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Nik211
my little monkey<3
Member since 5/08 3303 total posts
Name:
Nik
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Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
My hubby says he wants a baby soon - and I think once the house is done it would be great to start trying....maybe next spring...except i have one huge fear....
Our dog....
She is my baby....but i'm not so sure how she will be with an infant......
Our dog isn't allowed around children b/c she has shown signs of aggresion towards my 3 year old nephew (she tried to bite him) - when they first met he was scared, backed away from her and she went from wagging her tail to trying to nip - and that was it, i wouldn't try past that - scared me too much....She also has been aggressive towards certain adults when they first meet and when people are afraid of her or un-sure around her she gets aggressive with them - again, this is during the first encounter....The same thing with other animals....she will attack and bite them if given the chance...
With family and friends she is the sweetest thing...a mush actually...
When my nephew was an infant he came over once and she was okay with him....and she used to be ok with the kids on the block when they would run over excited to see her and they would pet her and she would be fine....but now if i see kids i tell them not to pet her b/c i am afraid...i think if the kids approach her without being afraid she would be fine but i am not chancing that....
After seeing her bite my Mom's dog and seeing her nip at my nephew I find her to be very unpredictable....and that SCARES me....How do I know she won't attack our child? How do I know she won't try to bite our infant? How do I know she won't turn on me while I am pregnant?
My DH thinks she will be fine b/c it's "our" baby and that it may take some adjusting but once she realizes the baby lives in our house and is part of the family she will be fine and protective over the baby....I hope he is right but I am scared....
Sorry this is so long  I just get upset when people get rid of their animals once they have kids (for conveinence) and I know that if my animal ever tried to hurt my child I would have to get rid of her - but the thought of that brings me to tears, literally....
So does that mean I'm not ready to have a baby yet? Because I get to upset over the thought of it meaning we *might* have to get rid of our dog? Or am I just worrying too much?
Did anyone deal with this? Did anyone worry their pet would be bad and their pet was okay? Did anyone ever actually have to give their dog away? 
Message edited 10/22/2009 12:10:19 PM.
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Posted 10/22/09 12:06 PM  |
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Long Island Weddings
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GioiaMia
Let's Go Rangers!
Member since 1/07 14818 total posts
Name:
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
Posted by Nik211
So does that mean I'm not ready to have a baby yet? Because I get to upset over the thought of it meaning we *might* have to get rid of our dog? Or am I just worrying too much?
Oh that is cr@p 
are you supposed to wait until you stop loving your dog? 
supervision is key. if he shows aggression he is not allowed near the baby. period.
if you train him correctly from the beginning, he SHOULD be fine. so many people do it, and they are perfectly fine!
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| Posted 10/22/09 12:12 PM |
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Nik211
my little monkey<3
Member since 5/08 3303 total posts
Name:
Nik
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
if that is the case we'll have to wait until the dog is gone - she is 8 - hopefully she still has a lot of time left here!  but those are my fears - waiting until the dog is gone (omg, i don't want to wait that long!!! or what if we can't keep her!!)
i swear this keeps me up at night and we aren't even trying yet!
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| Posted 10/22/09 12:18 PM |
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BnBdreamin
Gonna be a BIG Bro in April!
Member since 10/06 5913 total posts
Name:
Denise
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
No... but I think about it almost every day!!! In jest only, I'd never really do it. But they do say there is a bit of truth in jest. But they're not going anywhere!
Not for the fear of them doing anything to DS. Honestly, they're not all that interested even after almost 4 months. My thing is the cleanliness of the house. No matter how I try to keep up with the dog "matter" it's just all over. Dusty hair balls and slobber and we have an older doby who has pee pee accidents and we have a spoiled chihuahua who feels it his right to poop in the house on rainy days. I'd just love to leave a blanket on the floor and/or some toys to run upstairs for a minute without them making themselves comfy on it.
But we love our dogs so we just grin and bare it.... for the most part!
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| Posted 10/22/09 12:19 PM |
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NoStressMom
My Heart and Soul
Member since 5/05 11122 total posts
Name:
D
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
I will never and would never get rid of my dog he is our first baby and we still treat him that way!! It is an adjustment now with the baby and him but he is great with her and we still try to give him as much time as we can!!
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| Posted 10/22/09 12:26 PM |
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GioiaMia
Let's Go Rangers!
