Board and train before a baby arrives

The third trimester is the right window because it balances two needs. The skills have to be in place before the baby comes home, and you need weeks afterward to run them yourself, in your own rooms, with your own voice. The ASPCA suggests introducing a dog to the new sights, sounds and smells about four months before the birth and adjusting its routine one to two months ahead. A stay early in the last trimester sits between those two marks, and it leaves a buffer for a baby that arrives early.

Which program depends on the dog. Foundation, one week, suits a young dog or an adult that never learned place, stay and a loose leash. Advanced, two weeks, suits an adolescent that knows its cues at home but loses them around distractions, and its two scheduled coaching lessons are useful to a household working toward a date. Gabriella Pope sets the dates at the consult. Every stay also needs the free evaluation, held on weekday mornings between 6:30 and 9:30, so book that while the drive is still easy.

A dog that pulls toward every smell is a hazard beside a stroller, so the stay concentrates on the leash: walking on one side, a slack line paid with food at your leg and a turn-away when the dog forges ahead. Foundation teaches basic leash skills; Advanced proofs them around distractions on real-world outings, with the settings named in your dog's plan. If you want the trainer to see your dog beside a stroller before pick-up, raise it at the consult, where the plan for each dog is set.

The stroller itself is easiest to add after the go-home lesson, one change at a time. Push it empty around the kitchen while the dog eats, then walk the dog beside it in the driveway, then on a quiet street and only later on busier sidewalks. Gloucester's dog regulations require every dog to stay under its owner's control at all times, and beside a stroller that means a leashed walk. Hold the leash in your hand rather than clipping it to the handle, with the dog on the side away from traffic.

Board and train builds skills; it does not change how a dog feels about small people. A dog that stiffens, growls or hides when visiting children come near needs a consult before anything else, and often a vet check, because a sudden change can come from pain. For that dog the work happens with you present: private sessions from $94, Calm & Connected for adolescents and adults with stranger concerns, or a Level 3 program such as React Less, Relax More. However well trained, no dog should be left alone with a baby; the AKC is clear on that.

For the right dog, the daily updates are a preview of your homework: how long place held, how the leash looked and how the dog took the sounds if they were in the plan. Read them with the due date in mind. After pick-up, our guide to a new baby and the dog takes over, with an overnight suite at $78 a night for the delivery days and a daycare and walking plan for the months after. From Rockport, Gloucester, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea, ask whether the Pup Van, $10 each way, can make the drop-off run to Eastern Ave.