We have guidelines on how to be ready to become a parent, what to expect when you have a baby, but do we have any information on how to prepare your pet when a new addition to the family arrives? They deserve to know, right? But how? Pets cant talk and how do they know if you’re pregnant or not? Well we need to give more credit to our furry friends as they are smarter than you think, lets find out.
I personally don’t have pets at home, but my parents have a lovable Yorkie, named “Gucci.” Yes, Gucci for the designer-wear and please don’t ask why we called him that, if you do have questions, please divert them to my mother and sister ๐ Continuing with my point, we spend most of our time at my parents house and we were very scared as “Gucci” is very protective and doesn’t like sharing the affection he has with us with strangers for the first time, but when he gets used to you he is like a lovable plush toy, always willing to play and scratch his belly. When my wife and I went to my parents house, he knew that my wife was pregnant and always was a bit more gentle with her and showed more affection to her rather than me (bummer) but it’s like he knew that we were carrying a child. To cut the long story short, I had this philosophy that although we love him unconditionally, he is always an “animal” so when my daughter was born we were very scared that he is going to do something to my daughter, as he tends to be a bit ‘jelly’ (jealous).
Therefore what we did when Sophia arrived for the first time he was very curious and my daughter was so small that he thought she was a toy so he wanted to play, but we showed fear and that is the worst way to react as animals especially dogs smell fear and when we’re excited they tend to feel on alert or threatened and he used to act strange around her. To be honest, I felt uncomfortable going to my parents as he always used to bark to see her and always wanting to play with her and I didn’t feel at ease going there always stressing myself. Instead of giving up, my father decided to speak to a dog trainer and to our surprise the trainer said its normal that they are curious and that they want to be part of the family therefore that is why Gucci is reacting that way. Do not make him feel left out and show you’re tensed as they tend to react more. Another thing what we did was to introduce him to his new “niece”๐ and Sophia to her new uncle Gucci ๐คฃ Also, tried giving treats from Sophia as if she’s throwing them (By the way Sophia was like 1 month old and had no idea was going on).
When, she was older I sat on the ground with her and sort of played with Gucci by throwing his toys and also had him sleep over whilst my parents were abroad. Having done all this now my daughter is nearly 11 months old and not only shes deeply in love with Gucci, but also in love with any other dog she sees outside, she starts to jump and babble as if all dogs are Gucci ๐
So there you have it a simple tactic but very effective, what I can advise all new parents having pets do not be scared, pets just want to be treated equally and be part of your family, I promised not write a lot, but too late ๐ I will conclude by giving some tips from a really good website called the
I read on how to prepare your furry friends when having a baby, trust me have a read as its very informative and definitely a good guide ๐ Do you have any experiences you want to share with any parents, comment on my social media pages and love your furry friends as they too are part of your lovable family ๐ฑ๐ถโค
