We are expecting our first baby in April. I'm sure many of you have been through this so I'd love any advice on training my two girls/ getting them used to the idea of a new baby in the house. I was thinking of getting a doll and carrying it around, for starters.

Any pointers will be great. They are both good natured, sweet huskies, but I have no idea how they will react to a new baby who will need alot of attention. I want a smooth transition as possible for all of us.

Congratulations!
I have NO idea how you would go about that, but I'm sure its something that Val might be able to help with

~Kelly

Congratulations! I have a 5 month old and my cousin has a 4 month old, I have 3 dogs and she has 1. I didn't go overboard with preparing my dogs, my cousin did a lot more with hers. She went so far as playing baby sounds and crying to prepare her dog.

I mainly focused on breaking up my dogs' routine well in advance because I didn't want the change to happen suddenly when we brought baby home. Because you know once baby comes home any and all hopes of routine will go out the window. This means I varied meal times, skipped walks, varied their potty times, etc so that they never knew what to expect...a stark contrast to their previously very predictable scheduled days before. Of course these changes were made gradually to ease them into it. I am really glad I did that well in advance too because from 33 to 37 weeks I was put on strict bed rest (as in I was to be in bed at all times except to eat and go to the restroom).

The other main thing for me was gradually introducing all the new baby furniture so that the changes in the house were not drastic, and letting them go in and investigate the new stuff.

If your dogs are not already trained to walk on a loose lead and you plan to walk them with the baby later on, then I would definitely crack down on the training. I had loose leash trained my dogs long ago so it wasn't something I had to worry about. Not to mention if you're heavily pregnant the last thing you want is your dogs walking you.

My dogs did fine with the transition of baby coming home. And we did not even bother with the whole bringing something home with baby's scent before bringing baby home. I don't think my cousin did that either and her dog also adjusted just fine.

Great suggestions! Thank you!