I used to love my dog.
I mean, I still love her. But I was one of those nerds that took her dog to levels of puppy training class, baked her homemade dog biscuits, made sure she ate top of the line dog food after intense comparison of ingredients. I adored my dog in the way that I thought people adored their children. I swore that I would never feel any different, that she would forever be my “furbaby” with a sacred spot at the foot of our bed.
Truth is, I never realized what an impossible little shit my dog is until I had a human baby.
She’s decently-trained, sweet natured, & treats Harrison well. She’s also a diaper-snatching, poop-eating thief that knocks my baby over & makes him cry on the regular by stealing his toys. My playful exasperation at her somewhat pesky exuberance at the front door is now replaced with murderous rage when she’s scratching my legs & trying to beat us out the door while I balance toddler, stuffed monkey, toddler’s juice, snack, & telephone.
See? She’s making him cry again. Just by existing.
& those moments when the baby bit through his lip & there’s blood spewing everywhere & my husband is stumbling through the door with $100 worth of groceries & the oven is going off & the dog is all “CAN I EAT? CAN I EAT? IS IT DINNER TIME? CAN I EAT?” & I’m tripping over her prancing until I accidentally step on her paw & she lets out a yelp? Poor thing, she’s the icing on the clusterfuck cake & I am two point five seconds away from simply opening the front door & telling her to GO FORAGE, BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT THE WOLVES DO.
Nate reminds me on a daily basis that I don’t really mean that. Which is true. I love those fluffy ears & when she snuffles in my ear at the end of a long day.
She is, however, sleeping in a crate in the garage these days.
LOL! Fear ye not the pet board?
I feel the same way about my cat, who now sleeps in the basement (where her food and litterbox is).
lmao. I am the rice & they are white on it.
I feel the exact same way about my dog! She is always knocking my 2 year old down and trying to steal his food drives me nuts! Love your blog!
I feel your pain. I EXISTED for my dog before the little man came. After, I wanted to kill her and I felt awful about it. If she barked, I thought I was going to have a meltdown. Unfortunately, she was ill when he was born and we had to put her down 9 months later. I miss her, but its also a relief, because I’m sure he would be torturing her now. I’m a dog lover but there won’t be any more until I’m finished having children and the youngest is 10!
I have written this…and my feelings are the same TIMES TWO.
Oh NOOOO! Tuck, come live at Aunty Erika’s! I have a ridiculously overpriced bed (that has been rejected by Ollie) just waiting for you! And collars to match every outfit
Ha. I kid. But really I don’t because I don’t yet have kids, and Ollie still rules the house around here
Riesling is too afraid of Laura to go anywhere near the baby. I can’t blame her: Laura is a monster these days! Riesling doesn’t want to be smacked, pinched or bitten anymore than the rest of us do!
OMG. I could have totally written this post. I have a dog, a cat, a 22m old, a 6m old and a deployed husband. Some nights my cat will decide he wants to get the attention of all other cats and MEEEEOOOOOOOW as loud as he can. In the baby’s room. At 2AM. He is lucky to be alive.
But MOST of the time I love them. And MOST of the time I am so glad that my kids are growing up with a love for animals. And MOST of the time I can’t imagine my life without them. But my husband has gotten a few threatening emails regarding our pets in the past. I know I would never really get rid of them, but boy to they push their limits
.
I could have written this. Word for word. I love my dog…but some days I could do without a toddler hugging onto one leg and a 60 pound dog attached to the other.
OMG. Seriously, sounds like my house yesterday… I feel your pain! (Our dog has figured out how to escape the locked crate- totally can’t figure it out… So kudos to being able to keep yours in the crate in teh garage (without her destroying her water bowl and whatever toddler toys happen to be within reach… *sigh*)
Ah, it sucks when you have a baby and you realize that the dog is…just a dog. My jack russel TERROR has gotten a similar demotion. I believe I have even yelled “Kenzie – Quiet! Or I’ll take you to the pound.”
I feel the same way about our cat. I used to love him like a child … now, I’m hanging out in the middle between love and hate. Inevitably, the cat will need food at 3 am … and our daughter just started sleeping through the night consistently again. SERIOUSLY?!
Same here. Harrison has also learned to yell at the dog “Bedda (Bella in toddler) NOoooo!”
This post makes me so sad, but I’m not a parent so I can’t imagine life with a dog and a baby. I’m just glad my dog is 13lbs….it will be a little harder for him to knock the baby over one day!
