the other (four-legged) baby...

cleblanc18 · December 2014

Hi ladies! This is my first post! I am a person who loves animals, almost on the border of loving them than most humans lol. I currently at home I have one dog (just turned 3) and a holland lop ear bunny (1.5 yrs). Ever since I got my dog she has been my EVERYTHING pretty much. When I'm home she's glued to my hip, goes on most errands with me if she can, and goes running with me everyday. When I have to leave her at home she gets so depressed (heartbreaking). And I know I sound biased, but to me she's the best dog! I love my bunny very much too, but I just have a special bond with Rae (my dog) that is harder for me to have with the bunny because he doesn't like being held and Rae wants to be loved on all the time and cuddled.

I know that there are books out there on "how to introduce the pup to the baby" and things like that. But I would like some advice from some of you ladies who already have a baby/children and have a pet that you love like it was one of your children. How was it for you? What helped ease the transition? And does it get better? The reason I'm asking is because Rae really is treated like a member of our family, my mom calls her the grand-dog lol and when we got Toby (the bunny) she was devastated! It was horrible, if one of us wanted to give affection to the bunny the other person had to be loving on her (which was mostly me, she never liked seeing me loving on that ball of fur but totally understandable!). Presently, they are best friends now and everything is great! But a baby is TOTALLY different! I already feel guilty knowing how much time will be spent on the (actual) baby (and I'm ok with it because I'm so excited for this pregnancy and baby and that's how it obviously should be! I'm so excited to be a first time mom

) But the other part of me feels sad knowing how Rae will feel. Is there a balance? Please help!

cleblanc18 · December 2014

And I also wanted to note that Rae is half Chow Chow and half Rottweiler. So she is VERY protective of her home and family. But like what most people would think, she is the sweetest dog you would ever meet! Let me paint the picture: when she sees a kitten she wants to play with it and give it love! When she sees a cat and can't get to it to love on she starts to cry! She is so kind to ALL animals. (She was raised around cats). So a part of me thinks it will go one of two ways: she will either take it extremely well and be super protective of the baby right away, or take it really hard because the baby is new to the house. But if a stranger comes into the house she gets defensive, but once she smells you out and you're ok, she goes to grab her toy for you to play lol (she does this to all the maintenance people haha!)

myfriendscallmemeg · December 2014

We have a 3-legged chocolate lab who is an outside/inside dog. When we brought Holland home from the hospital my husband took a blanket out to him to associate him with the smell. Once he came inside he just wanted to sniff her, and lick her face. After that he was kind of over her, and would leave her alone.

Now that's Holland is older they can interact more, and it's adorable.

I will say to work on obedience training before the new baby comes. Having an obedient dog has made it a million times easier, since I can tell him to do something once and he just listens.

cleblanc18 · December 2014

@myfriendscallmemeg‌ she's a very obedient dog, never has disobeyed us. So we won't have to worry about that, but the blanket idea is good!

cleblanc18 · December 2014

ABvintage said:
Hi, there. Here is another post about introducing your pets to babies.

Thanks! But that seems mostly about training and that isn't the concern I have because she's extremely obedient. I'm more concerned about my pups emotions.

neludelu · December 2014

I worry about this also. I have a fur baby who I adore. It hurts to think of how badly she is going to hurt when she is no longer my #1. I don't like to think about it. :-(

cleblanc18 · December 2014

neludelu said:
I worry about this also. I have a fur baby who I adore. It hurts to think of how badly she is going to hurt when she is no longer my #1. I don't like to think about it. :-(

@neludelu‌ i know

she means everything to me! I have talked to my mom about it and we plan on loving on her and playing with her when the baby is sleeping and/or when one person has the baby the other can tend to her. But I hope this works!

neludelu · December 2014

Just reading this has made me feel better. I thought I was the only one out there who had this worry. I am sure our fur babies will be fine.

reyes01 · January 2015

This was really nice to read through! I have two fur babies and both are attached to me. DH and I have been discussing how their lives are going to change drastically. We already started with small obedience training but from the sounds of the post I need to get a good game plan!

Thanks and I'm glad I'm not the only one out there concerned about my first "kids"

KLB2T · January 2015

When we had DD, we only had 1 dog, a miniature Australian Shepherd. She couldn't care less about DD when we first brought her home and didn't act any different. Now that DD is older, they are great friends.

This time around, we will have 2 dogs to introduce the new baby to (we just got a German Shepherd a few months ago). She already does so well with DD, so we're not worried about bringing the new baby home to her.