Member since 1/07 14818 total posts
Name:
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
Posted by Nik211
if that is the case we'll have to wait until the dog is gone - she is 8 - hopefully she still has a lot of time left here! but those are my fears - waiting until the dog is gone (omg, i don't want to wait that long!!! or what if we can't keep her!!)
i swear this keeps me up at night and we aren't even trying yet!
oh i know, we are TTC now and every day I think of something scary that makes me want to wait LOL but we arent - everything will work itself out!
i have already cried b/c I think brutus will be sad when we have a baby LOL
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| Posted 10/22/09 12:28 PM |
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nferrandi
too excited for words
Member since 10/05 18538 total posts
Name:
Nicole
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
My dog has never really shown agression to people, children or other dogs. But I still worrried how she would make the adjustment... she was great! She would sit by my feet while I nursed (that is not her nromal personality) and would nap under the crib. Now that DS is older, he kind of tortures her at times- and he has been nipped at. However, the nips were comletely provoked by DS and I just had/have to make adjustments in how I watch them together and train DS not to mess with the dog because she's an animal He's getting better and we have #2 on the way. So the dog will have to adjust to a little one all over again. I would not get rid of my dog unless it was a complete neccesity for the safety of my children, which it's not.
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| Posted 10/22/09 12:32 PM |
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oneday
<3
Member since 5/05 4319 total posts
Name:
Pam
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
I think you should wait and see before you think of getting rid of your dog. I have cats, but one of them is sometimes aggressive - he's bitten us a number of times (though not to break skin- but still...) and I was afraid of him attacking DS but he mostly ignores him. If DS starts screaming, the cat will usually look irritated and leave the room. He's sniffed DS occasionally when he's sleeping (we're right there) but thats it - he doesn't really want anything to do with him.
The other cat I had no worries about, I figured she'd just run away but she sometimes stays close when DS is crying like she is a worried mommy.
So try to cross that bridge when you get to it - but of course use common sense and don't leave the baby by him/herself with the dog because you never know what any animal might do.
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| Posted 10/22/09 12:35 PM |
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lucyloo
nope
Member since 1/06 9758 total posts
Name:
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
I would contact a trainer and see if they can help. Also, don't give him up yet, I would give him a chance. Of course you should never leave any dog unsupervised around an animal.
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| Posted 10/22/09 12:40 PM |
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Nik211
my little monkey<3
Member since 5/08 3303 total posts
Name:
Nik
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
ohh there is no way we are gettng rid of the dog, i didn't mean for my posts to come across that way!!
i am just worried that we would have to if she attacked our child the thought of her biting a baby makes me sick and the thought of getting rid of her makes me sick....
i am just worried about what the future might bring...because what if she doesn't adjust well? than we would have no choice....and that scares me....
i know that when i am pregnant we are going to get a baby doll and play recorded baby sounds (crying and such) to try and get her used to seeing us hold something and hearing baby sounds...there are also some other things i read to do to help the adjustment....
i'm just scared...it makes me not want to have a baby b/c i am so scared over how the dog might react...
Message edited 10/22/2009 12:43:15 PM.
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| Posted 10/22/09 12:42 PM |
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casey31
Mommy of 3!
Member since 5/05 2967 total posts
Name:
Mommy to two boys and a girl
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
Yes, I would contact a trainer.
Once your baby comes be VERY careful and never leave the room when they are together.
With a newborn the dog most likely will be fine- its with a toddler that there is the most danger.
Honestly, if either of my dogs showed aggression they would go to live with my parents. I am lucky that my parents would take my dogs if necessary and give them a good home.
I am a 2 under 2 mom and things are just too nutty to make sure that dogs and babies are always separated. I wouldn't trust myself to be able to maintain that. Any signs of aggression and the dog would have to go live with my mom- I couldn't risk it.
that being said, try and train the dog and see how it goes......
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| Posted 10/22/09 12:43 PM |
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LoriH
There's no place like home
Member since 8/07 4110 total posts
Name:
Lori
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
I think you are doing a real disservice to yourself and this dog by not working on the aggression issues. Regardless of the possibility of having children, you should be striving for a happy, healthy and well balanced dog. You took this dog into your life with the promise of loving and caring for it. Part of this promise includes appropriate discipline. I would find a good dog trainer to help you learn how to work best with your dog.
Regardless of your decision in the end I would never leave a small child alone with an animal. There needs to be some supervision, neither small children or pets have the ability to reason, they both act on instinct.
