Baby's and pets??

Thanks so much guys for responding! I appreciate any advice

 

We got our webmaster when I was 5 months pregnant with our son. We had a scare when he was on the bed and she jumped on it but that's it. She lets him pull on her ears, stick his hands in her mouth, and climb all over her. We got our boxer when he was five months old. She has issues with him climbing on her but she doesn't like us sitting on her either. She'll bark but that's it. He's two now. I'm sure they will be the same with Lainee.

 

I have two cats, a dog (kelpie) and a horse. I'd never consider getting rid of any of them.
The cat is my sons best friend haha.

 

I don't think there is a reason to re-home. We have a little rat terrier that is a million years old. We expect her to smell the baby, become disinterested and then slink off to her bed. That's how she deals with everything!

However, I have witnessed some extraordinarily unfortunate incidences with people not planning appropriately for their dogs/new children. Ask yourself some questions to see what your boundaries are.

What would it take for you to re-home your animal? (If they bit your child, if they were aggressive etc). A family I babysat had two big labs. When their baby could crawl she tried to push herself up on the dog (who had jumped the gate and gone upstairs). The dog bit her face. She is 15 now and still has scars. Obviously, mom wasn't watching closely enough, the dog was provoked/irritated, but still.

How will you perform your regular dog caring duties? We have a little dog and we just let her out in the yard. The same family-the mom took one dog (never both at the same time) for a walk with the baby in a front carrier. The dog saw another, small dog that was off its leash and bolted. The dog knocked mom over and dragged her and baby for a few feet. Kid has a road rash scar across her shoulder from the incident. Maybe just think of ways to be able to do walks and stuff without having to handle both dog and baby by yourself.

How will you stay vigilant and keep your kids/dogs separated or supervised as needed. A different family, mom was making dinner, kid was playing on the kitchen floor with tupperware. Dog went to bowl, kid crawled over and tried to eat out of the dog's bowl. The dog got very upset and jumped on the baby and knocked it over. The kid hit their head on the floor quite hard and had claw marks on their body. Had to go to the hospital to be checked out.

I'm all about keeping your pets (we are keeping our dog!). Just be super vigilant and plan ahead at how you'll deal with certain situations. I feel really badly for these two kids who have had very scary dog experiences because their parents didn't plan/supervise appropriately.

We have very specific plans with the dog and we have already agreed on the most likely "if/then" scenarios and how we will react. Some might end sadly, but I just don't have the same opinion of pets=babies as many people do. This is why I have never owned pets. I never wanted the responsibility and I always knew that I wanted kids. Unfortunately I fell in love with a man who came attached to a crazy old lady dog