Dog Behavior Blog

Preparing Your Dog For The Arrival Of Your Child

Note from Con Slobodchikoff: This is a guest post by Mike Wombacher, who is a San Francisco Bay Area dog trainer with particular expertise in the area of dogs and children. His popular e-book, Good Dog Happy Baby, offers an integrated preparation program, including a section on dealing with problem behaviors, for dog owners expecting children. It comes bundled with three one-hour audio seminars to supplement the material. Mike's work has been featured in Fit Pregnancy magazine as well as in Dog World. He is currently the referred trainer of the McMoyler Method of childbirth preparation.

Congratulations! You're pregnant and your "pack" will soon be growing. If you're like most people, you're caught between anticipation and trepidation. You're thrilled about the arrival of your new child and you're concerned about doing everything right. If you own a dog, certainly some of your concern revolves around him. You're probably asking yourself: "How will my dog handle this? Will he be jealous? Will he be careful?" And most importantly: "Is there any chance that he might bite my child?"

If you're an expecting dog owner the very first thing that you should do is to identify the changes that need to be made in the life of your dog once the baby arrives and implement them NOW! You do not want your dog to associate any changes that need to be made with the arrival of your child thus setting up a competitive or jealous dynamic. Failing to implement relevant changes in the life of your dog prior to baby's arrival is the single most common mistake expecting dog owners make.

So take a careful look: is your dog sleeping in bed with you, pushy and demanding, barky, prone to steal things and get into mischief when you're not looking? Does he get tense when you try to take things away from him, touch him in certain ways, or get near his food?

These problems and many more are readily resolvable but the lynchpin of the successful resolution of any behavior problem is building the right relationship with your dog, a relationship in which your dog is in the deeply ingrained habit of taking direction from you. From that foundation almost anything is possible. Simple things like always giving your dog a command before you have an interaction with him, not letting him run out the door ahead of you, and being a little aloof with him can do a world of good in causing your dog to cheerfully accept your leadership role.



There are many things that you can do to help create not only safety but very positive associations for your dog with the presence of your child. For example, by creating zones in your house that your dog is by and large forbidden in without your specific permission and accompaniment you build effective buffer zones into your dog’s relationship with your child.


Here's an example. Start by making the future baby's room off limits to your dog. Once that’s handled, allow him to enter the room only with your permission and accompaniment. Once in the room always ask him for down-stays. Soon he'll get the idea that when he enters this room he's to do a down-stay in the corner (you could even put a bed for him there). In addition, teach your dog to tolerate alone time every day.

Now, once your baby arrives, allow your dog to come into the baby's room when you go in to change diapers or play or whatever and assume his down-stay. If he has been left alone for a few hours prior to that he will welcome the contact with and your child. In other words, the presence of your child means a positive social engagement for him. This is quite different than what usually happens which is that when mommy goes to play with or care for baby, doggie gets thrown out, thus potentially setting up a competitive or jealous dynamic. This is only one of many examples of specific exercises that can teach your dog to accept your child as a beloved pack member and ultimately companion.

Other things that you can do to ensure a seamless transition to siblinghood for your dog include: 

·         Teaching him the difference between doggie toys and child’s toys (start by getting doggie toys that are distinctly different from baby toys since often these two bear striking similarities).

 

·         Get a baby doll and wrap it in a scented baby blanket (ask a friend to use a new blanket on her baby for a few days and then wrap it around your doll) and teach your dog appropriate manners around your "faux baby," thus setting up a template of behavior for future interactions.

 

·         Hire a dog walker to take over exercise responsibilities during the period immediately after birth. This will take a lot of pressure off of you and produce a tired dog.

While the above does not comprise a comprehensive list, it should serve to provide a sense of direction and purpose. One thing to keep in mind in all of this is that there should never be any unsupervised interactions between your dog and your child ever, for any reason, period! Remember, there's too much at stake and it only takes two seconds for something to go terribly wrong.



