Introducing a dog and baby

[Nikki Robinson]

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Hi Everyone,

I am thinking of starting a family in the new year and i have a 5 year old GSD who is 6 in December, he is gorgeous and have never had any problems with him. we have been very lucky

He is not possessive or jealous but i worry when i bring a baby into the mix how he will be as he has not grown up with any children and he is still an animal who has always had mine and my partners attention, hes interested in smelling babies and gets frustrated with toddlers i constantly have to tell the children and their parents to leave him be or put him in another room but he has never hurt them.

Any advise would be appreciated with any tips if anyone has gone through this would be great

Thank you for your time

Nikki Robinson

 

[heulwen714]

Hi. Thought I'd share my thoughts on your topic. When I had my first son, my husband and I were still living with my parents as our house wasn't ready, and my parents had two German Shepherds. Like yours they, up to that point, had lived in a mostly grown up household with only visiting children, who they were allowed supervised contact with. When we brought Sion home we placed him on the kitchen table in his car seat and I made a fuss of the dogs as I'd been in hospital a few days. Their confused faces when he started squeaking were hilarious as they'd never heard a newborn baby cry before!

The thing with babies is that initially they don't do much and you have total control over where they are at all times. So Sion spent a lot of time in his chair on top of worktops or tables for the first few weeks if the dogs were in the room. They accepted him with no problems. They had a sniff when he was in my arms but really weren't very interested. I think the important thing to remember is that your dog is just that 'a dog', that you can never fully predict what they may do, so you take precautions accordingly.

The fun will begin when your child starts to move about, and it's gets trickier to make sure that your dog doesn't snap because his hair has been pulled or his eye poked, whilst still letting your child be his friend. We've always had dogs. I've now got two collie cross dogs of my own ( and four children) and my parents still have GSDs with 11 grandchildren in the mix.

Good luck.