Needy dog, new baby

[Anonymous]

Any advice on acclimating a needy dog to a new baby in the home? My dog is not possessive in an aggressive way, but he needs a lot of attention and reassurance from his humans. (He was previously abandoned.) I want to make the transition from only "child" to sharing the attention as easy as possible for him (and me).

[Anonymous]

This is us! We have a 4 month old. We ask everyone who visits to pay attention to the dog. We also try to pet the dog more often. Needless to say, we are failing at this. Dog is continually crying at us, wanting to be carried up and down stairs and is very jealous of the baby. I really feel for the dog, but alas my patience is thin and his needs aren't #1.

It's not been an easy transition and I'm surprised by how my feelings towards the dog have changed.

[Anonymous]

Wear him out so that he is too tired to be needy. Long walks/runs with baby in the stroller. A Dogs Day Out (and probably others) offer part day doggie daycare / play time - he can run and play with other dogs.

[Anonymous]

Pay for dog walkers or even neighborhood kids to play fetch in the backyard with him.

Reward him often when you are holding the baby. Treats, head rubs, basically anything that helps him see that baby as a bonus so he's willing to share.

Whichever of you isn't holding the baby needs to be petting or playing with or loving on the dog.

[Anonymous]

For first baby, I enrolled the dog (then just 1) in an every other day 3-4 hour puppy playgroup, that was run in someone's back yard (but professionally supervised)--this was in CA so the weather was always pretty good. She was happy, tired and oh so patient with the baby on every level, and I didn't have to feel guilty about not paying her enough attention.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, keeping our dog as active as possible is the only thing that makes him even remotely tolerable (he's one, we have three kids including a six month old). Thinking we need to either start paying someone to walk him or come up with a good plan to do so ourselves. It's not easy. And, yes, we should have known better before we got him. God, he drives me insane.

[Anonymous]

I am 60 and FWIW I have never gotten over the guilt I feel ignoring my adorable housetrained dog when my kids were young. Please try to find a way to include the dog, do not make my mistake!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am 60 and FWIW I have never gotten over the guilt I feel ignoring my adorable housetrained dog when my kids were young. Please try to find a way to include the dog, do not make my mistake!

This makes me so sad. I feel incredibly guilty about my dog and the new baby. I hate to think I'll still feel this way in 30 years. Ugh. Dog and baby ONLY want me and it's so hard. Last night both of them cried for me. I feel SO much guilt every day about this. I've asked dh to pay more attention to the dog, but it's not enough because the dog really just wants me.

[Anonymous]

Guys, the baby is only a baby for a short time. It will get better. I will say that, with us (and we had two dogs and two cats), when we held or played with the baby, we also talked to or patted one of the animals. We just let them BE with us and her. I also always took the dogs on walks with the baby in the stroller (a bit of a challenge at first b/c they were large but eventually got it down). The dogs loved it. You can find other small ways to just integrate the dog and it takes-quite literally- seconds to give the dog a pat or a treat or acknowledge it. It really, really can be done and without much at all (and my dogs were INCREDIBLY needy).

I will also say to make sure the dog is around the baby a lot (assuming the dog is safe with the baby and not aggressive). Our pets have given our DD so much joy and taught her so much. Her first discernible word beside "no" was "cat" and her first smile was for one of our dogs. It was so sweet.

Good luck. Take it slow. It will be ok.