Puggle Wilbur is the much-loved dog of a young couple.
He goes everywhere with them, sits between them on the couch in the evening, goes to doggie day care twice a week, sleeps in their bed. He gets walked twice a day, played with in the backyard, and eats two carefully prepared meals, along with the occasional organic biscuit.
But something has changed.
Wilbur doesn’t know it yet, but he is about to be slightly displaced. Okay, that’s an understatement.
His owners are expecting a baby.
Wilbur’s owners know that their dog is going to be as overwhelmed by this enormous change in his life as they are, so they are taking some steps to help ease him into the inevitable.
First, they decided to keep Wilbur out of the baby’s room. They know that babies and children should never be left alone together and felt it was best to have the nursery be a no-dog zone. They started to do this well in advance of the due date. That way, Wilbur would already be used to staying in the hallway when the baby took up residence.
They started to change up Wilbur’s schedule, taking him for walks or feeding him at odd times. The baby’s needs will come first, and Wilbur may not get his walk or his meal on time every day.
Wilbur’s owners got a pretend baby doll and began walking around the house with it.
They wrapped the doll in a blanket and used the same powder and lotion on it that they planned to use with the real baby. That way, Wilbur could get used to the new sights and smells he would soon encounter.
Since Wilbur has several stuffed plush toys, his owners gradually changed them over to toys that were more “doggy” toys, less likely to be confused with baby toys.
And the toughest change ever, the hardest one to accomplish, and truthfully, not quite successfully achieved – yet – is to get Wilbur off the furniture and the owners’ bed. The couple knows that they will not want to worry about the dog stepping on or jostling the baby, so this transition, though challenging, is necessary.
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