homestudy and dogs?

Honeydew1894

Does anyone out there have experience with home studies and dogs? Is the SW looking at anything regarding the dogs? I know SW will want to make sure dogs are friendly, but how much of a factor are dogs?  We have 2 smallish dogs, one who is PERFECT and one who is rather excitable. Thoughts? TIA!

candm

Our SW did not have any problem with our dog.

galbraith2be

Our dog isn't the perfect dog and our social worker had no issues with him. 

rottimom

We have three big loud active dogs.  The SW did not care, he met them, at some point we had to provide copies of their medical records- to show that they are current on their medicals, etc.  And that's about it.

PSU-NCBride

We were actually really worried about this. We have three dogs ranging in size from 50 to 85 pounds. They are all pretty crazy and one sometimes gets nervous when he meets new people and pees on the floor. They are all sweet and harmless though.?

We asked our consultant ahead of time and she assured us that we were fine. To be safe we had all three of them outside during the first home visit. The meeting was at night and two of them are black so you could barely even see them out the back door.

When she did the 'tour' of the house she looked outside at the dogs and wrote down their colors I think.

During the second meeting we had them inside but split them up while we did the individual interviews. That way they weren't so overwhelming. One dog tried to lay her head on the social worker's lap the entire time and kiss her, but she didn't seem to mind at all. That is our family. ?

She gave us some tips about how to start get the dogs acquainted with the nursery and the new baby items. This was one reason we did the nursery so early. Overall, I think we worried a lot more than we should have. ?

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kmkaull

Our SW came to our house just once.  I was sweating it a bit because I knew she was coming at their "exciteable" time of day, right after we got home from work.  But oddly, they were perfect--calm, not jumpy.  It went great and she liked them a lot.  We did have to give copies of their rabies reports. 

Katie

come*on*baby

we have a zoo - 3 cats and 2 dogs. i was worried, but they assured us it wasn't a problem. and it wasn't. we just have to have them vaccinated regularly.

(DFL)

All we had to do was show proof that they were current on vaccs. 

Honeydew1894

Great! Thanks ladies. DH and I were worried. I think everyone worries (probably too much) about the home study. Have a nice day!