My wife is due on June 11th and I was wondering how to go about introducing our husky to our new son. I just want to make sure that Bear is comfortable around the new baby and that our son will be safe around Bear. Has anyone been through this before? Any tips or advice?

I did it twice.

1) Make sure Bear is able to go into the baby's room and sniff baby clothes, lotion, diapers and bedding right now.

2) When the baby arrives, include Bear in everything. Don't forbid him from being with you and the baby. Let him sniff the baby in your arms and through the slats of his crib.

3) The parent who's holding the baby should pet and treat Bear to let him know he is not being replaced...and who knows, maybe he'll think the baby is actually giving him the treats.

You will not be leaving the baby anywhere unsupervised for a long time. Bear will certainly get used to the baby by the time the baby is able to lay on the floor and play. For now the baby will be in a crib, swing, playpen, etc. and Bear will be able to get to know the baby. Teach him a command to associate with the baby like "Be gentle". I think dogs instinctively know that the baby is fragile. Your main concern is to make sure the dog does not feel left out of the "new" family; however, it is important to make sure he knows that he ranks below the baby in the pack. And that's a hard one. My biggest concern for the safety of our baby was when he got old enough to mess with the dog's food. Many people mess up by beginning to shut their dog out of certain areas of the house because they fear the dog hairs getting on the baby. Our kids ate more dog hair than I want to know about! When the baby begins to crawl using his little, sticky hands, dog hairs will be all stuck on his hands...it's gross!

I can't wait to hear how it goes! Our husky was 5 years old when the first baby came home. I think you will do great!

Excellent advise, Lisa!

Great advise Lisa

I would also, after the baby is born but before you bring him/her from the hospital take a blanket or piece of clothing that was on the baby and bring it home for Bear to smell to be familiar with the new smell for when the baby comes home.

While I have never had children, I do feel that parents make it worse and more stressful on the dog when they banish them from areas of the house or panic if the dog so much as touches the baby... Lisas advice sounds spot on and I wish your family a safe delivery!

For what it's worth, my dogs (who haven't been raised around children) really just know to be gentler. Not saying you should just plop the baby down on the ground and leave it to fate... but I think there's a part of their brains that just instinctively knows this isn't a regular human, this is something different.

Thanks!

Dee, I remember reading that we should bring home something with baby scent on it but never actually got around to doing it.

Which reminds me that those 2-3 days of labor and delivery and hospital stay might be a little rough on Bear as well. You'll possible both be gone for a long labor (hopefully not...but likely more than the amount of time you will want to leave Bear alone) so you will need to plan for his care. Perhaps a walk and pottying and feeding... Hopefully, this won't stress him out too much. Then if you are up all night and come home to sleep the next day, you will find a pup who's ready to play!! It's been so long ago for me that I can't even remember how we handled this... I guess we had friends come over and walk him...

Again, I wish you all the best! This is kind of exciting... a real baby on the forum... YAY!

I had a friend that is due soon, and she has been playing baby cries off her computer so her dog can get use to the new noise. She started playing it at a low volume, and is slowly increasing the volume of the recording. Not sure if it helps, but it probably wouldn't hurt to try it.