Firstly, congratulations on your pregnancy. I have to say it's so refreshing to read a post from someone who's willing to put the work in! At the risk of sounding patronising, well done! If even half my clients were as committed as you I'd be a happy woman
You've had really good advice so far, seems like the same advice just differently worded. Em's not known for her diplomacy but she's a great dog trainer!
Babies and dogs can work really well, children are often more willing to play with dogs and give them attention than adults, it can be a match made in heaven. It can also go horribly wrong, but with a little common sense and a bit of effort (you seem blessed in both departments!) you can prevent the problems.
Getting the CD's is a brilliant idea, as is getting as much baby stuff now as you can so your dogs learn to get used to the sights and smells of babies. Also, getting them used to entertaining themselves (activity toys are great for this, as are chews if you're short of time) will be well worth it.
With Rebels whining, I'd deal with this two ways. Firstly, teaching him self control, things like waiting for permission to go through a door (also useful when you've got children leaving doors open and wandering about) waiting for their dinner etc. With waiting for their dinner, I like to ask the dog to sit, say nothing and start putting the food on the floor. If the dog stands up I say 'whoops' and pick the bowl up again. After a few minutes the dog will sit and wait for you to release him. For really greedy dogs, you may need to feed him from his bowl while he's still in the sit to reinforce 'wait there' otherwise they can get stressed and frustrated and stop thinking. I'd also work on teaching him a down stay in his bed. Put him in his bed for up to 10 minutes at a time, firstly work on extending the time he's in his bed, then when he's happy to wait for 10 mins (and relaxed, not lying waiting for his next command) start introducing distractions. You start off not very distracting (ie you walking about, progress to doing all manner of interesting things with your body language up to jumping up and down or dancing or something) then when you can do anything, bring in the other dog, start off quiety training and then build up to being able to play tuggy games with one dog while the other is in a relaxed down stay (emphasis on 'relaxed'!!) Make sure you don't have a massive reward at the end of the down stay, you'll teach your dog to look forward to that and try to pre empt it. Reward the dog for staying with lots of smiles and verbal praise, and make the release very low key, so the dog would rather go back and do it again.
The other thing you can do, is give him an activity toy like a stuffed Kong (or a chew) and pop him in his crate while you play with/train your other dog out of sight. He needs to have good things happen when he's isolated (chews/kong etc) so he doesn't get bored and frustrated. Practice this calm, quiet behaviour at the end of the day when he's tired it'll be easier.
With the jumping up, obviously ignore any jumping and reward calm behaviour (collies love something to do, a sit is great) but to generalise, I would invite people round specifically to train the dog. Their attitudes change if they're coming round for that purpose. When people come to see you they either see greeting the dog as an inconvenience or are over the top enthusiastic. Ring people up and say you're training the dog to greet people calmly, and they'll be expecting and willing to work with the dog. Get one person to come in and out loads, it'll get boring pretty quickly and you'll find the dogs get less excited and will learn quicker. If you get people who 'dont mind' the dogs jumping up, tell them your dog has a back problem and jumping up will make it worse. Dishonest but it works!
You'll never physically tire a collie, I don't think it can be done
you'll have to work on getting their minds tired. I know I can go for a relaxing walk all day with my dogs, but I'm more tired after a couple of hours teaching classes, it's the mental stuff that tires everyone out more. You've already had scent games mentioned, and clicker training. I would clicker train 'useful' tricks like shutting the door, putting something in the bin and fetching things. You can get them to carry a little basket with a handle on, then you can put all the baby things in there, and while you carry the baby they can bring nappieis and wipes downstairs for you. They'll LOVE being involved! Also you can train them to go and touch their nose on things, you saying 'not that' on each thing until they touch something you want, then you say 'yesss fetch that' and they'll bring it over. Imagine being on the floor changing a nappy, realising you've left the wipes at the other side of the room and sending the dog to fetch them. Dogs love it and it's helpful. A good clicker training book (or a good trainer if you would prefer hands on help) will help you teach those things.
When your new baby comes home from the hospital, make sure you go inside and greet your dogs first, they'll have missed you and will be over excited, if you add an exciting little bundle in to that mixture they'll be hooligans! Go in, greet them, make a fuss and then bring the baby in. Let them sniff the baby and praise them for being calm, then give them a nice chew to go and settle down while you put your feet up and recover.
Don't fall into the easy trap of making up for the lost attention when the baby is asleep, you'll just teach the dogs that baby being around is bad. When you're busy with the baby, talk to your dogs, invovle them in the action (not literally, dogs are rubbish at bathing babies
)
Most importantly, enjoy your new arrival and your big family! It's so easy to stress about the little things but make sure you focus on the good stuff. Your dogs will be great therapy for you, talking them out for walks and playing ball when you've been stuck in the house all day will be fantastic!
Ooh, and also remember, all the practice you get training dogs and modifying their behaviour calmly and consistently will come in VERY useful when you're dealing with a toddler!!!