I can’t imagine not having our dog sleep in our bed though. I feel like he belongs there
Oh how I can sympathize with this post! My dog was a bit sickly yesterday, so I planned to go to the vet first thing this morning to get wonder drugs. But, before I could do that, my dog shat all over my basement. So, the trip to the vet was accompanied by a trip to Lowe’s for carpet cleaning solution. Got home, tried to give the dog her meds, she wouldn’t take them without cheese, which I didn’t have, so I went to my parents’ house (they’re a mile away) to get cheese, came back, gave dog meds and then cleaned the carpet. Showed up for work 2 hours and 15 minutes late.
Why did I want a dog again?
I could have written this. Even worse? I started looking for a SECOND dog the other day. Not because I want one. I just want another dog to come and play with our existing pet so that he will GET OUT OF MY FACE AND OUT OF MY WAY. Please.
Except I don’t think that kind of master plan will work. I’ll just end up with TWO dogs in my face and under my feet all the damn time.
…and this is why I don’t own pets. Plus, they are gross.
Word. I was the same way before Piper and I’m the same way you are now.
I still love Gilbert. Piper also loves Gilbert. The gate system we have that separates Gilbert from Piper’s playroom isn’t just for his safety because I’ll get super frustrated and let him roam the streets. It’s also because he steals her toys and he steals her socks and since he is obsessed with chewing anything fabric that he can find and then swallowing it and then throwing it up, it is not safe for him to have unsupervised access to things that are not for him to chew.
He’s also crated at night. Every night. And when we leave the house for more than 20 minutes. Because he’s proven he can’t be trusted not to get into stuff that is dangerous to him so that is how we choose to protect him. He’s not being punished and the crate also gives me the ability to put him “up” when shit is flying off the handle and I need one less living breathing thing vying for my attention.
Consider a gate or barrier to separate them sometimes (Piper is still with Gilbert plenty, he’s just separated from her stuff.) and consider moving the crate inside and utilizing it a bit more, making sure she’s not crated all the time, obviously.
Also Piper calls him “Bobert” and therefore I can’t get rid of him. There’s never been anything cuter than her standing in the backyard yelling “Bobert! iside!” in the most authoritarian two year old voice you’ve ever heard.
alex yells “SHUDDUP DOGS! GO LAY DOWN!” on a regular basis.
that pretty much sums it up right there.
I love your little wieners. I want them to lick me in the face.
But then I’d like to hand them back to you after like, 10 minutes.
This comment is so inappropriate on so many levels.
I am sending this to my husband to read and soak in like now. And he can see that I am not the only Mom that feels this way.
The love of his life before me was his dog and some days I wonder if it still is. I used to think it was cute, proof that he was going to be good to me and kids etc. The dog was sweet, I love dogs it was all good. Enter baby in and all I want to do is scream. He is petrified of the toddler, knocks him over trying to get out of his grasp and whines on the regular. DRIVES.ME.INSANE. Got booted from the bed mid pregnancy and after shitting on my floor every night has moved to a crate in the garage.
When we move he is moving outside to be a yard dog with my puggle. I am so done with dogs in the house. I just cant take it. I am so very glad to know while I do love the furry beasts at this point in my life they drive me bananas and I am not the only one.
um… one person same person?
I LIVED for my dogs. I had 4 and a cat. I gave one dog to my parents (they asked), one to my brother (she bit Cat), and the other 2 spend most of the day outside (baby is allergic). The cat has been kicked outside (poops everywhere and baby is allergic).
Oh…how my animal rescue friends must hate me now.
I can so relate! I have a 65 pound lab (aka landmonster). She and Tuck sound like they’re cut from the same cloth.
Yep yep yep. All of it. Rocky gets the short end of the stick these days.
Tuck and Janie should join a support group together.
GET OUT OF MY HEAD! No seriously, I was just about to write a post of this exact nature today. My dog drives me batshitcrazy on a daily basis. It’s exhausting.
I feel you. We ended up giving away one of our beloved cats because she acted out at W. I felt terrible but I knew it was best for her and W.
Yep. I have locked the dogs and cat out of their two favorite rooms. Our bedroom and the nursery (used to be guest room.) I thank GOd every day that I don’t find cat shit in my shoe.
Oh My God…I could have written this post. Same thing in my family. So funny!!!
I am going to get backlash for this and I am OK with that. You have your opinions and I have mine.
