a new dad, his new son and his 11 month boxer

[bulaskel]

g'day all from sunny oz. just to let you know my partner gave birth to our gorgeous son "connor james" on december 16th. the best day of my life. we have been home for about 1 week now and i'm trying to introduce my son connor and my 11 month old boxer 'bula' together. bula is great he hears connor cry and comes running to the window. bula is full of life and tends to jump up whenever i go outside into the yard. can anyone offer advice as to the best way for connor & bula to interact and also how to stop bula from jumping up. i love them both and just don't want anything bad to happen. bula is my first boxer and definately won't be my last but i need a little help' kind regards adam

 

[lhsdavis]

First, the worst thing you could do is to keep them separated. I was in the hospital for 3 days after my daughter was born and during that time my husband took home a shirt my daughter had worn for my boxers to sleep with, its a way of getting them used to her smell. So for a start you might want to introduce her to some smells. Then when I got home I put my daughter in either her carrier or her bouncy seat and I let the dogs come in one at a time to investigate, and remember if you act weird or worried they will sense it. Keeping in mind my male was the same age as yours and female was a year older, and they always jumped up us. But let me tell you that they have never jumped up on my daughter, and she is now 3 and they still dont. They just seem to sense that they cannot do that, and my male is very protective of my daughter, never leaves her side if they are outside. And he finds her much more exciting now that she is mobile, and can throw his toys for him. My favorite picture is of my daughter at 3 months laying on the floor with her toy and Noah laying beside her. Ashley, my female boxer, played mommy. Anytime Hailey (my daughter)was sleeping in her bassinet and ashley hadnt heard her move recently or breath loudly, she would be beside the bassinet whining until my daughter moved, or she would jump on our bed and look in the bassinet and whine. It was too funny. Anyway I have never worried about what they would do to her but what she could do to them. I let them sniff her to their hearts content because until you let them do this they will always be curious or get over excited when they get any contact. The familiar will become boring as I see it. The only other thing I had to watch for was my female, if my baby was on the floor, she uses her feet as we use hands and she may try to investigate the baby that way so I watched carefully. Noah, on the other hand, doesnt do that. My husband was a nervous wreck when they were around her at first and I had to really insist that what I was doing was the right way. As my daughter has gotten older I just make sure that she understands that when the dogs are sleeping on their pillows, thats their space, where they dont want to be disturbed. THey do have to have somewhere they can go when they dont want to be bothered. I love watching my dogs and my daughter together, they have a wonderful relationship.

 

[busters mum]

Let them spend lots of time together and involve the pup in every thing, give him loads of his own toys and basket that is specificaly his own where he can get time out.
Never leave them alone together, and always teach no climbing hugging etc.
Eating your meals seperatly and not allowing the pup upstairs will help a lot with his pecking order in your new family. The above post says it all really.
...CONGRATULATIONS, daddy!

 

[jaimie]

I am going to repeat what others have said, Do NOT keep your dog from the baby! It is the worst thing you could do! Check out my gallery and see my pups with my kids. I have 4 children, 3 boxers and we all live together great. Of course, dogs want to lick, I was told by the home care nurse that visits 24 hours after you get home from the hospital to include the dog in everything and let them lick the baby on the feet, or top of the head. You can always wash it off after the dog is done. My kids are perfectly fine and my dogs licked their faces, hands, toes, when they were babies. Ummm they still lick, which is fine with my kids they just push them away when they have had too many kisses.

When your dog jumps up, turn your body sideways with your knee in the air.
That is what we do for our dogs, when we get home they get too excited. When I had my first child we had our 6 month old boxer Britnee (who is now at the bridge) she used to join me for cuddle time when I would nurse the baby. I get the baby all settled and Brit would get invited up next to me and I would pet her while I nursed the baby. I think Brit looked forward to it as much as I did. LOL

Good Luck, and don't leave your dog out he is part of the family too!

 

[Elyse]

First, congratulations!!!!

Everyone is right about not keeping them apart. You should have them interacting as much as possible. When you are going in to check on Connor, call Bula to come with you and share this time. When Cole (9 1/2 months now) was born, we included Nestle in everything and supervised all play time. We also gave Nestle treats (Ness is 2 years old now so the ages of them are similar) everytime she came into Cole's room so she would associate it as a fun and wonderful place. I would be sure to keep the 2 of them together as much as possible... Check out my gallery and you will see the kind of relationship they developed together... just keep an eye on them.

I think Nestle is a better parent to Cole than us sometimes.

All the best
Elyse

 

[Luvnmyboxer]

Congratulations on the new baby--being as I haven't had kids yet I can't help you as far as the dilemma you have. Personally if I did have kids my dog would be right in the middle of most of their activities. I'm sure you all will do just fine though....congrats again.