Dog & Baby

So admittedly I already have a baby, well a fur baby. Winston, our blue french bulldog is going to be 5 years old just before my due date.

Winston is quite an independent dog but he has always been the centre of our attention at home, so I have to admit, I'm intrigued and nervous to see how he reacts to baby. I'm sure there will be slight jealousy, I mean it would only be natural but I'm sure once he realises baby isn't going anywhere he will adapt and begin to accept his new role. 

He is one of those dogs that are never going to grow up, whenever he has a new toy or he's introduced to a new person its like the best thing in the world and he get sooooo excitable. This maybe difficult to handle with a newborn. So to make this easier for all parties, we have decided to set him out his own 'safe space' which will be located the other end of our living room, away from the tv and sofa. Here he will have his bed, toys, food & water all laid out on his favourite rug. (Which happens to be a really beautiful moroccan rug, all the way from the Atlas mountains in Marrakech, he became so fond of it when we brought it home so we had to hide it upstairs in the spare room and keep the door shut in the hope of it not getting ruined. However, it is his and he still loves it lol.) The idea of this space, is gradually leading up to the babies arrival, we will teach him to retreat to his space when saying the word 'space'. This will allow us to change the newborn baby without worrying that all of a sudden an excitable frenchie will run in the room wanting to play. This should also make the experience nicer for him, as he knows when he's in his space he's safe and can't get in trouble. 

We are also starting to re-train him. He's a well behaved dog, however he's extremely stubborn. So I have to ask him 5 times before he listens to me, I guess he is a man ;) so I'm gradually re-training him to do something the first time and get rewarded :) hopefully if I stick to this routine , by the time baby comes he will always listen to me, keep your fingers crossed for me please !!

I hope the combination of these two things will help everyone get along with stress free lives but it may take a few months to settle into.

Wish us luck 

Ps- if anyone has any other suggestions for introducing baby to dog pleeeassseeeee share, it would be much appreciated !