For many expecting families, the thought of how their dog will cope — or more importantly, how newborn babies and dogs will coexist—can be a source of angst when bringing home a new baby.

There are so many ways you can make the adjustment to a new baby smoother for your pup and help get your dog properly accustomed to all things baby long before your baby arrives.

Let's talk about some strategies you can use to ease your dog into this major life change before you bring your new baby home!

5 ways parents can set up their dog for a smooth transition to life with a new baby

1) Make new baby items no big deal.

Most dogs are creatures of habit, so the sudden appearance of unfamiliar, baby-related contraptions can be disconcerting. As you begin adding equipment prior to your baby's arrival, help get your dog accustomed to each of these mysterious new things (some with moving parts and wheels!).

Bring in items like a baby gate, swing, car seat, and stroller one at a time and allow your dog to work through any curiosity under your supervision. As your baby begins to become a more mobile young child, you'll have more new things for your dog to process but your pup will have a more go-with-the-flow attitude then.

Try this with your dog

• Let your dog sniff and get familiar with the baby-related equipment.
• Then invite your dog to come to you away from the equipment, and reward with treats generously.
• You want your dog to come to you for the positive reinforcement reward because you're teaching that the reward is with you not the equipment.

Note: You don't want to scatter treats around the baby equipment. It shouldn't feel rewarding to your dog to hang out around the equipment since you won't want that once the baby arrives. You simply want it to be no big deal and more rewarding to come to you.

2) Build flexibility into your dog's schedule.

Dogs thrive on predictability, and if you could swear your dog can tell time -- especially for meals -- you're not alone. Congrats on giving your dog the comfort of a regular schedule! Needless to say, once you bring your baby home, your schedule has a way of going out the window.

How can you help your dog get comfortable with shifts in schedules? Rather than your dog's schedule being time bound, you're going to make it event bound.

What does that actually mean?

Try this with your dog

• Start now, months in advance if possible, to change times on meals, walks, bedtime, etc.
• Try to give your dog event markers that set up a pattern of "this follows this" so your dog will have a way to feel what's happening is predictable and have a sense of where he/she is in the space of events for the day.
• If, for example, you always take your dog for a walk at 7 a.m. then feed breakfast, try doing that at a different time but keep the sequence as walk precedes breakfast. Think about your schedule and then change it in the ways that will work for you.

Pro tip: start any other changes you anticipate now before you need to.

If you think you'll need to supplement your dog's walks with a dog walker, get your pup used to and happy with a good walker now. Whether you think your baby will be sleeping in the same room with you to start or in the baby's room, you'll want to plan your dog's sleeping arrangements for safety when you're not awake now. Make any changes proactively so they're positive and happy for your pup.

3) Check in on your dog's manners.

The most important ones to have rock solid for when your baby is on the scene are the calm, still ones: sit, lie down, stay, go to mat (or dog bed, etc), and come. This is a good time to refresh your pup's manners if necessary and be sure your dog's behavior and response to cues is solid even in a different context than the pre-baby norm.

Try this

• Teach or refresh your dog's calm, settled cues. Add new ones that might not be in your repertoire - an especially useful one is "go to mat." Check out the Manners Channel here on Dogly for a good refresh on super useful basics.
• Teach these cues in different contexts beyond the usual, simple standing position near your dog. Imagine new contexts, for example, giving your dog the cue while seated in a rocker.

4) If your dog has anxious tendencies, plan how to help your dog feel more secure and calm.

If your dog already tends to feel anxious and show fearful behaviors, you'll want to plan how you can support your pup to feel more secure and comfortable now and after the baby arrives.

There are many natural ways to make your home environment feel more calming, safe, and comfortable for your anxious pup:

• A white noise machine if your dog is noise-sensitive; calming music for a soothing background (unfamiliar baby sounds can be startling for some dogs initially)
• Thunder-type shirts even though it's not thundering or other tight-fitting, swaddle-like shirts
• Natural scent calmers: Drama Trauma and Calm Spray (both calmers that have long been used with dogs after Hurricane Katrina, CA wildfires, in rescues...) from BlackWing Farms; or dog pheromone products like Adaptil (Our dogs' number one sense is their sense of smell, so the new baby smell is adding fresh excitement to your environment. Even when your baby's scent isn't a factor, natural calming scents can be a great way to help your dog relax.)
• Calming treats with natural herbs and hemp
• Food-stuffed chew toy or long-lasting, natural chew (such as a yak milk chew or bully stick - never a rawhide chew)

5) Think about how your dog reacts to visitors and work on greeting skills now.

You probably won't have many visitors at first with your new baby, but eventually that bubble will open up and you'll have more people coming to your home as usual, maybe even more so. Now is a good time to ask yourself, "How does my dog typically respond to visitors?" Does your pup bark, jump, or behave in other less than calm ways?

If you're usually managing or holding your dog back when someone arrives, you won't be able to do that with a baby in your arms. That's why it's good to get an early start on making sure your dog is in good shape with greeting manners.

Practice greeting skills with your pup now before you'll have the additional demands on your attention that come with a new babe. If you need a refresher, the guides on greeting, jumping, etc in the manners channel are a great place to get your dog all set!