Getting the Dog Ready for a Baby

Our Buky Boy is a great dog. He is very loving, wants to be around his mah and pah all the time, loves walks and running, knows his commands, and can be trusted in the house all by himselfums during the day.

With that said, it pains me to report that his not-so-good traits are really annoying me during this pregnancy. These traits include: not walking properly on a leash, getting super excited and running in the house (without getting his paws cleaned) after he takes a dump, and he sheds white hair like a madman. I know that the leash thing is our fault but damnit, I am annoyed because I can't go for a run without battle him for most of it.

So, there are some habits that we are trying to break Buk of before the baby is born because we need him to not be his pushy-self:

1) He must walk properly on a leash. This means that I will be painstakingly taking him on 3 minute walks to train him. You gotta keep the walks short so the precious pup does it correctly and you keep his attention (aka before he loses interest and pulls on the leash to poop). I will probably use this method and see how it goes: http://master-trainer.com/Behavior%20Modification/003Pulling%20on%20Leash.pdf

I have started this training and it is going pretty well. We have gone on two walks now and he kinda gets it but I don't think he understands why we are stopping every two steps. We will continue with the praise and treats and see what happens.

2) Buk must let us go through doors before him. Otherwise, he and the Little One are just going to fight to get into the house first...and, Buk will probably win those fights. This one is pretty easy though because Buk is very good at "wait" so we just make him wait and we enter first. He just needs more practice so we don't have to remind him every time

That is really actually all that Buk needs to improve on. I guess two really is quite good. We can't really do anything about the hair expect vacuum more often, which is something I will have to get used to, blegh. But, this leash thing may kill me. My patience at the moment is zilch so I am going to try really hard to be patient and kind. It will be good practice for parenting, I suppose. But, dogs...argh, they are really getting on my nerves right now.