@KWL is your dogs ok with baby? My dog is a jealous boy, he licks all people even stranger but not my baby. I offer my baby feet to him and ask him to be friend friend but he ignore it. I having battle with my dog whenever my baby sleep, my baby is very sensitive to sound especially during day time nap. My dog likes to jump up our bed which is next to the cot and he will scratch on the bed to warm up the place before he sleep on it. The scratching sound will wake my baby up. I always got to watch him and don't let him enter the room, as I can't close room door because my baby crying very soft. If I busy prepare my lunch in the kitchen, I can't hear my baby cry even the door is slightly open. I got to walk in & out the kitchen several time to check any baby crying sound. If I close the door it will be worse. So i'm very busy watching over my dog and not to let him enter the room while baby is sleeping. He damn stubborn la.. Told him already but don't listen. When I take shower I can see his shadow walking towards master bedroom (glass toilet door) grrrr ...
My dogs co-exist with the baby now. But it wasn't as smooth sailing right at the start. Much effort put in place to get to where we are now.
Briefly describe the situation. I have two dogs which are both seven years old. Before and during pregnancy, my dogs are my everything. They go everywhere and anywhere with us. They love car rides and go cycling with us to many places. All I need is just a carrier to hold the dogs safely and I am good to go
Since I knew I was pregnant, I have been telling them about baby baby baby repeatedly. I let them feel my bump. It is especially important because one of the dogs has an aggressive nature (don't be fooled by the cute appearance). Has a very bad record with kids and also pin toddlers down to bite before. So I had to be extremely careful and think of a good plan to solve jealousy and aggression issues. I also stopped the dogs from jumping sofa and to walk on the perimeters of the carpet. So at least my sofa in the living room is a "restricted safe zone".
During my confinement, my CL doesn't like dogs and we were pretty sure that we will be too stressed handling the newborn. So I left the dogs at my mum's place for a month. I will pack soiled diapers for my mum to let the dogs smell. Each time my mum opens the bag of goodness to the dogs, she repeated my baby's name and praised them and gave them biscuits to eat. The whole purpose is to let the dogs associate the smell with positive experience.
When they finally came home, I made sure baby was in the house before they entered. It is to establish hierarchy order. As they are pack animals, I need them to learn and accept that my husband and I are their alpha, followed by baby then them. I also made effort to hold baby higher than them to reinforce the pack hierarchy order.
When I bathed baby in the morning, it was the first time baby come eye-to-eye level with them and they showed aggression and wanted to charge forward. Fortunately, baby and I were behind the glass shower door. We stayed safe and I quickly corrected the behaviou by telling the dogs off. The process has to be repeated for a few days. Now ok Liao. My dogs don't even come in to watch the shower. They got better things to do hahah.
Aggression problem is slightly fixed. I moved on to Gao dim jealousy. I knew that my dogs were feeling neglected. So I made it a point to sayang them whenever I pumped in the wee hours. I will stay up and give them a good hugging and patting session for an hour. I will talk to them and give them snacks. They enjoyed.
I also didn't stop the dogs from coming into the nursery though my mum was telling me off that baby is young and I should be hygienic. My rationale is that the dogs should not feel that their lives have changed because of the damn baby. Need to achieve equilibrium somehow.
When things get better, I relaxed the rules to let the dogs come nearer to the baby. I started off by letting them smell the legs. Then later, slowly progressed to smelling baby arms and head. And now they simply bo chup and went back to their daily guard dog duties.
There is one dog that is particularly sticky to me. If I am nursing the little one, she will lay near us. I will have to multi-task to nurse baby and use leg to pat pat her.
Over time, they have accepted each other. Now they can be very close to each other. I still watch them and don't leave anything to chance.
More recently, I had two very heart warming episodes. The sticky dog sneaked into my master bed room when I was having massage. I told her to go out as she was not allowed in my bedroom. She refused because she wants to be with me. But she chiong out the moment she heard baby crying.
Another time was I was washing baby's clothes in the toilet. She heard the baby's cry in the nursery and ran to the toilet to "inform" me. I shouted "okok, mummy coming!". The next moment, my dog ran off. I thought go where leh. When I went into the nursery, I saw my dog pacing around the baby cot looking Kan cheong. She was at ease after I picked up the baby. So heartwarming.
Last week, I also steal time to bring the two down for a short walk. I would think that they also know that it has not been easy for me. So she will just look out of the window and see scenery instead.
Does your dog listen to your command? If Yes, want to try to sayang the dog more instead of disciplining it so that it won't feel neglected? Use 爱的教育。cos I think beating the dog will aggregate negative feelings and one day they will take revenge on the baby.
Sorry recently very essay mode. Haha.