Hello, Everyone!

Our puppy Kiana will be 7 1/2 months old when we have our first child (April 29th). We have heard that Huskies are great with children, but we want to make sure she is well prepared for her new buddy. What is your experience with Sibs and kids?

How can we best prepare Kiana in the next two months for the new pack member? And any tips for that week of delivery?

Kiana is currently in advanced training, and we frequently bring her around other babies and kids. So far she is very gentle with them, and we want to keep that going!

Thanks so much for your advice and help!

Courtney

I would make sure that Kiana knows not to play with the baby until the baby is a bit older. They're very delicate (iirc most babies can't even hold up their own heads until around 3-4 months) and could get hurt easily with an overly-excited husky around. Of course this doesn't mean that your dog can't be around the baby, I would just never leave the two together unsupervised. You might also want to get a trusted friend to watch Kiana for a few days, things can get a little out of hand when the baby comes (especially if he/she your first one) and the odds are that neither you nor your husband will be able to watch Kiana while you're at the hospital.

I can't really think of anything else right now, but good luck and congratulations! Babies are awesome!

Congratulations! My daughter is turning 2 yrs old in 3 weeks and I also have a 3 month old son. In general, sibes are very good with kids, but they still need to be closely supervised and well trained.

What I did when I was pregnant with my first was start introducing changes in the house, cribs, changing tables, swings, strollers, all types of new baby stuff well in advance so the dogs had plenty of time to adjust to those subtle changes and learn what was off limits. I did not play crying baby sounds or practice walking with a stroller before the baby was born like some people do and my dogs adjusted just fine.  I didn't do anything special while pregnant with my second.

I would strongly recommend that you get any and all necessary training worked out ASAP so that you have a well behaved dog without any issues long before the baby comes. You don't want to be heavily pregnant and fighting a dog with bad leash manners. Also be sure to have help lined up well in advance. If you end up on strict bed rest, like I did for 4 weeks, you will need someone to take care of exercising the dog for you. 

Also, if your dog is not used to being separated via a baby gate or crate, you may want to get them used to it now. You never know when you might need to utilize such a tool and having a dog that's already accustomed to it is preferable to one that freaks out when it happens for the first time. 

As for the first week and hospital stay, I arranged for a family member to come over and help with the dogs and baby. My mom is the one who helped me but she lives 4 hrs away so I gave a trusted neighbor a key to my house to be able to care for my dogs until my mom could make it to our place and take over.

Both my kids were vaginal deliveries so I was back out walking my sibe 3 days after delivery. it was extremely helpful to have my mom take them out (I had 3 dogs at the time) to potty and feed them when I was busy caring for my newborn. When the second came along it was even more valuable to have my mom since she took care of my dogs and helped with my other child who was only 18 months old when her brother was born.

Thank you both for your advice!

This was a long, long time ago...our husky was, I think, just over a year when our first child was born. Being young and stupid, we made absolutely no preparations for dog and child. Actually, my husband had just finished graduate school, we moved temporarily to my parents 2 weeks before baby due, baby born, I stayed a week with my parents and dog, then we all moved to residential summer camp where husband worked for summer before starting teaching job in fall. Dog did fine. Baby did fine. One memory - at my parents, baby 3-4 days old, end of June in CT. and HOT, humid, no air conditioning. I'm in bed with baby, baby crying, I'm at wits end. Finally, Sasha hops up on bed beside us and she puts her head on crying baby and starts to whimper, too. Ultimately, she loved the kids and was quite protective over them. I really don't remember any issues.

Good luck with new baby!