A New Member in Our Pack

Preparing to bring home a baby is a lot of work. One of the biggest concerns Josh and I had surrounding the arrival of Charlotte was how our dogs were going to react to having a baby in the house. We have a four-year-old Jack Russell mix named Chuck and a two-year-old Chiahuahua mix named Mila. It's safe to say that we are slightly obsessed with our dogs. Before Charlotte, we often referred to them as our kids. Expecting our first human child, our new responsibility was ensuring the transition into having a baby was smooth for everyone in the household, including our precious pups.

The first order of business was getting Chuck and Mila in formal training, because watching back to back seasons of The Dog Whisperer wasn't cutting it anymore. We signed them up for the City of Upland's beginner dog training class and crossed our fingers in hopes it would be enough. 

   

For over 10 weeks, Josh and I each left work early to ensure we could make the weekly sessions with our pups in tow. Thankfully, both of our dogs amazed us and graduated from the training with flying colors. The teacher didn't even believe that we had behavior problems at home, because both dogs were so well behaved during class. She also said Chuck and Mila would do great with the baby, because they would accept her into our pack.

We were extremely satisfied when not only did our dogs learn to follow basic commands like heal, sit and stay . . . we were also able to establish that Josh and I are the leaders of our pack. That learning was going to be essential if we planned on convincing the dogs that our baby Charlotte is also a pack leader. 

Now that Chuck and Mila successfully completed their training, we were anticipating our upcoming due date with so much excitement, ready to put our learnings into action. The day after Charlotte was born, Josh and I learned that we were going to be kept for an extra day because my blood pressure was still dangerously high. That being said, Josh went home to shower and check on the dogs (who had been under the care of my sister Natalie and her boyfriend while we were away). Josh brought a baby blanket that Charlotte had been swaddled in to the house to introduce the dogs to Charlotte's scent. 

I received this picture from Josh:

                                   

It may seem a little unorthodox how Josh swaddled Chuck in the blanket to get him to smell the baby, but either way the dogs seemed interested to meet the babe. 

When we finally got the go ahead to take Charlotte home, we were so excited. Not only was I feeling desperate to get away from the constant interferences by the hospital staff, I was also beyond excited to see my dogs after days apart! 

We arrived at our house, and Josh was the first one to enter. He greeted the dogs and gave them some love while I waited outside with the baby. Then Josh instructed me to go inside to say hi to the dogs and give them some love. I grabbed some dog treats and let Josh know we were ready for the big meeting. He walked in with the baby, and the dogs were immediately interested. They both approached the baby, and Josh lowered her feet by their noses so they could get a sniff. Once they smelled her and remained calm, I was sure to praise them and give them each a treat. We repeated this process many times to encourage their positive, calm interactions with the baby. 

Since then, the dogs have exceeded our expectations behaving well with the baby. They are sure to give Charlotte and me space during breastfeeding. When they do decide to cuddle up, it's never directly with the baby, instead it's closer to mom and dad. Whenever she is laying on the floor doing tummy time, they are curious enough to check on her grunts and movements, but they give her the personal space she deserves. 

As Charlotte grows, she is going to need our constant supervision because her interactions with the dogs will change. However, I'm no longer worried about those days because it is clear that Charlotte has already been accepted as a new leader in our pack.