Pets and Kids - Kind of long

DH and I work together and we are with our dog all the time. He comes to work with us and everything.

Now that we are TTC I wantd to see if anyone has had to go through the transition of introducing kids into the house when your dog is like your baby. Any tips? Is there anything we should be doing now? I worry that Charlie will resent the baby, but I could just be worrying over nothing.

For people that have gone through this already, does it all just work itself out naturally? I've only ever seen situations where the dog goes from being super important to more of an afterthought and we don't want it to be that way.

Thanks!

Re: Pets and Kids - Kind of long

I think if you are going to make the effort, you will have no major problems.
As long as your dog doesn't get aggressive, you should be fine.
I know a few people who doted on their dogs and then had babies with no major ill effects. Just a few adjustments here and there.
You can still bring your dog with you when you take your baby for walks, etc.

Re: Pets and Kids - Kind of long

We have been trying to expose Bella to young children more and more so when we have a baby she will be somewhat use to them. This weekend we were at our friends house who have a 2 1/2 year old, and Bella and their daughter played all night, it was so cute, Bella loved following her around. She has also seen me hold babies, and the first time she just came up and sniffed. Now she can care less. Hopefully she will be like this when we bring home our own baby one day.

Re: Pets and Kids - Kind of long

Maggie was SO our baby that when I was pregnant I got sad that she wasn't going to be my only baby anymore, but she loves DS now.

Dogs are pack animals, they will love a new member of the pack. We did the whole DH bringing the baby blanket home from the hospital for Maggie to smell (she still sleeps with it). We probably let her get a bit too close (sometimes we all sleep in the same full size bed ) but she is really good with DS and he is only 2 months old now.

See

Re: Pets and Kids - Kind of long

Thank you so much everyone! Charlie sleeps in our bed with us too and we imagine that we will have to get a king size as opposed to our queen when we have a baby. I am also looking for some type of chest that we can put at the foot of our bed that would be the same height that Charlie can sleep on to get him used to not being on the actual bed with us.

The only thing that worries me is that Charlie is really attached to DH. He worships him and he went to hold our baby neice last week and Charlie growled a little. We later found out he had an ear infection so I am hoping he was just out of sorts a little. We've been trying to hang out a lot with friends and relatives that have kids and Charlie LOVES them, but he does get a little jealous.

We've been through the ringer with Charlie's health and he is so the focus of our attention and worry. I really like the baby blanket idea.

Re: Pets and Kids - Kind of long

Our dog still sleeps on our bed. The baby was just in the bassinet along side of the bed. As soon as I found out I was pregnant we went into training. More poor dog had her ears pulled while she was eating, we took her bowls away from her mid meal, I used baby lotion on my hands to get her used to the smell. She is wonderful with my daughter. Now that my daughter is up walking our dog is her best friend. It's beautiful to watch. It will all work itself out and you will be surprised to see how gentle your dog is with the baby. They just sense it....