As the birth of our first son drew near, people had plenty of advice for us, especially regarding our dogs. According to conventional wisdom, dogs need to be prepared in advance for the arrival of a human baby. Gives the dogs’ senses a chance to adapt to the new sounds and smells, they say. These people obviously don’t know my dogs.

While they certainly find peace in their daily routines, Remy and Barrett have always been highly adaptable to change. Remy, who was always more interested in people than other dogs, bonded immediately with Barrett the first day we brought her home. Instead of acting territorial or dominant, Remy rolled over and allowed the new puppy to climb all over her.

The first piece of advice was to play the sound of a crying baby so the dogs would get used to it. Jen found the appropriate audio files online and blasted them through our computer speakers, drawing no response from either dog. If the sound doesn’t involve food, exercise, or an outside threat, Remy and Barrett are unlikely to even open their eyes.

The most common suggestion I heard was to bring home a blanket from the hospital and allow the dogs to experience the baby’s scent. This wasn’t going to happen for us, since the dogs were at my parents’ place and I was staying at the hospital the whole time. Nonetheless, when the dogs arrived back home, I kept them outside and brought a blanket from our son’s crib for them to smell. Neither dog could be coaxed to bring their nose close to the blanket for more than a fraction of a second. Remy was more interested in her tennis ball, Barrett in her bone.

I let them into the house one at a time. Little Mason was asleep in a crib in the living room. Neither dog even noticed him until I called them over. Each dog stuck her nose through the bars in the crib, gave him a few sniffs, and then went back to greeting us and taking inventory of their toys. Barrett spent more time sniffing the cabinet where we keep the rawhide than she did the baby.

It has been fun over the last four weeks to watch as the dogs quickly accepted Mason as a member of the pack. Remy immediately recognized that he was small and fragile, but also above her in the pack hierarchy. What could have been mistaken for indifference was actually respect. For the first week, Remy kept her distance, remaining affectionate with us, but giving mason a wide berth. She asked permission before climbing on the couch, and lay in the doorway of the bedroom while Jen rocked Mason to sleep. Her acceptance of him was clear the day she walked in and found Mason and I playing on the floor. She sniffed his feet and his diaper, turned in a circle, and lay down about a foot away, watching as Mason craned his neck toward the brightness of the window.

Barrett, always the more excitable of the two, has treated Mason with surprising tranquility. While she still hops, spins and licks when any adult visitor enters, she is much more reserved around her baby brother. In the first days, any cry from the crib would cause Barrett to walk over and check on him. When Mason continued to cry, she would walk over to Jen as if to notify her that the baby needed attention. Of course she likes to lick him, but she does it with a gentleness that I didn’t know she possessed. Jen and I had always wondered if Barrett would ever gain Remy’s relaxed demeanor. It seems that having a baby in the house might be the thing that does it.