That being said, this post is absolutely disgusting. What would you think would happen to your dog when you eventually had children? Like you said, she was a huge part of your family until Harrison came along. WIthout a doubt, she just wants to be included and to feel loved. Just like she was pre Harrison. THAT is why she is up in your business 24/7, not because she wants to be annoying, but because she needs love and attention. They are dogs, they don’t understand why you ignore them now. Banishing her to the garage at night is only making matters worse.
I have an 18 month old boy and a 100 lb. 2 year old Weimaraner, so I know how challenging things can be at times. You are punishing your dog because you are unable to process the situation(s) at hand, not because the dog did something to garnish the punishment.
You need to ask yourself if your dog has the best possible life/living situation right now. If not, you need to change what is going on in your home. Or you need to find the best possible living situation FOR HER.
Backlash in 5..4..3……
lol, no backlash. Honestly, I am not mad at your comment. Like you said, we all have opinions.
But I do think you are reading far too much into the post of my petty annoyances at her energy & knocking my kid over. Am I annoyed? Absolutely. I’m annoyed because she’s losing her shit from excitement while I’m getting ready to take BOTH her & Harrison out for a walk. I’m annoyed when she steals his toys because she’s up in the playroom with us as a family. I wouldn’t have that annoyance if I locked her outside while we played. I’m annoyed when she’s prancing around wanting to eat when it feels like a bomb went off in my house, but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t eat on time.
We’re hardly punishing her! We hardly ignore her. She gets walked, fed, taken on runs, taken to the park. She’s not overweight, she’s not showing signs of stress, she hasn’t developed any negative habits such as chewing or regression on housebreaking. We don’t hit her, we don’t lock her out in the backyard for hours during the day, & we work very hard to cultivate the relationship of respect between her & Harrison.
But yep, my relationship with her has absolutely changed.
& the garage thing? She’s safe in a crate in a “den,” as dogs prefer. She’s happy out in her crate – she goes happily into it at night. She’s been crate-trained since she was a puppy (we used to crate her during the day until she was about 3 years old to prevent accidents or chewing).
Like I said…not mad, not offended, but I just think you’re reading something “between the lines” that simply isn’t there.
DUDE. I could have written this post. I find my blood pressure boiling on a daily basis as our pugs are constantly snatching food from out tot, chewing on baby toys and leaving them smelling like sea-food, jumping on him and knocking him over as he is trying to stand up, rubbing their asses all over the carpet that I just vacuumed, barking at the f-ing exact moment the baby falls asleep, etc. I didn’t used to feel this way. Like you, I thought puppies and unicorns shot out of their doggie butts on a daily basis. Now I have visions of popping their little heads off and punting them across the room (not that I would really do that). Amazing how it all changes when domesticated animals and human babies have to share the same living space. I know we are all better off with them, then without them…but sometimes I forget.
I can totally relate! My dog annoys me more and more, all while dealing with the terrible twos from my son! I really do love the dog, but I swear up and down that when he goes (hopefully, he’ll live a long life!) that we are never getting another animal! (until my son begs for a puppy, right?!)
omg, YES! We have the same issue, I walk in the door with Z, and all my bags from work and the dogs start screaming from their crates like there’s a serial killer upstairs, “be quiet or I will let you run free and fight with coyotes!” has been uttered more than once in our house. I have actually taken to putting our whippet reecey in ‘time out’ (aka her bed) because she INSISTS on swiping Z’s food from the table when we are not looking, which causes a meltdown from Z, every.time.
Like so many of your other commenters, totally relate. I have the added guilt of having two dogs and not getting either of them enough exercise. I want to give them to someone that can give them the love they deserve, but my husband has threatened that if we give them up, we will never get another dog…and I don’t like that idea.
I feel like I am not alone in saying “i feel you, girl”. We have 2 pups and, while they still sleep in the bed with us, they get a bit more outside time than before. That said……
Amanda-I’m pretty sure BA isn’t neglecting tuck. But human babies are, rightly so, more in need of our attention than our fur babies. That doesn’t mean we don’t still feed them, walk them, love them, bathe them and care for them. But priorities do change. I was the exact same in that my dog was my child. Pictures of him lined the walls and I never thought that would ever be any different. Then I produced a human life and she instantly became the most amazing thing in the world. I still do everything for my dogs that I did and should, but they don’t miss the clothes I bought them and the sparkly collars. Is their life as posh as it was before? No. A baby tugs and snuggles on them and sometimes pets them too rough, but they are dogs and I’m pretty sure they play rougher with each other than my 18 month old could ever dish out. But that doesn’t mean they are in a bad situation or that thru life is bad. From what I’ve read, tuck sounds like a very well taken care of girl. That doesn’t change the fact that dogs, while sweet and well meaning can be a pain in the butt when they are under your feet and scratching at you and eating your underwear (our dogs prefers anything with frills it satin).
