Sprocket got used to hearing a baby cry before little Madelyn arrived because his owner downloaded “baby sounds” from iTunes.

While pregnant with her first child, Meridith Duffy cried nearly every day — to her dog trainer.

She feared she’d have to part with her pit bull, Haley, when her child was born. Haley “had never bitten anyone,” says Duffy, who lives in Braintree, Mass. “But I knew she had that potential, and I was nervous.”

The trainer had a solution: a program to get Haley used to having a baby around. Soon, Duffy was walking through the house with a stroller, playing a CD of annoying baby cries, and tugging the dog’s ears and tail the way a toddler might. Haley also got many hours of obedience classes.

“We had to learn that she was a dog, not a person,” Duffy says. “That was hard for us.”

The Duffys, whose baby, Isabella, arrived 19 months ago, are part of a new breed of parents-to-be who pay to baby-proof their dogs. At least a half-dozen dog-baby books and DVDs are on the market, with titles like Your Baby and Bowser. A canine re-education course called Dogs & Storks, launched in 2006, now has 35 affiliated trainers in the United States and Canada, with hundreds of graduates.

“It’s catching on because people are choosing to have kids later, and their dogs are really their first baby,” says the course’s creator, Jennifer Shryock of Cary, N.C., who sells it to trainers for $300.

Dogs bite about 4.7 million people a year in the United States, the majority of them children, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. Bonnie Beaver, a Texas vet and past president of the group, says that of the 15 to 20 people a year who die from dog bites, about 80 percent are children.

Shryock tells expectant parents, “When the baby comes, you are going to look at your dog for the first time as an animal. You will feel different about Fluffy.”

That came as a shock to Tracy Fuquay, of Raleigh, N.C. For six years, her Shih-poo, Marcy, was the family princess: She traveled in a purse, dressed in colorful sweaters, sundresses or a denim jacket with heart sequins. When Fuquay graduated from the Raleigh School of Nurse Anesthesia in August 2006, Marcy wore a cap and gown.

In the eighth month of her pregnancy, Fuquay finally started saying “no” to Marcy. The dog was no longer allowed to ride in Fuquay’s lap as she drove, and was banned from her bed. The result: “Marcy became racked with anxiety.”

Things got worse after baby Leah’s birth in December. Marcy now often cowers, and she urinates on the rugs. “I’m cleaning as much dog pee as I am changing diapers,” the new mom says. “My husband is ready to give the dog away, but I can’t.”

She paid Shryock $160 for a two-hour house call. The result was a sobering assessment: “Because Marcy was used to being treated as ‘the baby’ for years, she will have a more difficult time and longer adjustment time to learn that she is not the only one needing attention.”

Christopher Reggio, a publisher of pet-care books, says demand for prenatal dog prep is rising because “dogs today are real family members. They aren’t ‘owned’ by people, they’re ‘parented’ by people.” His TFH Publications in Neptune, N.J., last year released And Baby Makes Four: A Trimester-by-Trimester Guide to a Baby-Friendly Dog.

Natalie Rivkin is in the final days of her third trimester. But in her mind she’s already been a mom for nearly six years — to Luca, her chocolate Lab. “My schedule is built around her. When she’s sick, I worry,” says the high school math teacher in Boston.

One recent day, Luca watched as Rivkin reached into her sport-utility vehicle, gently lifted a plastic doll in a blue “onesie” from the infant car seat and buckled it into a new stroller, then began pushing the stroller and doll through a local arboretum.

“Hey, that’s not a real baby,” yelled a passing runner. It was hard to know what Luca thought; she was busy nibbling grass.

Rivkin was doing her homework for Barks & Babies, a seminar taught to 10 couples at a local maternity store. Her instructor, Jenifer Vickery, owner of the Pawsitive Dog in Boston, suggests practicing with a fake baby four weeks before mom’s due date. Other prebirth strategies: ignoring the dog more, and scenting dog toys with almond oil to distinguish them from baby toys.

Like older siblings, dogs can act out when stressed by a change like a new baby, trainers say. Barking, biting and soiling the house can all happen if dogs get less attention and exercise, feeling sidelined.

“It’s harder to be a dog today,” says Sue Sternberg of Accord, N.Y., a trainer and specialist in testing dogs’ temperaments.

