7 Commands to Teach Your Dog Before Bringing Baby Home

Bringing home a baby is a big change in everyone’s life, including your pup’s. Here are seven commands to help your dog to master before you bring baby home. Everyone’s life will be easier if you do!

We brought Lucky home as an eight week old puppy on May 4, 2019. We were surprised to found out we were expecting on June 5, 2019. Needless to say, training Lucky to be well behaved before our baby was born became a very high priority. Here are the seven commands he knows that were most helpful when we brought Calvin home to our eleven month old pup.

#1 SIT

This is a basic command that many dogs are taught early. The important thing to make sure your dog knows is that when he is asked to sit, he needs to sit, no matter how excited he is or how badly he wants to sniff the new baby in your arms.

#2 WAIT

This is a similar command to ‘Stay’ but the way we use it is: when Lucky is told to wait, it means he needs to hold still and wait for the okay to move. Whether he’s sitting, standing, or laying down, he knows he needs to wait until given permission to move. Lucky’s limit is about 60 seconds, but it’s enough.

#3 LAY DOWN

This command is almost always given after ‘Sit’ but it very useful when letting Lucky sniff Calvin or sit on the couch close to him.

#4 GET DOWN

Teaching a dog to stay on the floor or to get off the couch is very important when you have a new baby. Especially when you’re trying to nurse or change a diaper on the couch.

#5 QUIET/HUSH

Some dogs are barkers and this is something we are still working on with Lucky. Barking doesn’t bother our baby when he’s awake, but if the dog wakes him up…he gets in some serious trouble. Teaching him to hush or be quiet is up next on our command list.

#6 LEAVE IT

These last two commands are the most important. ‘Leave it’ is a command we use daily. When he see Lucky smelling or licking something he isn’t supposed to, we tell him to ‘leave it’ and that’s what he does. No more sniffing or licking. He walks away and leaves it alone. This works for a fallen binky, a bottle, a diaper, or the baby himself.

#7 GO AWAY

This is a command we taught him almost on accident but it works wonders. Our dog likes to be all up in our personal space and sometimes that just isn’t an option. When told to ‘Go away’ Lucky knows that he needs to walk away from whoever said it and leave them alone, often leaving the room or going to lay down in his bed.

Well, there you have it. The seven commands I think all dogs should know, but especially those who have a baby coming home soon.