Preparing your dog for life with a toddler

Whether your baby is becoming more mobile or you are welcoming a new addition (human) to the household preparing your dog for toddler life is important. Below are a few hints an tips to prepare your dog(s) for their siblings arrival or next stages!

If your dog already has significant behaviour challenges or you are struggling at any stage please seek out professional support.

This post is specifically looking at helping your dog(s) be prepared for your babies development to walking, crawling and climbing. For earlier stages please see our previous blog post "Preparing your dog for your baby's arrival".

If your baby has already started becoming more mobile, do not worry, you can begin to add in more management as you go.

What will a toddler mean?

• Increased activity

• More movement, standing climbing, walking

• Different noises from the baby and toys

• Risk of falling over

• Potentially trying to use the dog to pull themselves or hold themselves up

• More need for separation

Things to introduce to your dog

Sounds:

Some of you may have already done some of this when you were expecting your baby. Babies make a lot of strange and unusual sounds that some dogs can find worrying, exciting or overstimulating. It is important to check how your dog reacts to baby associated noises well in advance. I would suggest repeating this through your pregnancy. If at any time they start to show any signs of stress, over excited etc. then you will need to address this.

Below is a great free resource from Dogs Trust to guide you through the process...

Sound Therapy & Firework Training for Dogs | Dogs Trust

If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you’ll find the ‘sounds smoothing’ section which is especially for baby preparations. It also has a downloadable how-to-guide.

Accepting barriers

There will be times when your dogs may need to be closed out of the way, or be in a separate room to you and your baby. It is really important that we make sure your dog is calm and relaxed when they are closed behind a door, baby gate or into their crate.

This also means if you do have any concerns over how your dog is reacting to your baby, you can safely separate them in a low stress way until you can arrange professional support.

Signal of non-interaction:

It’s not ideal to have the dogs jumping up when you are holding a baby. We can try to teach them that they won’t get attention whilst you are carrying the baby to help reduce this.

To start we need a fake baby. Maybe a teddy in a baby grow? Or a large doll?

When you are carrying the doll (like a baby) the dogs will not get any interaction or attention from you.

Pick up the ‘baby’ and ignore them for 10 seconds, then put the baby down, or pass to someone else (who will do the same) and give the dogs a fuss.

We want them to notice the difference between you holding the ‘baby’ and not. Slowly start to build up the duration and practice in different scenarios and with everyone who will be involved in day to day baby care.

Resources

Resource guarding is a natural behaviour, for animals protecting their resources is an essential part of survival. However this can be dangerous if you dog begins to show signs of resource guarding around your child. Keeping resources separated ensures safety and avoids the risk of conflict. If you have any concerns about your dog resource guarding, even if this has not escalated to aggression, please contact a professional for assistance.

Always feed your dog in a separate area from your child, this includes chews and enrichment. This can be in their crate, behind a barrier or in a separate room. Your child should not be allowed to touch, approach or interact with them while they are eating.

Your baby and your dog will have their own toys to engage and play with. However, neither can be expected to understand which are theirs and which aren't. Both may also not appreciate the other taking their toys from them. It's vital to ensure both have areas where they can enjoy their resource alone and avoid any conflict.

Supervision

Young children and dogs should never be left unsupervised this includes playing on your phone or being distracted if there is any direct interactions or both are in close proximity. If the baby tries to pull them selves up, falls on or grabs at them, the dog may be hurt or startled. This is a significant risk for an aggressive response from your dog.

If your dog is sleeping your child should leave them alone completely, this is where barriers can be useful ensuring they cannot access each other without having to constantly monitor them both.

This is an exciting time, and one that goes smoothly for the vast majority of families. However some dogs do find the change very difficult, and investing some extra time and thought in advance could make all the difference. If you have any concerns about your dog's behaviour around a baby or child, please separate them immediately and seek professional support. And finally, never leave a young child and dog unsupervised.