Love this post BA. I giggled through the whole thing.
Thanks, Justine!!
Tuck even still gets a Christmas stocking. But we did forget to give her a birthday cake this month!! (makes note to make dog-friendly cake)
I think the hair kills me more than anything else, FINALLY got him out of our bed. i don’t think it helps that it was never my dog though, i didn’t have it as a puppy, and never had that oh its my baby relationship. i take it day by day having a dog, and know that at least we’re making our daughter comfortable around animals…
Everything you just said and MORE! I have three dogs, and we rescued two because their owners didn’t want them anymore. We might have been over our heads before the toddler came along, but that is besides the point. We loved (and still do love) our animals, but it gets hectic at times. I might raise my voice more than I should, I’ll admit it.
My husband works nights about three times a week and my worst moment of the day is coming home at 5:30 pm with toddler in hand, groceries, mail, etc, opening the door and immediately being bum-rushed by three insane dogs and then spending 15 minutes cleaning up anything they got into and all the dog hair before I let the little run around. I don’t blame them for their excitement – they have been coop’ed up all day, but it is a HARD juggling act.
I once judged my best friend for giving away her two animals before her triplets came along. I just have one child, but I totally understand why she did that now. Kudos to ANYONE who is a pet owner and a parent and never feels frustrated.
Scratch out “dog” and put in “cat” and that shizz is our everyday life.
Our cat has been such an asshole since Zach was born. I’m talking “I’m just going to barf right here on the floor on your side of the bed in the middle of the night so that you can step in it while you get up to take care of that screaming thing in the other room, ywia.” type of crap. And I swear to GOD this cat knows what he’s doing. He will totally stare at you with gigantic eyes that are practically singing, “Oh LALALA I am gonna tear the shizz out of your couch with my paws and YOU can’t stop me, ’cause I am gonna tear ass outta here once you tell me NO!”
So now he tears up the leather furniture, the carpet, the bedding and more both when we’re home and not home.
We love the cat but damn. It’s annoying on every level that he does this stuff. And Zach stays away from him because he’s taken a swipe at his face before. There was an epic toddler meltdown when it was discovered that the cat ate half of a plastic frog of Zach’s last week
At least your dog doesn’t stare at you when you’re taking a shower. It’s freaking creepy to have the cat perched on the ledge just staring at you…always staring.
Ha ha I feel like I’m the opposite here (where my kid is Tuck and my dog is Harrison)…I’m constantly trying to get my kid to play nice with our dog and not steal her toys and try to dump out the dog’s water…our poor dog just sits and lets my kid steal her toys and torture her….every other word out of my mouth is “sydney be nice to the dog”….but your post cracked me upn b/c I spend all my time feeling bad for my perfectly behaved pet
At least Harrison doesn’t yell “stupid fucking dog” like my 3 year old used too, oops!
Ours currently reside in the washroom. I can’t wait till we move and they are even further out of the way. Because they are a pain in the ass and just having them stare at me bugs me. Lucky for them, the girl loves them. Or loves to occasionally torment them. Whatever.
I was so that dog mom. As evidence? I submit a picture of the dog with the Easter Bunny and one of her in a Christmas gift taken at Petsmart. Lame, I know.
I am so there with you. It’s always in those normal everyday chaotic moments with a toddler that my dog’s nonsensical barking puts me over the edge. The total frenzy over food dropping from the high chair. Maybe the worst is that my son LOVES the dog, but my dog regards him as a pest despite all the free snacks. I really hope they will be friends someday bc I think that would take the edge of my irritation with our “firstborn. “
I loved my dog. Until he bit lennox in the face ( NO MAJOR INJURY THANK GOD) on Easter Sunday. Now I look at Ziggy differently. And please, anyone that wants to refer me to a pet psychic, dog trainer, the furbabies board, can go suck balls. I’ve been through hell and back with this dog and I’m just over the drama of a codependent 4 legged idiot with a dangerous bite roaming my house.
this makes me so sad. i am that dog owner without babes and i hear this all the time. i can’t imagine the day that my little loverpup lily tries to snuggle up on my lap to nuzzle the crook of my neck and i deny her. mark my words, i will be the first mom EVER to keep the dog on a pedestal.
i’m sure there is no way these words could ever come back to haunt me.
