Hellobee Boards

We have a 65 lb mixed dog, he's 6. He's our baby, and we were also worried about what would happen when our human baby came.

First things weren't so good. Our first night home was... hectic to say the least. My milk didn't come in, my LO was hungry, and she cried. A lot. So not only did we bring this new little person into the house, we brought a screaming little person. Our dog hated her. If we walked into a room, the dog would leave it

Of course we figured things out and things calmed down a bit. My LO still screams of course, but not all night long. My dog has learned to accept her, and even love her. He tries to lick her feet every chance he gets!

There are jealousy issues... when we have guests come that pay attention to my LO and not the dog we have to make sure to close the bathroom door or he'll go into the trash to get attention. We try to give him attention all the time, but with a new baby that everyone is ooohing and ahhhhing over, it's just not that easy.

Also, my mom has been awesome about coming over and helping with the dog. She'll come over and take him out before spending any time with my baby girl. She'll take him on a long walk or they'll go to the dog park to wear him out.

I do admit that things have changed. We'll let him out back instead of taking him on a long walk because we're exhausted or don't have time. And then we'll forget that he's outside And he doesn't bark to let us know he's out there, so it takes a while to remember. It's pretty bad. But I know it won't last forever. My LO will grow older, things will get easier, and our pup will get even more love. Until then I'll gladly accept all the help we can get!

A friend of mine at work had a baby a year before I did, and I remember her saying that, after having a baby, she just loved her animals way less.
I remember thinking "No way! Not I! My dog is my best friend and if the dog and the baby don't get along we'll just keep the dog in the house and raise an outside-baby."
(I was kidding, before anyone is tempted to call CPS)
Seriously, especially during pregnancy, my dog was my best friend. But now that we have a kid (almost 8 months old), it's totally true- I definitely love my dog way less.
He definitely kind of gets the shaft- he gets far less attention than he used to. But he's really been a trooper about it. He's super high anxiety, and I do worry about how he'll react to a mobile baby, but so far he's been only casually interested in the baby... he'd lick the baby all over if we'd let him (we try to limit licking to feet), and for the most part he just sniffs him and then ignores him. (The baby, on the other hand, is currently fascinated by the dog)
I think a couple things helped: for one, we went from being gone really long hours pre-baby, to being home all the time. For the first three months of DS's life, there was always someone (often two adults and one baby) around, so my dog loved just having company. So it's not like we went from being gone all the time to being gone all the time and ignoring him during the few hours we were around... we may have had this little angry creature, but we were always THERE.
Also, we encouraged him to hang out with us. He's sit at my feet while I nursed DS, and sleep at the foot of the cosleeper at night. We pet him while holding DS. He's allowed in the baby's room. So I don't think he feels excluded or anything.
And now DS is starting to drop food on the floor, so if there was ever anything he could do to win the dog's affections, I think this is it...