I have the pleasure of working with a few clients right now who are expecting their first child! It’s such an exciting time and reminds me of when I was expecting our first, 2 years ago.
When I learned I was pregnant in 2023, I was determined to make changes early to start implementing a plan for our 3 dogs that would set them up for success before our baby arrived. Some of the ideas were simple: no more dogs on the couch. Some of them were more complicated: heeling well with a stroller.
If you take away anything from this post, let it be this: You NEVER know how your dogs are going to react to a baby so why not err on the side of caution knowing you can always give the dogs back more freedom in the future if all is going well.
- No dogs in the nursery. This was an idea my mentor suggested and I cannot imagine how chaotic our daily routine would be if we had not put this in place. The nursery had been a room the dogs were previously allowed to go in so if that’s your reality, do not let it deter you. You simply make up your mind that one day and every day moving forward, dogs cannot go in there. The methods of how you will uphold this should be decided and tested with a professional trainer.
- No dogs on furniture where you will be hanging out with your baby. Dogs on furniture bring up a long list of issues that you may have seen before. Resource guarding is the proper term for why your dog might fight with other dogs up there, or they get territorial with you when up there. Let’s not even entertain those thoughts when a precious new baby comes along. If you’re like my husband and I, we lived on the couch for what felt like the first couple of months.
- No dogs sleeping in your bedroom. Months before the baby came, we setup a new place for our 3 pups to sleep, which was the office. I couldn’t fathom the idea of waking up every two hours and potential tripping over someone. Or worse yet, finally getting a good night sleep and one of the dogs waking me up for no good reason at all. I was also thinking about the dogs’ wellbeing and how their worlds were going to be rocked by a screaming infant disrupting their sleep all night. It was an easy transition and everyone is happier for it.
- Practice heeling with an empty stroller. How weird is that, right? Onyx’s most viral reel (2.5 million views) is a video of me walking in our neighborhood with the stroller and a sign that says “big brother in training.” At some point when you’re a brand new parent who has dogs you’re going to think “I feel so badly for not spending enough time with my dog.” I am a professional trainer and it happened to me! It’s one of the main reasons I wanted to firm up a comfortable walking position with my dog next to the stroller – so I could kill 2 birds with 1 stone when we went out for walks. A lot of clients come in after they’ve had a baby because their dog has developed some sort of behavioral issues since. It can be for many reasons and one of those may be general lack of fulfillment. When dogs learn to associate any new object with something that they like, that’s the jackpot. That’s Classical Conditioning at work. I see the stroller and instead of being left behind, I sometimes get to go out and enjoy one of my favorite activities!