How to Introduce Your Dog to a New Baby

Start preparing your dog about three months before the baby arrives, not in the week after you come home from the hospital. The introduction itself matters far less than the six months of changed routines, new rules, and reduced attention that follow it, and a dog who learned those changes in advance handles the whole thing far better than a dog who gets everything dumped on them at once.

The single most useful thing you can teach before a baby comes is a solid place command with duration. Everything else is management.

Three months out

Fix the training you have been putting off. Jumping, door dashing, counter surfing, and pulling on the leash all become genuine safety problems when you are holding a newborn. Now is the time, while you still have energy.

Teach place, and build it to 20 minutes. A cot or bed the dog goes to and stays on until released. This is what lets you feed the baby, change a diaper, or nap without managing the dog. Build it in five minute increments with a chew.

Move the dog's stuff now. If the crate is moving out of your bedroom, if the dog is losing couch privileges, if the feeding time is changing, do it now. Do not do it the week the baby arrives, or the dog will connect the loss directly to the baby.

Practice one handed everything. Leash walking while pushing a stroller. Giving cues while holding a ten pound object. Opening doors with your hands full. It is awkward and it is worth rehearsing.

Two months out

Introduce the sounds. Play recordings of newborn crying, quietly at first, while the dog eats or chews. Over a few weeks bring the volume up. You want crying to be boring background noise, not an alarm.

Introduce the gear. Set up the crib, the swing, the bassinet, the stroller. Let the dog investigate once, then make it neutral furniture. Run the swing while the dog is on place. Push the empty stroller on walks.

Introduce the smells. Lotion, diaper cream, baby wash. Put them on your hands and go about your day.

One month out

Set the new schedule and start living it. If walks are moving to 7am, start at 7am now. If the dog is getting fed before you rather than after, start now.

Practice the greeting rule. Every time you come through the door holding something, the dog does not get attention until four paws are on the floor and you have set the thing down.

Decide your rooms. Baby gates go up now, so they are old news rather than a new insult.

The first meeting

Keep it short and low key. The drama people expect does not usually happen.

1. Someone brings home a blanket the baby has slept on a day before you come home. Let the dog sniff it while you feed treats. Do not make a ceremony out of it.
2. When you arrive home, greet the dog first, without the baby. Let them get the excitement out. Two or three minutes.
3. Bring the baby in with someone else holding them. Dog on leash, held by a second adult, not tied to something.
4. Let the dog sniff from a few feet away, then call them off and pay them for coming away. Repeat two or three times.
5. Send the dog to place with a chew. Done. Total time under ten minutes.

Do not hold the baby down at dog level. Do not force a nose to nose greeting. Do not correct the dog for sniffing, because a dog who gets corrected for calm curiosity learns that the baby predicts bad things.

The rules for the first year

Never leave them alone together. Not for a second. Not for a bathroom trip, not to answer the door. Gate, crate, or a person in the room. This is not about trusting your dog. It is that babies do unpredictable things and dogs give warnings that people miss.

Pay the dog for the baby. Baby cries, dog gets a treat. Baby is on the floor, dog gets a chew on place. You want the baby to predict good outcomes for the dog, which is easy for the first year and much harder later.

Watch for the warnings. Lip licking, yawning, turning the head away, whale eye where you see the white of the eye, freezing, or leaving the room. All of those mean the dog is uncomfortable. A dog who leaves should always be allowed to leave. Punishing a growl does not remove the feeling, it removes the warning, and then you have a dog who bites without notice.

Protect their sleep and their food. More kid bites happen around a sleeping dog or a food bowl than anywhere else. Feed the dog behind a closed door once the baby is mobile.

The crawling stage is the real test

Most dogs handle a newborn fine. The trouble starts around eight months when the baby becomes mobile, grabby, and unpredictable at eye level. Plan for that stage the way you planned for the birth. Gates, a dog free zone, and continued place work.

If your dog is already reactive, has ever growled at a child, or has any bite history, get in person help before the birth. That is not a blog post problem.

For building the place command and a real off switch before the baby comes, my free calm dog guide

Ready to train your dog?

Every drill in this article comes from the WorldWide K9 Academy course library. If you want the full step by step system, start with the $5 intro course.