My husband's sister is pregnant :-) We are pretty excited for her, but I'm a bit, um, nervous about how Caesar will react.
I've mentioned before, but he will bark pretty seriously at kids shorter than him that look like they want to come pet him. He's never been around babies before :-(

I'm pretty close to his sister, and she's aware of Caesar's issues and is really willing to work with him and us so that she can come over with the baby (she also has two dogs). She still has pretty far to go - about 6.5 months.

I guess I just need some hints on where to go from here . . . I'm ready to almost pretend I'm having the baby and buy the CD with baby sounds, carry around a doll, etc. She's going to be bringing over the strollers and other items, etc. once she gets them to get him used to them.

I'm totally willing to crate him or keep him away if need be, but I'd really like for him to get somewhat used to having a baby around - in a very controlled environment, if possible.

Any suggestions, books or links you've read that would be helpful?

ETA I'm off to read Calypso's blog and anything Amanda might have written, but I wasn't sure if any of you had experience w/ dogs that have shown reactivity towards kids?

Thanks!

I think going all out like you're the one having the baby sounds like a great idea. My brother has a daughter, and I really ramped up the baby/kid socialization with Bella when she was born (even though my niece is 12 hours away and we only see her once or twice a year - or maybe [i]especially[i] because we only see her once or twice a year).

We're at the point where she can have kids around now and we're pretty confident in her stability provided the kids aren't out of control themselves (my friend had her 4 and 6 year olds over this summer and Bella was awesome with them).

The first Christmas we were with my niece, though, we kept them apart. That was half because of their dog being reactive and also because a one-year-old is less predictable than a toddler, though. I think they'll get to meet this year.

We used lots and lots and lots and lots of treats. And then some more treats. And we have every kid we came across toss her a treat. Whenever we're out walking, I ask any kid who shows the slightest interest, "Do you want to ask her for a trick?" Then I have the kid ask her to wave or spin. And the kid hands out a treat. Now she thinks kids are treat-dispensing machines.

It also helps to have Roscoe around. Roscoe thinks kids pretty darn cool. So if kids came at us, DH maneuvered Roscoe in the way who is fully capable of taking anything any kid doles out. That gave me time to relax Bella and feed her some treats at a comfortable distance.

I don't know that much about desensitizing to the various accessories babies have,but I imagine it's like desensitizing to anything.

I know there's a book specifically about "bringing home a baby" but I can't for the life of me remember the title. It's written by a couple, I think.

Rosie was TERRIFIED when Griffin came home. She didn't want to be anywhere near him. She's been ok with kids at the park big enough to throw frisbees and was ok with Ben (he was 4 or so when we got her), so the incredible stress she had at the arrival of an infant was a shock to us.

I think the key with Rosie was letting her deal with him on her own time and letting her know that she was NOT expected to do anything or be subjected to anything related to him. If she wanted to be with us she got lovins, if she chose not to that was just fine too- she'd get her lovins later when he was napping or in a stroller or whatever.

I didn't use food really because it seemed to add pressure on her as if she *should* be near him wether she wanted to be or not. She was most relaxed to just have no expectations on her with regards to him. That was just something I observed in HER, so I just went with it and tried to keep her relaxed and happy. Like every baby, Griffin threw a ton of food so he took care of the desensitazation from about 6 months on

You probably saw my posts about her when G was little choosing to sit 10 ft away and pout while Sammy eat all his hand outs. It was pathetic (and hilarious) to see the foodiest dog in the world staying away from food. She never chose to be near him when he sat on the floor and never got within arm's reach with him in his highchair. She avoided him being close enough to touch her when he learned to crawl.


I reinforced her with praise when she took it upon herself to walk away from him when she felt nervous. I swear if there was a bubble above her head it would have said "REALLY? it's really ok for me to walk away from him?" Knowing that seemed to take the weight of the world off of her. She would let out these huge sighs.

The next phase was Rosie seeming relaxed when Griffin touched her when she was right with me but not wanting him around without me. The crawling phase was the hardest because she was still really weirded out by him and of course could move FAST. That was when her "beep beep" and "recall" cue came in handy. That way I could get her out of a place where I thought she might feel cornered really quickly if I thought Griffin could get to her before I could grab him.

I think Rosie got better and better with time but it was when Griffin started walking normally and could throw balls that she decided he was really alright. Now at 16 months, she is happy to let him pet her or feed her without me around. Thankfully G is a gentle, tentative child by nature so it hasn't been difficult to teach him to be gentle and appropriate with the dogs.

Probably a no- brainer to point out, but I think it was really important that Rosie got her usual play time, frisbee hikes etc. Those times really help both my dogs to deal with stress. I was lucky to have family helped me make sure I could give that time to them every day.

Thanks for your input Jen and Sammy! I guess I'll try to prepare him as best as possible and kind of see how he reacts and probably do a mix of what you both said. I certainly don't want to force him into anything, but I do want him to be comfortable with it (hehe, I mean he or she) being around.

I have a feeling he will be better with a baby then a kid only because I think the reason he is weirded out by kids is their fast, unpredictable movements.

Kona was scary intense prey-drive interested in Child#1 when we first brought her home. Scary like I understand now why people rehome dogs because if we were just the tiniest bit less commited to him or worse trainers we would have gotten rid of him. I do believe that he was temporarily a danger to her.

He has a decent down stay. What we did was down him on the far side of the room whenever he was in the room as her. We made sure to reward him heavily for calm behaviour when she was around and were vigilant to not let him practice the intense behaviour AT ALL. It only took a couple of weeks before he decided she really wasn't that interesting and we could relax, thankfully, but it was frightening at the time.

So my advice is to brush up on down stays, go to a mat, lie down and relax - those types of things. Whether he's overly interested or afraid or just anxious they will all give him time to settle down if they are part of his regular routine.

Thanks for your experience, Tracy. Yep, that's what I'm a bit worried about with C. He has such a high prey drive w/ anything fast, making weird sounds, or just out of the ordinary.

His down stay is fairly good, and he's really getting used to going to his crate on his own and hanging out in there. I'm working on April's down/stay which is a work in progress.