Children are not the easiest to live with from a canine perspective. You will want to prepare your dog so you get to keep him around for when you need the comforting and unconditional love only a dog knows how to give.
Very rarely do children surprisingly spring up on you. You normally have nine-ish months to prepare. While you’re out shopping for cots and prams, remember to start preparing your dog.
The day to start is yesterday. If you plan to have kids, it is better to get it out of the way now so you can focus on the pregnancy later. The best time to introduce children is when the dog opens its eyes for the first time when around two weeks old.
At this time, the dog is learning what his social group is. The Puppy Plan uses this golden opportunity to introduce most of the things the puppy will need to accept as normal.
If your dog is older and still unsure about children, there are still some things you can do. Think about what your routine will be like once the baby is home, and start changing the dog’s routine to fit in with that. If everyone is on board with the new schedule, understands their responsibilities and the dog still gets all the fuss, exercise and company he needs, he will adjust.
The more children your dog meets and has good experiences with, the better chance he stands to be friends with your own.
Think ahead what you want your dog to do around your child, particularly if you have a big dog.
Get that behaviour trained on command, so your dog knows what is expected of him. Whatever you do, you want to encourage calm behaviour. No matter how well-trained and friendly your dog is, it is never a good idea to leave children and dogs unsupervised together. Accidents happen and dogs react instinctively to pain, fear and being startled.
As for those smelly nappies, just make sure to keep them far out of reach from the dog to avoid embarrassing mishaps. As your children grow, you will want to teach them that poking is not appropriate and nor is chasing, tail grabbing, saddling or staring.
If your children can treat a dog with the respect it deserves and always ask before touching a dog, they will not be likely to get hurt.
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