And Baby Makes Four: A Trimester-By-Trimester Guide to a Baby-Friendly Dog [Hardcover]

Penny Scott-fox (Author), Uncredited ghostwriter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2007

Having a baby should be an exciting and celebratory time for parents-to-be. However, if there is a pet in the household, there may be concern about how he will react to a newborn addition to the family.

And Baby Makes Four provides expecting parents with straightforward instructions on how to prepare the family dog for a new baby's arrival. Written by a behaviorist and mother, this useful guide helps to address specific pet behaviors that may concern parents-to-be, including possessiveness, jealousy, fear of new people and new situations, inappropriate jumping, and chewing on baby toys. The chapters are arranged chronologically by trimester, continuing through childbirth and the arrival of the newborn baby, to help your dog adjust to changes in the home. The book also features an assortment of contemporary, eye-catching illustrations that highlight and define key information from the text.

If you wish to guide your pet through your pregnancy and help ensure a loving relationship between him and your new baby, And Baby Makes Four can show you how to be a leader to your dog while reinforcing his status within the family dynamic.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Wondering how your dog is ever going to live with an infant? Thinking you might even have to give up your dog? You don't have to!

The arrival of a new baby will bring about big changes for all members of your household--including the family dog. In fact, even tiny adjustments to your dog's environment and routine can stress him, altering his perception of his relationship with you and ultimately leading to undesirable behaviors.

And Baby Makes Four offers a multitude of tips and techniques to help you train your dog before your baby's birth, allowing him to adjust to the impending arrival at a comfortable pace and helping to make the transition seamless when the baby does come home.

And Baby Makes Four also features:
* Trimester-by-trimester guidelines for training your dog to be baby-friendly
* Solutions to common canine problem behaviors that affect parents-to-be
* Positive, reward-based training methods
* Colorful, instructive illustrations

Now that you're expecting, it's time to seize the moment! You'll find that the more you prepare your dog for baby's arrival in advance, the better they will bond and the better you will be able to enjoy your new role as parent of two bundles of joy.

About the Author

Penny Scott-Fox is an accomplished speaker and one of the nation's most respected dog behavioral specialists. She works for the Pasadena Humane Society in Pasadena, California, and is a Fellow of the Pet Behavior Institute of Durham, England. Her successful techniques have been covered by media outlets around the world, including the Discovery Channel, CNN, Fox, French television, Japanese radio, the Los Angeles Times, and People magazine of Australia.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 95 pages
• Publisher: TFH Publications (January 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0793805678
• ISBN-13: 978-0793805679
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #388,247 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Home & Garden > Animal Care & Pets > Dogs > Training
  • #39 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Parenting & Families > Parenting > Babies & Toddlers > General
  • #62 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Health, Mind & Body > Personal Health > Women's Health > Pregnancy & Childbirth

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very basic suggestions, December 11, 2007

By 

Scuba Girl (Cleveland, OH USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: And Baby Makes Four: A Trimester-By-Trimester Guide to a Baby-Friendly Dog (Hardcover)

We have two large dogs that live in the house and we're expecting our first child in a few months. I was a little concerned about how to help our dogs adjust to the new arrival. I bought this book with high hopes. It is not bad, but the suggestions are very basic and I didn't agree with all of the suggestions. The author says you should not let your dogs sleep in the bedroom with you and, if they are accustomed to sleeping there now, you should move them out before the baby arrives. It seems like this would just further upset a dog who has been used to sleeping nearby all its life. Our dogs sleep in their crates in our room at night and I see no need to change that arrangement once the baby arrives. The book also includes a large section on basic obedience commands. This is useful if you have never done obedience training, but we've taken our dogs through advanced obedience training and this part was completely unnecessary. I really wanted more tips on how to handle the inevitable baby-dog dilemmas (dogs taking baby's food, dogs licking baby's face, etc.) but I didn't really find the tips I was looking for.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And Baby Makes Four is a "must-have" for any dog owners who plan on becoming parents., June 9, 2007

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: And Baby Makes Four: A Trimester-By-Trimester Guide to a Baby-Friendly Dog (Hardcover)

Written by dog behavior specialist Penny-Scott Fox, And Baby Makes Four: A Trimester-by-Trimester Guide to a Baby-Friendly Dog is a practical, easy-to-use guide to dog training written especially for expectant parents. The first trimester covers a health check and status reduction program; after ensuring that one's dog is healthy, one must acclimate the dog to accepting a lower rank in the family and not getting its own way - not sleeping in the human bedroom, not feeding the dog before anyone else in the house, teaching him to respond to commands always, and not just when he feels like it, etc. The second trimester involves professional training if needed, teaching the dog not to destroy or bury baby toys, desensitizing the dog to baby sounds, and modifying problem behavior, particularly aggression, jumping up, or fear of strangers. The third trimester involves acclimating the dog to baby smells, leash training, and jumbling the dog's routine so that it doesn't expect or demand to be fed/walked/etc. on a precisely specific schedule (a schedule that the coming of a new baby will be likely to sporadically mix up). Written in plain terms, with professional techniques spelled out in easy-to-follow steps, And Baby Makes Four is a "must-have" for any dog owners who plan on becoming parents.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must-read before your first baby, March 16, 2008

By 

J. Burcham "jcburcham" (Olathe, KS United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: And Baby Makes Four: A Trimester-By-Trimester Guide to a Baby-Friendly Dog (Hardcover)

As a small animal veterinarian who has a passionate interest in companion animal behavior, I didn't want to assume that I already knew everything I needed to know about preparing my dogs for the arrival of my first baby, but after reading this book, I guess I feel like I'm doing everything the way I should. The information is practical, common-sense, and easy to apply. Also very important!! I think the author covers all the main points well. Might be nice if it included a CD of baby sounds, but I already bought one from Dogwise:
<a href="http://www.dogwise.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=DTB865"> Sounds Good CD - Babies</A> by Terry Ryan.