Good luck to you and Rae!

Starynightsky24 · January 2015

I had a dog and two cats when we brought DS home. This is what we did, and we never had any issues

I put out ALL the baby stuff (swing, bouncer, pack n play...) SUPER early. I think I was 6mo pregnant? Maybe earlier. That way by the time baby was there they were use to the new stuff and knew the rules (no touching).

DH took DS's dirty blankets from the hospital and put them on their beds at home. This was right after he was born, so we still had a couple days left in the hospital.

When we got home we greeted them like normal and let them find/greet the baby on their own.

We gave lots of extra food those first few weeks. We read they can start to dislike the baby because they see the baby as competition for food. So, we wanted them to know that that was not an issue.

Best of luck! Hope that helps.

ammc07 · January 2015

We have two dachshunds that we 6 and 7 when we brought DD home. Our male is super friendly with anyone so long as you throw his ball so we weren't worried about him. Our female though, is a ver sweet girl but is very attached to us (mostly my husband). I was worried about how she would react but we just slowly introduced her to the baby. When we first brought dd home we placed her infant carrier on the couch and let the dogs sniff her. The female was never aggressive towards the baby just didn't want anything to do with her. What was funny though was if the baby was crying and we were not in the room, she would run between us and whatever room the baby was , like she was trying to get our attention that the baby was crying.

Now DD is 4 and Molly still doesn't want much to do with her and just moved away If DD gets in her space.

Our biggest thing is that we wanted be sure that we didn't treat the dogs a whole lot different then we did before the baby. Obviously some changed but we made sure to get our play and cuddle time in with them. Just try to make her realize she's still an important part in your life but so is the baby.

thehurricaine · January 2015

There is a good chance your dog already knows something is up. My dog knew I was pregnant this time and last time before I did. She would sit and whine at me, or stare as close to my face as she could get. As soon as we tested and knew, she backed off. They're weird about these things.

It's going to be an adjustment no matter what. The dog is going to be put out for a bit, but try to maintain walks and the other fun stuff you guys do together as much as you can. And when the babies come, try to remember that the dog is support for you emotionally. I think some people find they don't feel the same about the dog after the baby comes, and remembering that your relationship to your dog provides you with emotional support can help make sure you remember to reciprocate. Eventually your dog will see that the baby is a new friend, who will provide mountains of extra food for her to snack on and who will give extra love.

The other piece of advice is no matter how nice your dog is, no matter how much you trust her: don't leave them alone, even with the baby sleeping and even after months on end of them bonding and getting along. Weird things happen. Our dog is a gentle giant, and I would still put the little vibrating chair on the floor of the bathroom so I could shower rather than leaving her in another part of the house with the dog. Now that my kid is 2 and they are best friends, I still don't leave them alone together.

koyangi87 · January 2015

This is my main worry too! My dog is 10 years old, had him since he was 6 weeks, and he is pretty much my child and very attached to me. I can't even hug or kiss my DH for longer than 15 seconds because the dog gets jealous and starts barking, and he jumps on DH to push him away. He's very possessive of my attention. Before, this was just cute and I let it slide (yeah I know not the best thing to do, my dog thinks he's the alpha probably) but it was ok. It's about to be very not ok, so we've been working on it. The blanket thing is a good idea though.

abbycjones · January 2015

We have a Chiweenie and she'll be 3 when the baby arrives. She's great around older kids (we've had some cousins come stay with us). I'm not sure how she'll be with a baby.

She's very attached to us (she was a rescue). She gets jealous when DH and I are affectionate with each other. Overall she's very obedient and we haven't had any issues training her. I guess we won't really know until our LO is here.

reyes01 · January 2015

This is all such good advice!!!

melanier26 · January 2015

I told my husband about your post and he asked if I posted it in my sleep haha. Our puppy is 15 months and is spoiled rotten. I stay at home with her and she is so distressed whenever I leave her. We do need to work on the obedience training (like I said, spoiled rotten) and I'm a little bit worried about her being upset with us, but I know she will be a great big sister

cleblanc18 · January 2015

I'm not just worried about her feeling neglected, but I'm so attached to her it goes beyond just attachment, that I'm scared about not giving her all the love I did before! She is the best dog in the world (let's me groom her and anything else and is very obedient) I will have to do my best to keep our relationship the same because I will not treat her like she is second trash. She was my baby first and will always be my baby.

whenweawake · January 2015

Glad I'm not the only one who has these fears. I have 3 dogs, a cat and 2 rats. I work at an animal hospital so I love animals.

tinktink20 · January 2015

I was in the same boat before we had our first. Our dog was our child. She went everywhere with us and got SO much attention and love. Then baby came. Luckily, it was a fairly smooth transition for everyone. I will say that as time went on, the dog became a dog, and is no longer our baby. We still love her and give her attention, but we don't dote on her like we did before. It just happens.

