Advice needed - baby and dogs

M

MilkMonster

Registered User
Hi pet owners, would like to get some advice from you all.
Our 9mth old son is now crawling and although we have a baby designated mat area where the dogs (we have 2) are not allowed which has worked for us up until this point, it won't work anymore. So my question to you is, how much interaction/proximity do you allow your baby to have with the dogs? what about the fur that sheds? We already bathe them quite frequently and sweep up the fur daily but dogs shed. The affection felt is mutual, baby loves dogs, dogs love baby and keeping them apart requires full time duty!!!

Up until this point we've only had advice to get rid of them but we are not really willing to do this so we would really like to hear from those of you who have successfully kept both baby and dog.

Thank you!!
 
there's no reason on this earth to get rid of the dogs!!!!!!!!

we take care of up to 15 dogs at a time, with a toddler and a baby to boot!

we were concerned about the dogs going after the toys, we bought a fence from a pet shop in causeway bay. we attached it to either wall and blocked off one section of the flat for just the baby. it took the dogs a little while to get used to it, but they are fine with it now.

good luck! your child is so lucky to grow up with dogs!
 
Please dont get rid of yr dogs, it is only a matter of training and then all will be fine. U set the boundaries and then the dogs can follow, I find having a child and a dog is like having two children, YOU need to sort it out and then the dogs will be fine........................ Dont blame the dogs, just teach them what you want.....
 
We have two dogs and a one year old and so far have encountered no real problems.

Our son loves our dogs, and our dogs tolerate him. Now that he is walking it is impossible to keep them apart....and I don't see any reason to. Our son loves to pat and stroke and unfortunetly hit his dogs...something we are working on.

When the dogs have obviously had enough of our son playing with them so I take him or them away.

We have also seperated toys that are our sons, and those that are the dogs- although we have problems with keeping our son away from the dogs toys not the other way round!

Our dogs go everywhere, includ. into our sons room....one of our dogs sleeps under his cot when our son sleeps during the day. I wouldn't leave them alone together when awake but don't feel the need to ban them from anywhere.

We have a dog that sheds horrendously, but find that sweeping, hoovering everyday solves that problem.
 
On the topic of dogs, there are occasions when a stranger comes to our door that our two dogs bark really loud and it startles our newborn when she is asleep - she seems to be shocked, but it is unpredictable when there are these uninvited calls from people who are from the 'gas company' or others. What to do?
 
We have a six month old baby and she absolutely loves our dog. She interacts with our dog all the time -- in fact, sometimes seeing our dog is the only way to distract her from crying or from moving around too much when we're trying to change her nappy. She loves to watch our dog play fetch and will laugh her head off during this game. She has been going on "pony rides" (as our dog is a large dog) since she was three months old and has always loved it.

Luckily for us, our dog is a very patient dog and although she's big, she's a gentle giant when our baby pulls at her (we're also trying to teach our baby the words "gentle" and "pet nicely"). I feel comfortable enough letting our baby play on the floor with our dog nearby. Also luckily for us, she is a short hair dog, so even though she sheds, it's not as bad. Our dog knows her toys from our baby's toys and doesn't dare to touch hers.

As for the people who come uninvited, we don't have a solution for that either. A friend of mine who had a dog who barked a lot put a sign outside her dog written in English and Chinese, "Please do not knock. Baby is sleeping." What frustrates us is that people will choose to press our doorbell to try gaining access into our building if the security guard is not at his desk. One time, when this happened, it was early in the morning and our dog barked, waking up everyone, including our baby. My husband was so mad that he ran down the stairs (we are on the first floor) with our dog and let the person (who was not there to see us, but just wanted to get into the building) know that they had just woken our baby up and told them never to push our bell again.
 
Thanks for all the replies and encouragement everyone!
I have been letting the dogs and baby interact more and both are loving it. I guess I was just worried the dogs are dirty because they walk on the hk streets. We wipe their feet every time we come home and bathe them once a week. I hope that's enough...
I do have a slight problem where the dogs like to pounce behind the baby and it stresses me out but I just tell them "No" and they seem to be getting the idea.
regarding the barking dogs, our son has always ignored the barks and can sleep right through them!! Haha lucky us i guess. For me, the difficulty is in getting the dogs not to jump on our guests/wellcome delivery guy...We have the same problem as claifox, we too live on the first floor and get people buzzing in all the time. it's so annoying.
Sometimes i feel like I have 3 children in the house as I am constantly telling the dogs to do this and that haha and same with baby...i guess this is the life with dogs and baby :) Thanks again everyone!
 
Hi

I have two very large dogs and an eighteen month old little boy. The young male dog and my son get on famously, they go everywhere together. The older dog is a little more guarded but we are trying to teach our son how to respect the dogs, and to appreciate that she doesn't want to be petted as much now she's getting on in age.

As for dog fur, I hoover and mop every day, otherwise I would be knee deep in the stuff. I don't really see it as a problem, the dogs shed before we had our son, and will continue to shed. Yes, dog fur gets everywhere, how it can get into a pack of butter seconds after opening it I do not know, but seeing the joy on my son's face playing with the dogs is a sheer joy to behold.
 
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