Greyhound And New Baby - Best Practice

[MattB]

Hi,

We've a few months left but me and my wife are expecting a new baby.

 

We've got two hounds and I've had the benefit of seeing them both interact with my sister's 2 kids, from birth to small running-around boys and I've never had any reason to worry although my sister didn't really let them near the children when they were very young. However this doesn't stop me wanting to be as careful as possible. Obviously I'll be taking all the usual advice of not leaving the baby unsupervised with the dogs (well not leaving the baby unsupervised at all for a while!).

 

One of the hounds in particular is very prey driven, I guess my thought is how will she know the difference between a baby and a small fluffy. This might be a ridiculous question put in my head by friends and midwives!

 

Both hounds are quite shy, though they seem to be less wary of children than adults and more tolerant to them running around being noisy, particularly if they think there's going to be food dropped on the floor.

 

So just wondering how people went about introducing hounds to babies, and helping hounds adjust to a new arrival.

 

all thoughts appreciated - M

[Fruitycake]

Get the dogs used to having and going to their own space on command and staying there, potentially where they can be contained as needed. If you're setting up a baby room, start blocking it off from the dogs now so that isn't a newly banned area when the child arrives. Your schedules will change with a baby, but try to figure out how to try to be somewhat regular with the dogs' schedules (feeding, walking, letting out) and if things will be drastically different try to shift things a bit now. You might want to try out behaviors that you will be performing with a new child (carrying a baby/bundle and talking baby talk to it) to see how tour change in attention and voice will affect the dogs, too. High-pitched baby talk can get dogs pretty excited, and so can an owner showing interest in something carried above their heads, so the combination might get a lot of attention....or not.

 

There are books about dogs and children that you might purchase or check out from your local library. Others here will probably have titles for you. I believe there are recordings of babies crying that might help expose the dogs to some new noises, which may help. Or have friends or relatives make recordings.

[Houndtime]

We had dogs before we had children and never had a problem. Those dogs were not greyhounds, but, I can't imagine much difference. We always taught our children to respect the dogs and the dogs space. We taught them to be gentle and for the most part, the dogs loved the babes. Good luck and congratulations on the new baby.

[greysmom]

How they reacted to your sister's kids will be a pretty good predictor of their reaction with yours. Most dogs will be just fine with the new addition after an initial re-settling period. Lots of people say to bring something that smells like the baby home from the hospital and let the dog(s) get used to the new smell. I'm sure many of our parents will chime in with their experiences.

[MattB]

Thank everyone that's really helpful stuff. Very interesting re: carrying things around.

 

I'm guessing the hounds will be very happy with their new routine, my wife will be home all day for the foreseeable future and while they're not affectionate hounds by any means they love it when we're home all day.

 

Thanks again,

 

Matt

[cgs]

Thank everyone that's really helpful stuff. Very interesting re: carrying things around.

 

 

I heard about this when I went to pick out our greyhound. I brought our little dog and when she'd had enough, I picked her up. The rescue lady said to put her down because for some reason that she didn't really explain, they'll think it's food or something if you're carrying it. That said, Percy has never had a problem or even a hint of a problem when I pick Lulu up. I can walk right by his face carrying her and he doesn't care. So I think your dogs will get used to it pretty quickly if they even have an issue at all.

[cleptogrey]

i was overly paranoid when i had my daughter and we had a 6.5 year old saluki at the time. i did make sure that when i took a shower there was no way that he could get to the baby, point blank.better safe than sorry.

 

but we immediately started walkies together. he looked most regal strolling next to my fancy italian pram. the three of us went everywhere together. i did hire a dog walker for that extra special attention that i thought might help and it did. also days when our daughter was under the weather the dog walker, who became baby sitter was a God send. azim became totally engrossed when real food/fall-out dropped from the high chair. watch it, they do tend to blimp out eating those tasty morsels. my daughter's first words, "Gooddog" that's how much i said it, constantly praising Azim. And yup, that's what came out of her mouth!

 

so, you need a pram(the larger marmot carriage was the best baby equipment that i ever owned) , good cover up for rain days for the pram and off you go! there were no issues sharing the back seat, the two took naps together as she became a toddler and during those terrible twos she often napped on the dog bed!

Edited May 7, 2018 by cleptogrey

[cleptogrey]

found it!

[MattB]

Beautiful pic. I've got a lovely one somewhere of my sister's one year old holding one of ours on the lead.

[greytluck]

I had greyhounds before I had kids. When we brought my eldest daughter home both greyhounds reacted very differently. Corinna my female was very interested in my daughter initially. The little squeaks and sounds a newborn makes excited her, more then I was comfortable with. That didn't last very long though, maybe a few days. Pretty quickly she began to really like the baby and as my daughter grew they were always very close. Corinna in many cases taking in a protective role of her.

Wally was indifferent towards the baby and remained that way as they grew.

 

I did more training of the kids as the grew then I did the dogs and knock on wood I've never had any issues between them.

 

Congratulation on the new addition, I hope things go just as smoothly for you too.

[SPDoggie]

We read a book that had suggested training yourself to not call the dog, "good boy/girl" any more and refer to them as "dog".. well, that proved impossible as the dogs were our kids years before a human-kid appeared.

 

We made the conscious effort to not shove the dogs away while I was nursing or doing other things with the baby, so that they would not have to fight for attention. And we were really good at each getting one-on-one time with at least one of us each day... and they certainty still had walks.

 

We never let our child play on the floor in the room where the dogs were-- so there never had to be any fear of space-aggression... and as greyluck said, we did much more training of our daughter as she grew up so that she knew to never touch them when they were on a bed (tough for us to stop doing after years of snuggling) nor touching their bowls etc.

 

We've never had an issue-- just one bark when she hugged one too hard around the head-- good lesson for all.