Positive Petzine

Hi!
First of all, best wishes for you and your new addition! I have just a few thoughts that might help Luna. Have you thought about getting any of the CD's of various recorded sounds? There are some for thunderstorms, babies crying, all types of everyday sounds, etc. In the past, I've used them for our new litters to help get them socialized. The pups loved them...I think. After the first or second day they'd fall asleep as soon as the sounds started :-) There are directions with them, but, basically, you start playing them at a very low volume and build the sound up gradually. You might think of C/Ting Luna whenever you put a CD on, whenever he doesn't react, etc. I've had several different ones over the years, but one place I recommend is from Terry Ryan at www.legacy.com They are called "SoundsGood CD."

Do you have a friend(s) that could come visit with their babies so Luna could get a little more exposure as the time grows nearer. Another good opportunity for CT!

As far as where Luna could be during the birthing, there's two things (at least) to consider. One is, if he's near you and hears you cry out or sound as if you're in distress, he may get very anxious and worried and act out. If you send him completely away and he comes back to a new baby with you, he may feel he was sent away while you got a new "pup." Maybe a friend(s) could come over and have you hold a few young babies and pay attention to them while Luna is right there with you. If he has some people that he really enjoys that could maybe take him to the park, for a walk, ice cream :-) ... a fun outing, then bring him back a couple of hours later, it might make the transition easier. Whether it be a new pup, new dog, or new baby or child coming to our house, we've pretty much treated it like just an everyday occurrence and the dogs have been find (after the appropriate amount of sniffing, of course). With new dogs, they are introduced in a crate, one house dog at a time comes in to visit them. Crating human babies seems to be frowned on LOL, but maybe supervising Luna while the baby is in a crib would be an option. And I sound like a broken record...but...if there's another person there to C/T Luna for calmly greeting the new baby he will come to associate his new little person as a very good thing!

A question. You mention that you will be able to take Luna in the cabin of airplanes as a trained Therapy Dog. I don't know where you live, but I'm pretty sure in the US, the carriers will only take dogs in cabin if they are certified "Service Dogs." I am always so envious of the countries that can take their dogs everywhere...planes, boats, trains, restaurants...sigh.

Best of luck!
Connie

Connie & the IslandZooCrew

Hi Liat, I've written an article about dogs and babies which will be appearing soon, so stay tuned. Basically, make babies very boring for dogs. It's hard to say how she will feel when you give birth to your baby at home, I've not had any experience with that.

Congratulations!

Regards,
Aidan
http://www.positivepetzine.com

Congrats on working with the people who need some cheering up! However, certified therapy dogs do not have the same access rights as Service Dogs. Service Dogs have access because of the rights of a qualified person with disabilites. In other words, it is the disabled person who has the right to be accompanied by a Service Dog.
There also is a $2500.00 fine for someone trying to "pass off" a pet or therapy dog as a service dog, and not being a qualified person with disabilities.
However, if your pet is small enough, it can travel in a pet carrier if it fits under your seat, but I believe you also have to have health certificates within ten days of travel for a pet.
There is no State or Federal law that says a Service dog must be "certified", and there are many owner trained service dogs in the US. That being said, however, the dogs must act appropriate and be trained to mitigate the disabilty of the owner. It is fortunate that disabled can self train, often times the waiting lists are up to 5 years.

First, therapy dogs must be certified as therapy dogs. They are not service dogs or guide dogs. The information I gave about Luna flying with me was according to what the company I'll be flying with told me, I don't know how it works for different companies since I only checked with the one I care about :)
And no, I have no plans of pretending she is a guide dog or that I am disabled.

Second, baby issue: Luna knows kids and babies from ages 8 months old and up. She's great with kids, I have no worries what so ever that she will hurt the baby, not even by mistake, at any age... I was worried more about her separation anxiety growing and getting worse, cause she is very VERY attached to me, so I want to make the transition of having a baby at home easy for her, so she will know that her place is the same and she is not less important because of the baby.
I will write some more later, but I have to go now.
Thank you for you replies!