Do Dogs Get Jealous of a Newborn? Spoiler: YES!

As I am writing this post, I wanted you to know that my lovely dog is by my side. He actually follows me everywhere I go. Why is this important? Well, I will explain that now: Do Dogs Get Jealous of a Newborn? Spoiler: YES!

So, as you all know, I recently became a human mom. Yes, human, because I was already a mom to a wonderful pup named Roscoe. He is a rescue dog we took in when he was just three months old, and today he is a happy, healthy three-year-old. We raised him as if he was our baby boy. Now, maybe you won’t agree with this, but that was what we did, and everything was perfect for him. Well, up until the day Sofia came along.

Our Jealous Dog

As a small parenthesis, he is a sweet boy, very social, especially with the human race, and he understands Italian as well! Seriously!  In addition, I truly and deeply believe he thinks my husband and I are his actual mom and dad. I could actually write a full-blown book on all the things he does that make us feel that way. But for now, I will stick with the fact that he loves to be in our harms all the time.

With that being said, the day that Sofia came along, the doctor told us to bring something for Roscoe that would smell like Sofia. That way, he would get familiar with the smell before we brought our daughter home. So, we did just that, and at first, everything seemed fine. However, something was off. He began following me everywhere, more so than usual. And as days went by, I noticed that he was getting jealous of my husband and me. Furthermore, he didn’t want to get close to Sofia. It was then I knew I had to do something.

What Did I Do?

I turned to good old’ Google for help. I tried to find a solution, but mostly to try to understand if do dogs get Jealous of a newborn? Guess what? He was. He showed all the signs, and I realized that dogs do get jealous, just like humans can. 

Now, as much as I love them both, Sofia needs a lot of attention. Plus, I had to work and run regular errands, leaving very little time for my dog anymore. I realized he needed much more attention than I was giving him as I did in the past, and I needed to make more time for that connection. So I decided to change direction. Though I am still working on it, things are getting a lot better.

What did I do? Here are some little tricks that might help if you find yourself in my same shoes, but mind you, it won’t be an immediate thing. You’ll need to work on it every day.

• The first thing is to get your dog their favorite treats. Easy, right? After that, try to reestablish some, if not all, the habits that you had before. For example, we used to give our dog treats for breakfast while we were making/eating breakfast ourselves. Now with Sofia, we kind of stop doing that. So, we decided to go back into that routine, but with one change; I put the treat in Sofia’s hand, and I tell him that Sofia is giving him a treat. Believe me, after 3-4 times, he is already getting better at that and getting closer to her because of it. Of course, this is my experience, so be sure your dog will be gentle doing something like that to keep your baby safe.

• The other thing is to try to find a moment to spend time with just you and them. For this, my husband and I go walking with him, only with him, so that he will find his connection with us. 

So far, he is getting better, and he seems to be getting more accepting of Sofia.  So I will keep working on this, and hopefully, sooner or later, they will become best friend

Oh, I forgot to tell you, Sofia absolutely adores him!