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| Posted 10/22/09 12:45 PM |
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BabyBoy
is Skylar Elizabeth
Member since 5/05 4189 total posts
Name:
Tom
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
Training?
Just like you would teach your child/baby to do stuff, you can teach a dog.
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| Posted 10/22/09 12:52 PM |
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Nik211
my little monkey<3
Member since 5/08 3303 total posts
Name:
Nik
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
Posted by BabyBoy
Training?
Just like you would teach your child/baby to do stuff, you can teach a dog.
yeah, i am thinking maybe a trainer would be a good thing...
she is trained to walk on a leash without walking ahead or pulling (of course, this goes out the window if there is a distraction like a barking dog)....we're getting a little better at that now that we can go for longer walks...but still haven't mastered her having no reaction to other animals...
she is trained to do tricks like sit, stay, paw, etc.
she knows phrases very well like "get down" (like if we want her to get down from the bed), she used to be allowed on the couch, since we moved she hasn't gone on the new couch and we are keeping that rule for good, she also knows "go eat" (she'll go to her bowl and eat) she knows "do want to go out" she runs to the door and waits for her leash, she also knows "go lay down" she goes and lays in her bed....
she is smart and follows lots of direction - but when it comes to new people, children and other animals she is nutty...almost like she loses herself...and we have seen her be aggressive - and i did find out that the breeder i got her from was breeding aggressive dogs which is a huge no-no and i know someone who had a male dog from my breeder who was super aggressive...
we never got a trainer b/c we never really had to deal with the problem....we didn't have people over often b/c our apartment was too small, we would go for walks at times when most people and animals were in bed and we didn't know anyone with kids until my niece and nephew were born so we never ran into that problem until recently...otherwise in the house she is a great dog....
i do see issues with aggression and maybe some seperation anxiety (b/c sometimes she gets way too excited when we come home and we try not to feed into that and we don't get excited when we leave or come back in the house) but the acting crazy around other animals i haven't been able to fix and her selectiveness around people and kids i haven't been able to fix either....so i guess i will have to look into getting a trainer for her....
she isn't a large dog - medium sized - 35 lbs or so....but she can be hard to control when she has an episode...so that is why i am so concerned about having children of our own around her....b/c i have seen her be unpredictable and get crazy with certain people and other dogs/cats....and part of that is known to be in her breed - they say shar peis should be well socialized and when she was as a puppy i was so good with that (keeping her around lots of people and dogs - she lived with two dogs when i lived at home) but once we moved in together and both started working full time we kind of let that go and i do notice that is when she got worse - when she wasn't around no animals or people anymore - that has been the last 6 years or so...
i guess i failed her
Message edited 10/22/2009 1:26:14 PM.
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| Posted 10/22/09 1:20 PM |
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Alex110879
craziness
Member since 8/06 3762 total posts
Name:
Alexandria
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
we have two horses, i mean dogs and as well as a ds and another on the way... i could never part with my dogs (though when one was eating off the high chair i could of killed him today) we just have a baby/doggy adjusted house... basically our living room where ds hangs out is gated into babydom and the dogs are only allowed in there under strict supervision.. more because of their size.... my ds loves his dogs and he actually crawled to one of them before anything else
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| Posted 10/22/09 1:27 PM |
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MST9106
My life:)
Member since 6/06 9589 total posts
Name:
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
Honestly, if your dog has shown aggression towards kids, I would think twice about having the dog around my baby. I have a dog, a big Boxer, and if I ever even sensed some sort of an inkling of aggression towards my son, my nieces or nephews, he'd be gone. Plain and simple. This isn't something that I would be willing to work on.
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| Posted 10/22/09 1:35 PM |
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jellybean78
:)
Member since 8/06 13103 total posts
Name:
Mommy
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
Posted by BnBdreamin
No... but I think about it almost every day!!! In jest only, I'd never really do it. But they do say there is a bit of truth in jest. But they're not going anywhere!
Not for the fear of them doing anything to DS. Honestly, they're not all that interested even after almost 4 months. My thing is the cleanliness of the house. No matter how I try to keep up with the dog "matter" it's just all over. Dusty hair balls and slobber and we have an older doby who has pee pee accidents and we have a spoiled chihuahua who feels it his right to poop in the house on rainy days. I'd just love to leave a blanket on the floor and/or some toys to run upstairs for a minute without them making themselves comfy on it.
But we love our dogs so we just grin and bare it.... for the most part!
