Pets adjusting?

[jinxii]

Anyone worried about how their pets will adjust to a baby? I have a 5 pound pomchi and an 11 pound corgi/yorkie (totally weird mix, but she's a cutie) who have been my babies for 7 and 5 years. My oldest dog, the pomchi, is incredibly attached to me and is almost always in the same room I am, usually with a paw on my foot or sitting on my lap, right next to me, etc. I'm seriously concerned about how he will take it. He also has epilepsy so shouldn't get stressed or he seizes. My girl is a sweetheart and will probably be adjust. She's attached to me too, but not at the same level. She loved my nephew when he was a baby, not so much now that he's mobile.

 

[SaraVO]

I have a three year old cavalier king Charles spaniel. She is my little baby. She and I have a very established routine and I know it's crazy but my dog can tell time and she expects to be kept on a schedule. She is also very attached to my husband and doesn't even let me sit next to him she has sat on my head when I snuggle with my husband and she decides I'm in her spot. I'm worried too. About the disruption to her routine. Her barking when I'm late for a walk, playing on the floor or meals. We've already started turning some of her things over to my husband. The best I can hope for is that she falls in love with the baby. I think there is a pretty good chance so far she loves every baby I've introduced her to and she is very gentle.

We decided that my husband will slowly take over meals and walks and have me phased out before my due date. Just temporarily and I don't like the idea of it. But I'm really committed to breastfeeding and I know he will be more available when we have a newborn. We are also going to try to adjust her little clock in her head so she doesn't expect certain things at a certain time. I don't know how realistic it is or how successful we will be. I established her routine when she was seven weeks old and I haven't changed it. But we're going to try.

 

[jasminemarie]

When I was pregnant with my son this was a large concern of mine. We had a very high energy jack Russell who liked to jump on me. We were also worried she would get jealous or try to play with the baby before he was ready. But as long as you get them a little ready beforehand, they should be fine. Get a baby doll and put the baby's clothes on it and teach them they need to respect your space when you have the baby. Show them all of the baby's things and make then understand they are not theirs. And when baby comes just show them baby one at a time, they'll know what it is. They seems like they're respectful dogs so they should take and adjust very quickly. Holly became a good babysitter writhin a couple days. She'd lay where his feet were and let him kick her.

 

[BostonLover89]

We have 2 Boston Terriers...very high energy! Our rescue princess is a brute, too strong for her own good lol. We are definitely worried about them being too jumpy and rough around baby. We have been trying to bring them along to gatherings that will have small children (friends who understand we are training our dogs for babies).

Something I am more worried about in the near future is having them on my lap. Both love to snuggle on me and sometimes jump off suddenly when they hear something. We have discussed taking them to a few training classes to get them better at "staying" and not jumping. Other than that, we are just trying to remind ourselves that they have been the center of our world for years and they are part of our family so we won't neglect them emotionally once baby comes.

 

[AliDubs]

We have a Boston Terrier who I am pretty sure still hasn't forgiven us for having our daughter 4 years ago That said, while his nose is out of joint, he's always been amazingly gentle and does a great job of tolerating her presence in "his" world

 

[jinxii]

They do try incredibly hard to please me, so maybe once they realize baby is important to me they'll be good. Luckily the room that will be the nursery is the only room in the house they've never been allowed into without permission. They do seem to know something is going on with my belly already... they both lay their heads on it and listen!! I do plan on tucking a little burp cloth or something in with the baby right after it's born and then having my husband or whoever is watching the dogs for us let them smell it and get used to baby smell before we come home.

 

[BostonLover89]

They do try incredibly hard to please me, so maybe once they realize baby is important to me they'll be good. Luckily the room that will be the nursery is the only room in the house they've never been allowed into without permission. They do seem to know something is going on with my belly already... they both lay their heads on it and listen!! I do plan on tucking a little burp cloth or something in with the baby right after it's born and then having my husband or whoever is watching the dogs for us let them smell it and get used to baby smell before we come home.

That's a really good idea! I hadn't even thought of that!

 

[wonderstruck]

I'm worried about how my dogs will adjust but it won't change anything in terms of I'd never even consider rehoming them. They are my babies so I think it's going to be hard for them to come to terms with being second to a new baby. Whenever I'm sitting they are immediately on my lap and even share a pillow with me in bed. My male (miniature poodle) is sooo jealous, needy and bossy lol. I think he's going to have a tough time with it. If my attention is anywhere but on him he growls and taps me until I focus on him. If I end up having to lock him out of our bedroom I will definitely be dealing with a protest. Hopefully they will accept the baby, I often hear people saying how gentle and protective their dogs are toward their baby, so I'm hoping that'll be the case. That they'll have some kind of natural instinct to know how to act around him/her.

 

[jinxii]

Yeah, rehoming would never be an option for me either. I bottle raised my pomchi literally in my pocket since he was taken away from his mama at about 4 or 5 weeks (not my choice, the people who had the puppies were jerks!). He went everywhere with me and people usually didn't even know he was in my sweater pocket because he was smaller than a newborn kitten. My corgi/yorkie was a rescue dog. I got her quite young as well but she still has some abandonment issues. I'm still debating if I'll use a cosleeper or just a bassinet in my room for the first few months.. the dogs do sleep on my bed with me and that won't be changing, but I'm concerned with a cosleeper they might decide to sleep in baby's bed!

 

[jessiebella86]

Our jack Russell adjusted very well to our daughter. She was very protective of me towards the end of my pregnancy and this transferred to my daughter once she was born. In fact she tried to attack one male visitor when my daughter was a few days old which isn't in her nature at all - she wouldn't let him anywhere near her baby it was very strange. She was very maternal towards my daughter. Dogs are very intelligent and they will sense things are changing even before baby arrives, they can certainly sense a pregnancy. I think the best advice is to just remain relaxed.

I think you can get books on amazon about pets and growing families xxx

 

[GeralynB]

We have 2 pitbulls and I was worried about how they would be with my son. I just took it slow and now they are BFFs

 

[SaraVO]

We have 2 pitbulls and I was worried about how they would be with my son. I just took it slow and now they are BFFs

That is so cute! If your pit bulls can be that sweet then I don't have anything to worry about with my prissy little dog.

 

[jinxii]

Such a cute photo! I've actually found larger dogs to be better with kids than little ones. The little dogs are probably more intimidated by babies/toddlers.

 

[hellojello25]

So we've been worried about this for a while. We have a Jack Russell/Chihuahua mix who just turned 2 a few days ago. He's very high energy, likes to jump, and likes to jump on laps. But we started making a few changes and surprisingly, he's responded very well so far. He liked to jump on people's legs when they came into the house (and I mean jump, he can get four feet off the ground), so we started saying "No!" in a loud clear voice, and now he still jumps a little, but won't jump on a person unless he's really excited. So we're still working on that, but it should get better. And we've also been teaching him not to jump in a lap until he's invited, which is tougher since he did that all the time. But he's learning. I think he'll get it and he'll understand more when the baby comes. I'm not nearly as worried anymore.