Houston area dog training to prepare for human sibling?

[SK & Hudson]

Does anyone recommend any Houston area dog trainers to prepare our 6 year old mini goldendoodle for a human sibling?

[Stacy]

I wish you were in my area. There's a trainer who has a seminar called Babies Don't Bark that is specifically geared for expectant families. But I'm afraid you're not going to want to drive 12 hours for it. 

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

It partly depends on the personality of your dog... but a few things we did to get you started:

-take a small blanket to the hospital to get baby's scent on it, introduce dog to the scent before you bring baby home

-before baby arrives play YouTube clips of a baby crying at random times (nice and loudly). If needed give the dog treats for remaining calm (only needed if dog is freaked out)

- baby is a source of good things.  Dog gets treats or at least praise for approaching baby and sniffing nicely.  

- brush up on dog's "leave it" training

- when baby starts getting moving...don't allow baby to approach dog while it is resting.  Dog can approach baby though if calm.  This helps prevent baby grabbing doggie and potentially getting bitten.

All I can think of for now but those are a few simple things that helped us :)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I was told to have my husband carry the baby into the house so that I could greet my dog with hands free for pettting & hugging. (She was my dog, although she liked my DH, lol) We waited a little bit for her excitement at having me back home to calm down a little before introducing her to the baby. I was told that this might help minimize jealousy. Of course, that was almost 40 years asgo, so thinking may have changed on this. :) 

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Luna was a daddys girl and so gentle that we weren't worried.  She was excited to see me and only showed mild curiosity towards the baby...until baby started to crawl and try to grab at her and started to get defensive.  That's when we had to make interacting with baby a source of yummy treats and she came around pretty quickly.

Riley was only 6 months old when we brought new baby home and she is so outgoing and social that there is no jealousy to worry about... just her giant nose and paws on the baby when he is on his play mat or something:p  Riley is very gentle with baby but if she were to accidentally step on him she might hurt him.. so I basically let her get a quick sniff and that's it.  She keeps trying to lick his hands all the time though and he recently started putting his hands in his mouth...building up that immune system lol!  I think when baby is mobile Riley will have calmed down some (I hope)... right now she gets quite over excited if DD starts running around.  

[Leslie J]

I don’t know a trainer but if your dog isn’t crate trained you might want to start now.  It gives you more options- especially when baby becomes mobile!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We are only grandparents but when our granddaughter was an infant  and then as a beginning walker she lived with us for a time.  We put her inside a baby corral so that the dogs could see and hear her but not get at her.  No one was left unattended of course.

[Adina P]

Totally not an experiment that generalizes to all dogs, but our dogs were:

Senior border collie, and 3 & 4 year old labradoodles. 

Funny enough each one reacted to the baby's hat (that Daddy brought home while I was still in hospital) pretty much as they reacted to baby... LOL.

Senior border collie gave the hat a quick sniff and then didn't care.
3 year old mellow labradoodle sniffed and sniffed and then left it alone.
4 year old high energy, licky labradoodle sniffed and LICKED the hat and was very excited about.  She happened to be the one that woke up, curious, and anxious every time baby cried for the first few nights and then, if we let her, would sit and lick the baby nonstop.  

We didn't do a lot of 'pre-training' but did try to set an expectation about stuffed animals that filled the baby's room. Funny enough, though they destroyed doggy stuffed animals, they ignored the baby's.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

I wish Riley would "get it" about her toys vs. the kids' toys!  She basically thinks our daughter's room is a paradise of new toys (daughter has a lot of stuffed toys) and tries to run in there to steal something anytime she has a chance.  She has never managed to keep anything more than 10 seconds so I really don't know why she keeps trying lol.  Maybe the 10 seconds is worth it?

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We have a grandkids' room at our house with lots of stuffed animals that our boys WILL steal and destroy when possible.  We have a couple sections of a baby corral angled across the doorway when it is open.  The dogs could jump it but they don't. The kids just move the barrier to walk through. If they don't 'close' it again and one of the dogs gets a toy, it's tough luck and not-so-sad from us. Oddly, when our kids were growing up, our dogs knew the difference between their toys and the kids' toys and never bothered the kids' toys.  Our current dogs - well let's just say that Clancy especially LOVES, adores and 'kills' without a second thought.

[Adina P]

Well if it helps you feel any better, Boca thinks kid socks are yummy snacks!!! 
The kids have gotten MUCH better at keeping socks put away, but earlier this week, my 9 y.o. daughter brought me a pair of knit tights whose feet had been chewed off -- WHAT THE DOODLE!?!!??

I have tried to get Boca interested in squeeky dog toys or tug ropes, and she has NO clue what to do with them.  

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Haha, Riley has chewed the scoop part off two plastic toddler spoons... we found them a few days later out the other end thank goodness ;) DD is old enough to use metal spoons so we just stopped using the plastic for now.

Thankfully Riley loves rubber squeaky toys but she destroys them pretty quick so they are only out for play time :p the ones she is less interested in are out all the time and she makes little games for herself sometimes.