OMG I have almost this same situation. Honestly my dog has bit my husband a few times but he's awesome with DD. It's really hard to keep up with keeping my place clean as it is but my dog is older and has a lot of frequent pee pee accidents..
OP: I wouldn't give up your dog but I would call in a dog trainer and have her evaluated now...before you have kids.
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| Posted 10/22/09 1:38 PM |
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jellybean78
:)
Member since 8/06 13103 total posts
Name:
Mommy
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
Posted by jacquig
Posted by BnBdreamin
No... but I think about it almost every day!!! In jest only, I'd never really do it. But they do say there is a bit of truth in jest. But they're not going anywhere!
Not for the fear of them doing anything to DS. Honestly, they're not all that interested even after almost 4 months. My thing is the cleanliness of the house. No matter how I try to keep up with the dog "matter" it's just all over. Dusty hair balls and slobber and we have an older doby who has pee pee accidents and we have a spoiled chihuahua who feels it his right to poop in the house on rainy days. I'd just love to leave a blanket on the floor and/or some toys to run upstairs for a minute without them making themselves comfy on it.
But we love our dogs so we just grin and bare it.... for the most part!
OMG I have almost this same situation. Honestly my dog has bit my husband a few times but he's awesome with DD. It's really hard to keep up with keeping my place clean as it is but my dog is older and has a lot of frequent pee pee accidents..
OP: I wouldn't give up your dog but I would call in a dog trainer and have her evaluated now...before you have kids.
ETA: For cleanliness purposes as well as the fact that animals are unpredictable and so are toddlers we limit DD's interaction with Rocky and always are watching her when she is with him. If DH or I can't watch her they are not in the room alone..period. Although Rocky is great with her he is a dog and she is a toddler....you just never know. We also have places like the LR and BR which are now restricted to the animals (I have a cat too). They are only allowed in under supervision.
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| Posted 10/22/09 1:41 PM |
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brownie
Baby #1 is here!
Member since 11/08 13903 total posts
Name:
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
Posted by LoriH
I think you are doing a real disservice to yourself and this dog by not working on the aggression issues. Regardless of the possibility of having children, you should be striving for a happy, healthy and well balanced dog. You took this dog into your life with the promise of loving and caring for it. Part of this promise includes appropriate discipline. I would find a good dog trainer to help you learn how to work best with your dog.
Regardless of your decision in the end I would never leave a small child alone with an animal. There needs to be some supervision, neither small children or pets have the ability to reason, they both act on instinct.
I agree.
Luckily our dogs have been socialized since they were puppies and are not aggressive towards people or animals...but we still always keep a close eye on them and never leave them alone w/DD because they could even accidentally hurt her (getting excited, tail hitting her--big dogs)
And I agree, I think working on behavior, discipline etc is part of the responsibility of owning a dog--I think I remember reading before they're happier with discipline
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| Posted 10/22/09 1:41 PM |
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brownie
Baby #1 is here!
Member since 11/08 13903 total posts
Name:
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
Posted by BnBdreamin
No... but I think about it almost every day!!! In jest only, I'd never really do it. But they do say there is a bit of truth in jest. But they're not going anywhere!
Not for the fear of them doing anything to DS. Honestly, they're not all that interested even after almost 4 months. My thing is the cleanliness of the house. No matter how I try to keep up with the dog "matter" it's just all over. Dusty hair balls and slobber and we have an older doby who has pee pee accidents and we have a spoiled chihuahua who feels it his right to poop in the house on rainy days. I'd just love to leave a blanket on the floor and/or some toys to run upstairs for a minute without them making themselves comfy on it.
But we love our dogs so we just grin and bare it.... for the most part!
same here! freaking dog hair all the time, so annoying! I'll put an outfit on DD and then there's dog hair on it...argh! I would never EVER get rid of our dogs although there are times (like you said, in jest), one of them in particular I'll tell him he's on his way out .....usually when he's annoying me
but really, DH and I are SO attached to our dogs
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| Posted 10/22/09 1:43 PM |
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Nik211
my little monkey<3
Member since 5/08 3303 total posts
Name:
Nik
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
Posted by brownie
Posted by LoriH
I think you are doing a real disservice to yourself and this dog by not working on the aggression issues. Regardless of the possibility of having children, you should be striving for a happy, healthy and well balanced dog. You took this dog into your life with the promise of loving and caring for it. Part of this promise includes appropriate discipline. I would find a good dog trainer to help you learn how to work best with your dog.
