Why the Meeting Itself Is Already Too Late to Start
Dogs are creatures of associative learning: they link outcomes to stimuli with a speed and precision that makes last-minute introductions almost always reactive rather than prepared. A dog that has never heard an infant cry will respond to that sound as a novel, high-arousal event, which is precisely the wrong starting state for a first meeting. The weeks before the baby comes home are the only time you have to make the unfamiliar familiar without a newborn in the equation.
