Dog barking and Baby Question?

[amberdoggoneit]

I have been talking to different trainers and reading alot to get our "fur" babies ready for the new baby.  Some one told me to let the dogs bark as much as they want around me while pregnantbecasu e then the baby will be oblivious to it  after they are born. 
We have always taught our dogs that there really isnt a need for barking unless it seems neccessary like someone at the door or outside in the yard.  They do know speak and we have tried doing that but the trainer insists that the dog just needs to randomly bark like at night or early in the morning so the baby is used to it. 
Is this man crazy or does this really work?

[Ali]

It may work if you have dogs that bark a lot. If your dogs are trained NOT to bark, I would not recommend undoing that!! I suggest not tiptoeing around while baby is napping. Go ahead and vaccuum or whatever - THAT works to help baby get used to the noise of life and still be able to sleep.

[amberdoggoneit]

Yea we were told to put a diaper on a bear which we have done. only have had one diaper incident and that was hubby's fault. 

We were also told that whenever I have the baby bring let hubby bring home the blanket the baby was wrapped in that day and put it on the bear and put the bear in the carseat to let the dogs get used to it and the smell.

A trainer also told me to get a cd of a baby crying and play it at different intervals of the day so dogs get used to the noise before the baby even arrives. 

But I know that most baby's have a different cry than others.  I know my neice and nephew both cried very differently. 

[Icerotti]

When Lexi was born we did just like Ali said. Go about your normal routine when the baby is sleeping. Lexi will sleep through anything..lol I am a light sleeper and hate it....lol She was also very use to the dogs barking and they never seem to startle or wake her.

When I was pregnant with Lexi we had 2 rottis. I went to the trainer and asked him what I should be doing to prepare them for the baby. He said to go and buy a doll about the same size as the baby and like Julie said carry it around--put it in the baby carrier / stroller / highchair etc.  Its good if you can get your husband to bring a blanket home from the hospital before you come home and let them sniff it.

[Nicole]

hehehe...

We are having our baby at home. I think that it will really be helpful with Cabeza understanding what is going on when he is actually there while the baby is being born! I think that dogs can understand a new member of the pack like that. The smell and all of that will be in the house from the first moment.

I'm not doing much to get Cabeza ready, but he's pretty much bullet-proof. (Except for fireworks, but that's another story). He's been around lots of babies. Actually, one thing I'm doing is DEMANDING that Mark make Cabeza have manners. He's been getting really slack with him, feeding him from the table, and allowing him to snappily grab food out of his hands. Its not acceptable. Mark just has been spoiling him, which is no good with a young child around.

So, that's all we're doing. I'm getting Mark to remember why dogs with manners are pleasant.

[GoldenPyrs]

When our oldest was born we had only one dog (Cara).  She was pretty "talkitive" so he'd already heard her bark many times   so when he was born we noticed that he never even startled when she'd bark.  His hearing is fine, but he didn't seem to even notice her bark.  Cara's reaction to him was just to plop down near his bed and lull him with her snores.  No problems at all for us.

[VdogLover]

They do know speak and we have tried doing that but the trainer insists that the dog just needs to randomly bark like at night or early in the morning so the baby is used to it. 
Is this man crazy or does this really work?

I will not call him crazy since he may have his own reasons for believing this. However I think its 100% unnecessary for you to be up asking the dog to bark in the middle of the night.
I raised both of my kids from birth amoungst several vocal dogs and found babies have a wonderful way of just fitting in to your life, barking dogs and all. My family use to laugh when my youngest son would be asleep and not even flinch from the baying Coonhound.
Get your good night sleep now why you can and skip the late night/early morning bark training.

[pyr4me]

I agree with what previous posters have said, but I will tell you that I didn't really do anything to prepare Tipper for my twins arrival. When we got home from the hospital the girls were sleeping in their car seats, which we set on the couch and let Tipper approach them and sniff them and that was that.

I do think that it's important to give your dogs attention and not change their routine too much when the baby first comes home so that issues around jealousy don't develop. If your dogs' routine will change when the baby comes home, I would start changing it now so the dogs don't associate it with the baby.

[amberdoggoneit]

Thanks everyone for the advice.  I figured that just making sure our dogs had their manners in order and not doing much different would be alright. 

I think that is really interesting about letting the dogs smell them right when they get home.  It makes alot of sense.  All the trainers have said put the dogs outside and come home.  Then when you get home go and see the dogs and let them smell the baby on you.  Only after they had calmed down from that could the baby even be shown to the dogs. 

But doing it as soon as you get home and just getting it over with makes so much sense.  I figure that my dogs will be very interested at first and then just say "Ok that was cool NEXT!"