Regardless of your decision in the end I would never leave a small child alone with an animal. There needs to be some supervision, neither small children or pets have the ability to reason, they both act on instinct.
I agree.
Luckily our dogs have been socialized since they were puppies and are not aggressive towards people or animals...but we still always keep a close eye on them and never leave them alone w/DD because they could even accidentally hurt her (getting excited, tail hitting her--big dogs)
And I agree, I think working on behavior, discipline etc is part of the responsibility of owning a dog--I think I remember reading before they're happier with discipline
i think that the reason we slacked in the discipline department is b/c the situations where she would act up were so few and far between - meaning we didn't know she would be bad around kids until she nipped at my nephew...and she would only go crazy when we were walking her and another dog would be outside but it wasn't everytime or everday or every dog she saw....and in the house she is good - and she is trained to a degree (except when it comes to kids, certain adults (who show fear to her) and animals)....i'm not making excuses, it just didn't seem to be a problem at the time so we never worked on it...now that we want to have kids it's a problem because i'm not sure how she will take to an infant who will take up a lot of our time...so because of her history i am woried will she aggressive? jealous?
i'm not even sure how you go about getting the right trainer b/c i think a lot them don't know there a$$ from their elbow i guess i have to start researching...
Message edited 10/22/2009 1:59:53 PM.
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| Posted 10/22/09 1:57 PM |
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Angel321
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Member since 4/08 15553 total posts
Name:
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
there are ways to go about preparing your dog - do a google search - i'm sure you'll come up with 10,000 results!
things like, using a baby doll to pretend it's a baby, when you come home with your baby - have your DH walk in with the blanket first - so that the dog can sniff that and get the baby's 'smell'.....
eta: we have a pets board here, maybe ask for recs' on there for a trainer!
Message edited 10/22/2009 2:03:13 PM.
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| Posted 10/22/09 2:02 PM |
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KimberlyScott
Graceyn=My World <3
Member since 10/08 4173 total posts
Name:
Kimberly
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
I can understand your concern. I would start working on this now. Contact a trainer and explain the situation to them. take her to a dog park, get her socialized. I often worry about this when or if I ever have children. I have 3 furbabies and the baby fur is jealous of anyone or anything I give attention to.
Message edited 10/22/2009 2:04:27 PM.
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| Posted 10/22/09 2:03 PM |
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MrsFlatbread
Skinny jeans are in my future
Member since 6/06 10258 total posts
Name:
Baby Momma
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
We did...we knew would would likely have to despite training, she was a very protective and food aggressive animal. we tried everything. Then when Frankie began crawling she began growling at him and came very close to biting him on one occasion. One minute after that occasion, I called my mom and told her to come get the dog or I was taking her to the shelter. (she was origiannly my mom's dog when she was a puppy) She was my dog for 8 years...I love her and miss her every second...but no dog will attempt to bite my baby and stay one more minute in my house.
For the record, the old dog is happier than a pig in poop, because she is by herself (we had other dogs) and my mom stays home with her all day (we worked). It's still sad when I see her b/c she wants to come home with me when I am leaving but...it's for the best that she does not...
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| Posted 10/22/09 2:07 PM |
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Goobster
:)
Member since 5/07 27557 total posts
Name:
:)
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Re: Did anyone get rid of their dog for baby?
My dogs are very hyper, are not great with kids and very bitey during play (or even when they get annoyed). I was worried before DD came BUT I would never get rid of them. I knew that they could do it, be good, but it just would take extra work on my part. To me my dogs are my babies, they aren't going anywhere, even if they had to stay away from teh baby until she was older. DD is 11 mths and I have alot of baby gates around. My male dog has gone to bite her hand (playfully though) but that's the way he is, he gets nippy when excited. So far, it has worked out well and DH and I do ALL we can to make sure our dogs are content. I take baby and dogs on long walks. She loves them, but right now she is rough with them so she has to be supervised at all times around them.
I know my dogs dont mean any harm, they are just a bit crazy. I have to say I think they have done amazingly well considering they lived in this home for 4 years before a child entered the picture. Get a trainer now. Your dog sounds like she is fearful, which is called fear agression (my girl dog does this too). You have to want to make it work and if you want it bad enough, it will work.
Message edited 10/22/2009 2:17:19 PM.
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| Posted 10/22/09 2:10 PM |
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