All that having been said, keep in mind that your true challenge and the true test of the success of your efforts at integration will be seen once your child passes the eight-month threshold. What happens then? Your little one starts crawling and rapidly becoming highly mobile. This means that the frequency of unexpected and random encounters between your child and your dog will increase dramatically. That's where you’ll find out if all your hard work paid off and indeed, if you've worked hard it will.



In closing, please understand that what I've outlined above represents the tip of the iceberg of strategies designed to make the integration of your dog and your child as seamless, warm and rewarding as possible. While learning and implementing such strategies implies varying amounts of work, it promises a wholesome and fulfilling relationship between your child and your dog. The payoff of this relationship will last for years and thus makes any work you have to put in on the front end more than worth it. 

All that having been said, I wish you the best of luck with the exciting events that are unfolding in your life.

Training Homework: How to Get It Done

Note from Con Slobodchikoff: This is a post by guest author Nancy Frensley, CPDT, CAP2, who is Manager of Behavior and Training at the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society in Berkeley, California. She will write periodic posts about the behavioral challenges and joys of shelter dogs.

Most people who have dogs participate in a dog training class at one time or another. At the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society’s K-9 College, we teach close to 700 students every year (mostly dogs from shelters and rescues), who are moving on to new lives with new families or partners. In our classes, we find that people are often stumped by one thing: the homework.

Dogs cannot learn by practicing only once a week during class. This is the same logic behind kids going to school several days a week and bringing home their work. Learning, in any species, takes practice.  It is one thing to work in class with a trainer coaching every step of the way and quite another to attempt the exercises at home – even if they are written out. Moreover, training a dog requires a bit of timing, mechanical skill, and consistency, as well as the ability to see what the dog is communicating to the human. In the daily struggle to get everything done training the dog can fall through the cracks.

In order to make the most of a dog-training class or to home school a dog, it helps to write out a plan. Note the activities for each day and keep it in a spot where it can be easily viewed.  By keeping an accurate activity log, it will be easier to build on it the next day. (Tip: A magnetic whiteboard (with or without calendar blocks) is easy to use and see. It can hold a week’s worth of documentation.  At the end of the week, it’s ready to be erased to start over with new activities.)

Advance planning might consist of writing down everything to accomplish during the week. For instance, “Priorities for this week are: Sit, Down and Leash Walking”. Do three, 3-minute sessions per day, one for each activity.” This notation creates a simple, clear directive for each day’s work. 

A typical notation might read:

            Monday morning: 

Planned:  Sit - 12 repetitions (with treats)

                                Done:      Sit - 12 repetitions (gave extra treats for the three best sits)       

Monday afternoon: 

Planned:  Down stay - 4 repetitions of 6 seconds each

Done:      Down stay - 3 repetitions for 10 seconds each. Success!

Monday evening: 

Planned:  3 minutes of loose leash during walk

Done:      1.5 minutes attained

These notes help keep the human student on track and thinking clearly, which pays off in communicating better with the dog. 

 There are a few principles of teaching that will make it easier for a dog to get better for each training session.

•             The combination of repetition and reward is important.

•             Be consistent by practicing the same way every time. This includes saying things the same way and using the same gestures and movements for each repetition.  

•             Deliver food rewards so that the dog gets them while in the correct position. 

•             Keep the training sessions short and give the dog lots of fun games and activities in between. 

•             Do training sessions in a lot of different locations. Most dogs learn rapidly if situations are varied.

We give all our students what we call the Three Golden Rules of Training:

1. Start your training on a happy note with an easy exercise your dog can do well. Reward and praise generously. This will build both the human’s confidence as a teacher and the dog’s confidence as a pupil.

2. Train for 10 minutes a day, breaking it up into one or two-minute sessions. End each session with the easiest exercise. This closes the session on a successful note.

3. No matter what happens during the training session, take time to engage in a pleasant activity afterwards for about five minutes.

Training a dog to a very good level of reliability is possible in only 10 minutes of practice a day.  Start with a lot of rewards and reduce the number of rewards as the dog gets better at each behavior. It won’t be long before the dog magically responds correctly to each cue and command and you will be pleasantly surprised by the outcome.