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We have 2 cats and what we did to prepare them, is that we put aluminium paper on the changing pad and in the crib. They were curious and would find their way in the crib. Because I didn't want that to happen when baby arrived, I made sure they understood it was a no-go zone.

They jumped in it twice. Both times got the scare of their life and never went back.

We had our shih tzu before we had our kids so he was our first baby. We worried about the same thing when I got pregnant with our first. Shih tzu's and a lot of small dogs in general have a reputation of getting jealous when introducing a new baby into the family. Luckily, he's always been exposed to our nieces and nephews who were toddlers at the time so I know his stance with other children. He doesn't really care for them since he knows they can be unpredictable but he's never been malicious towards any child. He just stays away. So we were hopeful, but still, you never know.
He's been nothing but gentle with our kids thus far. Even now that my son is a toddler and can be a little rough with him. He's just become a little melancholy these days due to the lack of attention but we try our best to give him some us and him alone time as well. He has become less attached to me though since I've been the one handling the kids more. We never coslept with our babies so he was able to continue sleeping in our bed. I had initially thought about keeping him out of the nursery, at least for the first several months, but didn't end up following through. It's a good thing we didn't because being present in whatever room that we are in is important to him. Luckily, none of my kids are allergic (thus far) to him - which was another thing we weorried about.
I think it helps if there's more than one pet so they already have a companion to play with. If you have just one dog/cat, perhaps in the initial weeks after the birth, when you can't devote as much time to him/her as before, you can have friends and family come to play with him/her a bit to help with the transition. They say also to slowly give your pet less attention towards the end of the pregnancy to get them used to it but we didn't do that. In fact, we might've given him more attention, but it all worked out okay.

We have two small, shedding dogs. They are both well trained and we are super disciplined with them, so they're very well behaved around him. He barely notices them since they've always been around... I think he thinks they're just part of the scenery. We have always kept them in a fenced-in area in the kitchen during the day, so we just adjusted that to be all day until after RJ goes to bed. Then it's puppy time.

One other big adjustment was that they used to sleep in our bed most nights, but their fur just caused too much dust to accumulate in our bedroom and the upstairs in general, and I didn't like having to vacuum and dust almost every day to keep it relatively dust-free... so now they only sleep in our bed about once a month.

Now that RJ is a toddler he likes to point to them and say "goggie" (doggie). He knows them by name now, too, which is so cute. That's about the extent of their interaction. Sometimes when the dogs are out while RJ is awake and they're playing with each other he watches and laughs.

Great post. I've wondered about this, not because we have pets, but because we'd like to get a dog in the future.

Our shih tzu was our first baby. And while we've done practically everything recommended by trainers, books, etc to make the transition easier for him, I know that he feels neglected and gets jealous at times. I feel really really bad for him, and we've even considered giving him away because I know it'll only get worse when the second baby comes.

That being said, he has NEVER been violent toward Claire. He will sit still even when she pulls his fur and tail, even when she hits him (of course, we've been trying our best to correct this behavior). The only way he will show his jealousy is by trying to sit between me and Claire, and by ignoring me when I am alone with him. I can't wait until our daughters get older so that they can play with him, and he can grow to love them.

I should also add that he has grown considerably warmer towards her ever since she started "sharing" her food with him. Here's a cute story about how she shares her snacks with him: http://www.geekinheels.com/2011/08/29/sharing-is-caring.html

And here's a video we took of her last month sharing her Cheerios with him: http://vimeo.com/28595313

I had huge concerns about this when I had my first little guy. We were told to bring home something from the hospital that smelled like the baby before the baby came home and let the dog get used to the smell. My husband took home the little cap they put on my son right after he was born and let our dog sniff it. Then when my son and I came home I made sure to go into the house first and make a big deal of saying hi to our dog. He is very attached to me and was worried while I was gone. Then my husband brought the baby in and we let him sniff the baby by his feet.
Our dog has been absolutely amazing with the baby since day one. He has never once done anything that I would be concerned about. When the baby was sleeping in the bassinet our dog would lay right beside the bassinet. When my son was in his bouncy chair our dog was right beside him watching him!! Once my son started crawling and tugging on the dogs hair then our dog kept his distance. And now that our son is walking around our dog is so careful about not knocking him over.
My dog also has never ever shown any food aggression or been protective of any of his toys. My son can take food out of his bowl or a bone away from him and he will not do anything about it.