Rabbi · January 2015

I have no idea how, but our dog has never been different around babies, even when they are in "her" space. She jumps on adults like crazy- unless they are holding baby or baby is around. I feel so fortunate that introducing our "practice child" to our new human baby will be easy as pie.

cleblanc18 · January 2015

tinktink20 said:
I was in the same boat before we had our first. Our dog was our child. She went everywhere with us and got SO much attention and love. Then baby came. Luckily, it was a fairly smooth transition for everyone. I will say that as time went on, the dog became a dog, and is no longer our baby. We still love her and give her attention, but we don't dote on her like we did before. It just happens.

Lol, I promise if you saw my relationship with my dog you would know it won't change to the point where she is treated completely different than before. I will have had her almost four years by the time the baby comes, I made a commitment to be her momma. She will be spoiled and loved just the same. I don't believe in making their lives different just because you have kids.

tinktink20 · January 2015

cleblanc18 said:

tinktink20 said:
I was in the same boat before we had our first. Our dog was our child. She went everywhere with us and got SO much attention and love. Then baby came. Luckily, it was a fairly smooth transition for everyone. I will say that as time went on, the dog became a dog, and is no longer our baby. We still love her and give her attention, but we don't dote on her like we did before. It just happens.
Lol, I promise if you saw my relationship with my dog you would know it won't change to the point where she is treated completely different than before. I will have had her almost four years by the time the baby comes, I made a commitment to be her momma. She will be spoiled and loved just the same. I don't believe in making their lives different just because you have kids.

If your relationship changes, don't feel guilty

imahuthnow · January 2015

@abbycjones‌ OMG What is a Chiweenie, I need a photo!!!!

abbycjones · January 2015

imahuthnow said:
@abbycjones‌ OMG What is a Chiweenie, I need a photo!!!!

The app isn't letting me post a photo from my phone. But a Chiweenie is half Chihuahua and half Dachshund. Ours is a female named Mellie. I'll try and post a pic for you from the computer tomorrow. She's pretty cute :-)

Huler · January 2015

My dog was only 1.5 when we brought our first home, and even though we did the whole blanket thing (and our son was in the NICU for nine days, so there was plenty of baby smells on us in that time), bringing him home was ROUGH. My (well trained, btw) big furry baby CRIED and WHINED by the bassinet until I thought I'd go crazy, we'd put him outside and he'd yelp and bark like he was being tortured! Back in he'd go and the crying (yes, the DOG cried) would resume, and there was no consoling him by either of us. We joked that the first few days with a newborn were rough bc of the dog, not the baby. He was getting plenty of attention and we were super NOT protective or paranoid about them interacting, so to this day I still don't know what his issue was other than he can still be a pain in the ass sometimes if he's not getting his way.

I tell you this not to scare you but to say that even with the best laid plans, you can't predict how it'll go... but everyone will adjust! Seven years later and I still call my dog my firstborn and don't know what I'd do without him. He considers me the alpha (when he's not trying for the position), still sleeps by my side of the bed each night and his old-man arthritic butt will still get up and run to me with his tail wagging whenever I enter a room. So I think he's forgiven me.

Zan36 · January 2015

I have 6 cats of which 3 are Siamese they are my children. My baby was never planned so it came as a huge suprise to us. My maon concern was my cats and how they would deal with this little person since Siamese are very jealous cats

overthetopcostumes · January 2015

Hi

I have a very spoilt puppy / baby depends who you ask in my family. His name is Byron he is a Kelpie x blue heeler.

So far I'm sitting on the couch cuddling a doll wrapped in a baby blanket that I borrowed from a friend with a baby odor just so my puppy knows what's his time on my knee and what's the future babies time.

I'm putting up a child safety gate on the baby room so the room is a no go zone.

I've also got friends recording baby cries because where he sleeps he's bound to hear them in the night and I don't want him to stress later (that's my job).

I'm also teaching him times of day that I hope will remain his. Hanging out the washing is his crazy stick chasing time. We also got some chickens which he now fondly watches like TV.

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