The Basenjis meet the new Baby

On September 7th, 2013, we welcomed a new member into our household: our new baby boy, Declan. Naturally, our two basenji fur-children were VERY curious about this new thing that smells funny and makes noises all the time!

Since this is the first time we've ever had a child in our family, I took care to try and introduce the baby to the dogs in a positive way: I treated the baby the same as I would any other new member of our pack.  That meant that I immediately took "possession" of the baby and showed the dogs that they could sniff if I let them, and then I rewarded them with treats when they did.  Any time I held the baby and the dogs came up for pets, I made sure I gave them, so no one would feel left out.  And any time they wanted to sniff the baby, I made sure that they could, and gave them lots of praise for doing it nicely. 

At first, our BRAT boy Biko was rather timid around Declan, and hid a lot in his happy places in the house: 

But slowly he started to sidle up to us when the baby was around, doing his usual thing trying to get as close as physically possible:

Biko would rather be an armrest for the baby than be away from Dad!

Now, I think the dogs are totally comfortable around Declan, since they seem to not be nervous around him at all, and instead concentrate on trying to lick his head (which he is not really a fan of), letting me know when he has a poopy diaper, or trying to steal his smelly burp cloths so they can roll on them. So basically, they're back to their usual basenji selves!

Biko checks for poopy diapers

 

Biko makes sure the burp cloths are clean!

Biko: "Did I do good, mom?"