Preparing Your Dog for the New Baby

You’re expecting your first baby – how wonderful! There are so many things to start thinking about and planning for, including preparing your dog for all the changes that will occur when you bring the baby home. The best time to start training your pet for this new lifestyle is today. Using the positive reinforcement clicker training method will reinforce the strong positive bond between you and your dog and make the transition much happier for you and your dog.

Obedience Training
This is the time to make sure your dog has been obedience trained to respond to your commands: sit, stay, come, down. Clicker training is one of the most successful methods for obedience training, and once you’ve mastered the simple clicker technique, you’ll be able to teach your dog to do these basic commands. Once you’ve fine-tuned these skills, you can clicker train your dog to walk with a leash.

Crate Training
Make sure your dog has a safe place to go, a place just for him when he needs to get away from all the baby activity or for you to put him when he needs to be out of the activity for a few hours. Clicker train your dog to go to the crate, where his bed, food, water, and toys are kept, and he’ll be much happier when you need him to stay there for a while.

Behavior Training
With all the attention shifted to the new baby and all the new smells and noises, your dog may feel threatened or overwhelmed. As early as possible, start clicker training to address issues such as barking, growling, and other aggressive behaviors; and chewing, jumping up on people or furniture, and other destructive behaviors.

Environment Training
All the noise and commotion may make your dog skittish, aggressive, or withdrawn. You can help him learn to stay calm by introducing him to similar environments. Clicker train your dog to lie down and be calm when children approach her. Take your dog to visit friends with young children and clicker train him to learn to stay calm with all the strange noises and smells. Introduce these for short periods and increase the time as he becomes more comfortable.

You’ll find a number of blog posts on this site with information about clicker training techniques and tips. Clicker train your dog early, reinforce the training often, and make him feel loved and important. You’ll be able to enjoy this exciting time of your life with your new baby and your happy, well behaved dog.

A Clicker Trained Puppy Is a Happy Puppy

Puppies love to chew, bite, bark – things that come naturally to them. But these behaviors are not acceptable in your home. Like children, dogs need to know their boundaries. Start clicker training soon after you bring the puppy home to encourage your puppy to develop desirable behaviors and to curb negative ones.

To use the clicker successfully, you’ll need to teach your puppy to associate the clicker sound with a treat. The first step is to click once and give him a treat. No need to over-feed him – just give him one small piece of his regular food and adjust the amount you feed him at meal time.

By starting clicker training with your puppy as soon as you bring him home, your puppy will learn the clicker training technique and will want to perform the behaviors you desire. As he learns to recognize the sound of the clickers, you can start clicker training to house train, heel, sit, stand, stay, and come when called. Later, you’ll be able to teach him games and tricks. One of the keys to successful clicker training is learning when to click. You must click at the exact moment your puppy performs the desired behavior.

Your puppy wants your praise and approval. Help your puppy live happily in your home and give him the best start in life by starting the clicker training technique early.