DH has baby fever. He has secretly been researching Samoyed dogs and wants to get one. He says they are great with children and he loves their pedigree.
What things did your SO do or suggest to prepare for baby?
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That dog is adorable!
And I know some people get annoyed when others equate pet ownership with having a child, but... I do think it can be good preparation, even though it isn't even close to the same level of commitment - ha!
We have a 3 year old English bulldog and we always say that we got a lot of our need to indulge and spoil out of the way with her. We learned a lot about what we did not want to encourage with our LO. So no, getting a dog isn't necessary, but it does help, I think!
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I agree, we called our puppy our practice baby. It showed us that we can work as a team (she woke up every 2-3 hrs at night to potty), and went to training classes so we would discipline the same way. Our dog may not have necessarily prepared us, but we found out how well we work together at raising and disciplining. So I think it was good for us! (We don't have a baby yet though, so I can't say for sure!
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Sammys are awesome :D. My first dog was a Samoyed. My sister used to use him as a pillow.
I'm relying on dh's previous baby experience to get us through this one lol
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awww such a cute poochie!
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Look at that little face!!! Precious!!
Our bulldog was great practice! At the start we were both up at night (not as much as we will be in September with the baby, I'm sure!), work together to train him, make decisions together...
I just hope our baby sleeps as much and as is low-maintenance as our dog!! DH says fat chance considering he sleeps 22 hours a day, lol.
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@MeredithNYC: Oh no! Babies and puppies are not the same...oooh that isn't want I meant. DH wants the dog because he thinks dogs and children go together like babies and cribs or crying. We both grew up with pets although I was not responsible for my Golden Retreiver. Didn't mean to offend anyone!
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@meredithNYC: Our bulldog just turned 3, too! I find he's calmed down so much this past year. My friends laugh because 'calming down' for Gus means from going from 15 hours of sleep a day to 20, lol.
He's still very active when we take him for walks or playdates, but now he crashes so much more quickly.
Sorry to thread jack!! I've just never met another bulldog owner!
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Awww sooo cute!!
I also agree that owning a pet helps prep you for having a child in some ways. When we got our dog, we learned to wake up early, we had to figure out petsitting when we went on vacays, we took training classes, potty trained her, etc.
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we got a second dog last fall to help allay my baby fever, lol! we're waiting to ttc until it makes more sense timing wise with my career, but having a 2nd pup really helped fulfill my nurturing needs, bc dang a puppy is needy! our older dog is such a piece of cake in comparison, and as much as i adore puppyhood, I'm so glad she'll be more grown up by the time we have a baby!
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Oh, I'm not offended at all! It just seems like a lot of people get upset when people make the comparison, but not me
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If nothing else, having my dogs has gotten me used to pee and poop!!!
I love that your husband feels like babies and dogs go together. I'm stressing out about us having dogs when our baby comes. I don't want them to jump on her or slobber on her.... or get hair all over her! I know it will be fine but I can't help but worry about these things!
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We have a 6 year old dog, but two weeks ago we got a puppy.. omg. Baby fever left me for a few days because he was up barking all night! hahaha
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@Cherrybee: So true about the poop. You just become kind of immune to the nastiness.
@char54: Phyllis has calmed down a ton, too. At first I thought it was just because we moved from the city to the suburbs and she's more relaxed, but it does seem to be age-related. When she was younger, people would always comment on her energy when she was out and about walking/running in NYC. They'd be like, "Whoa, I've never seen a bulldog move that quickly!" Hahaha - she kept me in shape when I was pregnant since I was too lazy for the gym.
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I called my dog my practice child.
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I think having a dog helped us get somewhat baby ready.
Not pregnant yet but having my dog got us to take care of someone other than ourselves. My dog had some medical issues so we had take her to the vet a lot for the first year. She was put on prescription food and is still on it today.
Having a dog put us in the mind frame to remember that she has to be take care of when we travel.I know I would never compare our dog to a baby but it did help us.
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I wouldn't, only because once the (human) baby comes around, it's hard to keep up with a dog (or at least IMO.)
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@googly-eyes: I agree with you, which is why I discourage couples w baby on the brain from getting a dog as a practice baby. I've seen many craigslist posts saying something to the order of, "Great dog, we just don't have time for him anymore since baby came along..." So sad!
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so cute! but I would kill DH if he had got a pet before baby. there's no way I would want to pick up double the poop and vomit, haha
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@mrsmate: I think that's so sad. This is why I'm setting the new boundaries for my dogs now, so they're not doubly confused when baby is here and they're suddenly not allowed on the furniture - and so they don't associate the baby with decisions they may not like! When you take on a dog, you promise to look after it and look after it well for the rest of it's life, end of.
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@googly-eyes: I agree our dog was our baby and he felt so displaced when the human babies came.
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