that may make that easier for her (like if you can't take him out for a good solid play session before work, and your wife can't brign him out for a long play then a big help will be if someone else takes the dog for a good long play.

Socialise socialise socialise. If you are not already in puppy classes sign up ASAP. IF you can find friends or family with babies ask to spend time at their home, get the puppy used to baby noises and smells.

Your pup is just about 4 months now? that's a relatively easy age. Make sure to do TONS of training and boundaries now. they are sponges. the more work you do now the better. You may want to work on things like crating when you are home (which you may need to do whent eh baby comes) which is something many of us forget to do (not jsut when you leave or sleep). Train to "to do their bed".

7 months is when many dogs hit the teenage phase. So get ready, put as much in place NOW, and cross your fingers the teenage phase doesn't hit.

congrats and good luck

[emma_Dad]

try to really think about what behaviours the dog is doing now that are not a big deal but that WILL be an issue if you are holding a baby, putting a baby to bed, if the baby thros something, has food, ect ect. Sometimes the bigger issues are things that were "not a big deal" before the baby but that when you have a baby/todler are nto longer accetpable. Nip those in the bud now.

This is also an age when exercise requirements go up considerably. Maybe look at doggy dcayre options, dog walkers or a friend that can grab your pup for a play date. Think an hour or more of free play (running around). There may be days when neither of you are able to get out of the house for long plays. not sure how fast you will be heading back to work and your wife will be alone with baby and dog but you want to htink of things that may make that easier for her (like if you can't take him out for a good solid play session before work, and your wife can't brign him out for a long play then a big help will be if someone else takes the dog for a good long play.

Socialise socialise socialise. If you are not already in puppy classes sign up ASAP. IF you can find friends or family with babies ask to spend time at their home, get the puppy used to baby noises and smells.

Your pup is just about 4 months now? that's a relatively easy age. Make sure to do TONS of training and boundaries now. they are sponges. the more work you do now the better. You may want to work on things like crating when you are home (which you may need to do whent eh baby comes) which is something many of us forget to do (not jsut when you leave or sleep). Train to "to do their bed".

7 months is when many dogs hit the teenage phase. So get ready, put as much in place NOW, and cross your fingers the teenage phase doesn't hit.

congrats and good luck

This is great advise!

[fidgetyknees]

The good thing is most labs like babies. I don't have advice except work hard on the behaviors that wouldn't be appropriate for when baby arrives.

Example would be, my girl likes to sit on my lap when I am on the couch ... this so wouldn't work if there was a baby on my lap already.

And the thing my older lab did to my nephew one was roll on him like he was a stinky dirty sock when he was a baby, yip labs love stinky and they like to smell like their pack so watch out for behaviors like that .... and of course trying to lick babies way to much - good thing my brother is a dog person and my dogs like kids and small babies.

[Snowshoe]

Good stuff up there. I missed that puppy is only about 4 months old now. I'll just add, ditto Tanya.

[AlbertaLab]

We had our first baby 4 months ago so have an idea what you will go through, except that my dogs are 4 and 5 years old. We had them sniff the baby items as they were coming in to get them used to baby smells. When Leila came home we had them sniff her from the safety of our arms and they were interested in her for about 5 seconds and then didn't care. As the months have gone by the 3 have become pretty inseparable.

One thing to really work on is jumping up. If your pup jumps up on people, please work on this now. Nothing worse than having baby in your arms and a crazy lab jumps up on the both of you. We found this out quickly with Kaity. Another is licking. Kaity again is a chronic people licker. We cannot break her from it so we just monitor her when she's around Leila. I just keep wipes around and clean Leila's hands a lot.

As for attention sharing, we just make sure to give the dogs lots of love and attention when the baby is napping. It is difficult to give them the same amount of attention as pre-baby but they adjust.