“Get off that! That’s the baby’s!” Have you ever found yourself saying this to your pet?

My friend Staci asked me a month or so ago to write a post about household pets and their relationships with babies. Jia’s godmother Megan also commented on how good it was to have Jia exposed to our two pugs, Mei Mei and Kona, for enhancing her immune system and resistance to allergens.

Since many of my friends have fur children, I decided to write a post about it: how to prepare your fur children for their fur-less sibling’s invasion in their home, how it affects baby’s development, etc.

Back when I was pregnant, Jeff and I tried to think of ways that would improve the chances of acceptance of the baby to our doggies. This was even more of a concern since I knew Kona was given to the pug rescue in San Diego because he wreaked havoc once a new baby arrived when he was little. We really couldn’t think of many approaches except talk to them and tell them their baby sister was coming, having them sniff baby gear, playing YouTube videos of crying babies (this elicited a lot of adorable pug head tilts. We also put the pugs in Jia’s crib and baby carrier but that was purely for our entertainment!). My friend Mary and her husband had a smart idea and walked their dog Jet alongside their empty stroller before little Liam arrived, to get him used to it.  And, after Jia arrived, we had our family visitors bring the doggies Jia’s receiving blankets with her scent, where they were placed in their doggie beds. From what we were told, they both avoided the blankets. “Uh oh,” we thought…

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