Published: June 26, 2008 02:35 pm      

LIFESTYLE: Plan ahead for when dog meets baby

Katy Marshall was cautious when she and her husband, Ed, took each of their newborn children home - to their three dogs. The greyhound, corgi and mixed breed pups were far from vicious, and they seemed to pose no willful threat to the babies, but Marshall wanted to be careful.

As a veterinarian at Poinsett Animal Hospital in Greenville, S.C., she knew accidents could happen.

“The main thing is that you want to feel safe,” Marshall says. “I just never left my dogs alone in a room with them. They were nice dogs, and they didn’t really have a problem with the baby, but it just wasn’t a chance I was willing to take.”

Marshall and Julie Caswell, a dog trainer who conducts “Introducing Your Dog to Baby” presentations for St. Francis Health System in Greenville, say a few simple rules help to ensure safety and promote easy transitions when the new additions to households with pets are bundles of joy that will, eventually, walk upright.

They say, just as when preparing an older child for the arrival of a new sibling, the most important work should be done before the baby arrives.

“If the dog is not trained, there are going to be some problems,” Caswell says. “Once the baby has arrived, the family will most likely have no time to deal with training issues and actually have less time for the dog. If they have dealt with these issues beforehand, then everything is going to go much smoother. The last thing new parents who are probably not getting enough sleep need is to also have to worry about their pets misbehaving.”

PetEducation.com, a pet information Web site created by veterinarians Race Foster and Marty Smith of Drs. Foster & Smith Inc., agrees. According to the site, the transition of bringing a baby home will go smoothly as long as “the parents take extra time out of each day both before and after the baby is born to play with, exercise, and groom the dog.”

Caswell says dogs that will spend any time around infants should obediently follow basic commands such as “settle” and “leave it.” She uses “settle” to subdue dogs when they could potentially strike, scratch, jump on or trample infants, and she uses “leave it” to tell dogs to drop what they hold or approach when they go after something forbidden, such as baby toys.

Caswell, the owner of Pawsitive Effects Dog Training in Greenville, has worked at animal shelters, Humane Society offices and rescue groups for 15 years. She says she views introducing pets and children from the perspective of pets, but she appreciates the benefits having a pet can provide to children.

“I believe that it is possible to have both children and pets in a household and that it teaches children compassion for animals if they grow up with pets,” she says.

Everything worked out for the Marshalls. Children Joe and Clark are now 8 and 10, and the household has had dogs all along.

“My dogs had pretty good boundaries ahead of time,” Katy Marshall says.

“They sort of knew how to act in the family. They weren’t allowed to just take over our lives and run the show. They had all been to dog school. They knew ahead of time some appropriate behavior.”