Not necessarily, though, for Phoebe and Zack, two large members of the Joe and Joelle Coretti household in Milford, Conn. Phoebe is an 85-pound golden retriever, and Zack, a German shepard, weighs in at 120 pounds. “I was nervous about how big they were and how they might think the baby was a toy to play with,” Joelle Coretti says. “But I was also nervous — since they were our first babies — that they might have some issues with the new baby. I wanted the dogs to feel they were still part of the family.”

Joelle went to a Dogs & Storks Seminar and picked up some training tips. After she gave birth last year, her husband brought home the baby’s T-shirt and cap for the dogs to sniff. Baby Kyle, age 1, now plays with the giant dogs, “who,” Joelle adds, “still sleep in our bed.”

Lynda Vanderhoven of Boston practiced relegating Bailey, her yellow Labrador puppy, to his “doggie den” in the house so she would be able to attend to her new son, Sam, when necessary. One difference between her two “babies,” she says, is that the dog “can be legally locked in a crate.”

As for Meridith Duffy and her husband, Keith, a marketing executive, they continue to send Haley, their female pit bull, to anger-management class. It seems to have worked.

“People think you’re crazy to have a pit bull in the first place,” Keith Duffy says. “But now the dog lies down and the baby pokes her in the eye and pulls her ears, and she just takes it.” A second Duffy baby was born in June.

How one Tiverton couple brought new family together

Katie Eighme was a few months pregnant last December when she and her husband Justin brought home their new puppy, Sprocket, an English springer spaniel. The Tiverton couple enrolled Sprocket in a basic dog training course provided by the company RI Dog Guy.

“We wanted Sprocket to be obedient, and to listen to us,” Katie said, but they got more than that: One of the course trainers, Linda Hilliard, is a pediatric nurse practitioner who also teaches the informational course, Dogs & Storks, which provides families with training techniques to smooth the entry of a baby into a family with a dog.

“We asked for Linda’s input about our situation during the training sessions. She suggested that we introduce Sprocket to some of the baby’s equipment before the baby got here so that he wouldn’t be barking at it. For instance, so he wouldn’t bark at the baby swing when it was going,” Katie said.

Following Hilliard’s recommendations, the Eighmes set up the swing, allowed Sprocket to sniff it, then turned it on. “If he was just sniffing and didn’t overreact by barking, we would give him positive reinforcement and occasional treats,” Katie said.

“Then we brought out a baby stroller with a doll in it, and we walked around with it, and if what Sprocket did was favorable, we would reinforce it with a ‘good boy’ and a treat. So he associated the stroller and the swing with a treat.”

When Hilliard suggested introducing Sprocket to some baby sounds, Katie discovered that she could download baby sounds from iTunes.

“When I was home, I would play the sounds in the background. I would start off low, and if the dog did OK, I would increase the volume.” At the sound of a baby crying, Sprocket perked up his ears, she said, because the noise was new to him. If he didn’t bark, she would give him positive reinforcement and an occasional treat.

WHEN KATIE DELIVERED Madelyn on June 13, mother and daughter stayed in the hospital for two nights. During that time, Justin brought home a blanket with Madelyn’s scent on it. “Justin lay down with Sprocket, let him sniff the blanket, and played with him, with the blanket right there.”

As Madelyn arrived home, the Eighmes let Sprocket, now about 55 pounds, sniff her while she was still in her car seat. “We said, ‘easy, good boy,’ and that was it for him,” said Katie. He still likes to sniff the baby and give her the occasional lick, but has developed no bad habits.

Katie said that Justin is Sprocket’s special buddy, so Justin makes it a point to take Sprocket outside to play as soon as he comes home from work, and to take him for hikes. She said that one-on-one time is especially important because she is nursing Madelyn, so is less available to play with Sprocket.

Katie said she would recommend taking advantage of training tips for families with new babies.

“Because of all the things you hear in the news (about dogs biting children), it made me feel more comfortable. We’ll see what happens when Madelyn starts crawling around and pulling the dog’s hair, but right now we’re happy with it.”

For more information about training by RI Dog Guy, see www.ridogguy.com; for the informational Dogs and Storks program, click on “For Families and Groups.” You may also call (401) 339-2398 or e-mail info@ridogguy.com.

To contact Linda Hilliard, a pediatric nurse practitioner and a licensed adviser for Dogs and Storks, e-mail linda@ridogguy.com or call (401) 847-8157. She offers private training as well as classes through RI Dog Guy.

— PAM THOMAS