Member Questions

We had two dogs before our son came along. One is about 8 and is well-trained and has been my husband's since she was a puppy. She's gentle with Jack when she is near him, but mostly keeps to herself and hangs out in the office or the laundry room where her food is (which was true before he came along too). She gets less attention now than before, but we make sure she gets daily exercise and plenty of love.

My dog was a rescue dog and became very aggresively protective after Jack was born. She had always been scared of strange men and young children, having clearly been abused before she was dumped on the side of the road one night where a friend of mine rescued her. After the baby, she would lunge at anyone who walked by, nipped a neighbor and went after another neighbor's dog who was not even near our house (I was letting her out of the car from the groomers). We found a family with older kids who could give her a less stressful environment and had to say goodbye. It was a hard decision, but I couldn't keep her in a situation where she was likely to attack someone and have to be put to sleep. She is doing really well now, so it was the right thing for us to do.

We have dogs and cats. They were our babies before the baby. I was crazy worried before we had the baby about how everything would go but as soon as we came home from the hospital, we realized that they weren't really interested in the baby they all just wanted our attention. The pets are luckily they have each other and play with each other all the time. The cats, well they're cats and could care less about the baby. Our son LOVES animals, though, and giggles everytime he sees any animal. People always tell me that they put their dogs or cats outside after they had a kid and unless you have a very large, mean dog, it's completely ridiculous. The animals run if our son comes at them too quickly. The pets are smarter than most people give them credit for - they realize that this is our child and must accpet him. On the other hand, we don't let our son hit, pull or terrorize, or bother the pets while they eat. So, I guess bottom line is that it has gone much, much better than we thought. Especially considering that we have chihuahuas that strongly dislike all other children. They actually jump up and lick our son when we get home.