The Number 1 Risk Factor that threatens the relationship between dogs and babies is fear, anxiety and aggression to children. The best way we have of judging how well your dog will do with your new baby is how he has done with babies and small children in the past. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. And while the relationship isn’t perfect (the past doesn’t always predict the future), the relationship is strong enough that you need to consider how your dog has handled being around young children. If your dog has been fearful, anxious, threatening or aggressive around other infants or toddlers, chances are he’ll behave in similar ways with your new baby. Don’t expect your dog to behave differently just because this is YOUR baby. Dogs don’t seem to discriminate among babies based on their identity.
Babies can be scary to many dogs. From your dog’s point of view, babies don’t really look much like people and they certainly smell, act and sound differently than adults. If you know your dog hasn’t done well around babies and young children before, that’s a HUGE reason to start working with your dog well before your baby comes home to change his feelings about children. We’re not talking about days before, but weeks or ideally, months before baby’s arrival.
One of the reasons dogs don’t do well with babies is because of the noises they make. High pitched crying and screaming from a baby sound an awful lot like the noises small critters like cats, rabbits and birds make when they’re injured. These noises can make your dog anxious and even on rare occasion trigger some aspects of predatory behavior. That’s why presenting recordings of baby sounds in a controlled and calm way, can be so valuable. Using the recorded sounds allows you to control the intensity and the duration of the baby noises so you can acclimate your dog gradually without causing him to be anxious, fearful or threatening. And you can make sure the sounds predict something really special for your dog – a favorite treat or toy. So that rather than being afraid of the noises, your dog learns over time to actually welcome them. High fidelity recordings of the full range of real baby sounds with instructions on how to present them, such as the ones available from Preparing Fido.com give you the best tools for helping your dog develop a good attitude about baby sounds and the babies that produce them.
Do you want to know about Four Other Critical Risk Factors for problems between your dog and baby AND what you can do to minimize the risks? Get our free Risk Report here at PreparingFido.com. You’ll also find many other free articles and resources that can help smooth the transition for you and your dog of welcoming a new baby. With a little planning and some acclimation for your dog, things can go well for all your two-legged and four-legged family members.