…right?
Right, Lauren
It’s just…different. I love her, I want to care for her, but she’s definitely been demoted from “child” to “pet.”
Ha. My husband jokes that when the boys were born that my legs were invisibly wrapped in velcro that only my 85 lb german shepherd can see.
She has spent the past 2 years perfecting standing directly in whatever path I am about to take. At 37 weeks pregnant it is seriously a miracle that I haven’t peed on her because she is fundamentally incapable of not stading between me and the toilet or anything else. It is infuriating but the biys love her so much and she has really exceeded my expectations in showing patience with them.
OH NO! LOL! I just wrote a blog about how my husband and I are obsessed with our dog! We are trying to have a baby right now and I keep telling my dog how we will forever be obsessed with him…even after babies. LOL
she’s the icing on the clusterfuck cake
I think this is my new favorite saying!
Wow! I feel sorry for your dog. How awful it must be to be treated like royalty and then kicked to the garage when something “better” comes along. And then to have that something “better” constantly yelling and taking your things and pulling your hair all while having your parents also yelling at you and telling you that you’re bad for doing the things you’ve always been allowed to do. Your dog must be very confused by the changes YOU made to her life. I don’t have siblings but I can only imagine that’s what the oldest child in a household full of bratty siblings must feel like.
hmm? Who says we yell at her? Or tell her that she’s bad? Sometimes I’d LIKE to yell at her to go get her own damn dinner, but that doesn’t mean the words actually come out of my mouth. Kind of like those times when you’d like to tell your boss to get his own damn copies off the printer, but you don’t actually do that. You know?
Last time I checked, she was stealing his toys, not the other way around. & we absolutely do not allow him to pull her fur or hit her.
What things is she not allowed to do anymore?
I am confused.
Sleep in the house.
I’m sure you do the best you can and I recognize that “real” babies take precedence over furbabies if for nothing more than the survival of our species but I’m just saying cut the dog a break. It’s got to be difficult to be replaced … to move suddenly to the bottom of the food chain, so to speak.
I guess I’m just failing to see where a dog can long-term distinguish the difference between sleeping in the house versus sleeping in her crate in the garage. Then process those emotions into continuous resentment & feelings of displacement for the past 18 months.
Dogs don’t have complex thought processes like that. It’s why you can’t punish them for stealing dinner off the plate when you find it two hours later – they don’t make the connection.
Oh, I could have written this. Except mine still hogs the bed. I, too, swore I’d never feel any differently about my dog. He was my first baby and always would be. Yeah….
Blair, I could have written this post word for word. Seriously. I have 2 50lb mutts & honestly, I’m about done with them. I told my husband 2 nights ago to find them a new home b/c I just can’t anymore. lol
& I won’t find them new homes, I just get tired of them lol
I totally get where you are coming from. We have a yellow lab who was our baby before our real baby came. I remember thinking that when the dog dies one day, I wouldn’t be able to deal with it, that the world would pretty much end.
I still love our dog very much. He sleeps with me every night while my hubby is deployed. But… at the end of the day, he is a dog. Yeah, sure, I’ll be very sad one day when he passes away, but will my life end? Ummm, not a chance.
I understand this completely. We live with my parents, a mini dachshund and three 40-50 samoyeds. They’re all really good with the boys, but I find my toddler pushing on them and yelling “Moo moo.” (move) Thankfully I grew up in a house with animals and couldn’t imagine it either way. And we’ve started really getting on Liam about being gentle with all the animals; and his little brother.
dude, your garage is probably nicer than my dogs bed that he sleeps on. we don’t crate him or anything, but we do have him baby gated out of certain areas which I find much more fair to everyone.
Then again, Ziggy came AFTER the kids, so he’s always been second fiddle. Oh wow, did i just admit that? Where is Cesar Milan now?
Great post. We have an awesome dog who drives us crazy also! It’s fantastic to take them both on walks, to see them play together, cuddle up on the couch for a nap, and late at night when my little guy is in bed, the pup still gets to stretch out on my lap and he loves it.
Now if only he didn’t race around the house with my son’s toys in his mouth, slip out of his collar on walks and make me chase him like a maniac (stroller and all). I’m sure he feels he is abused also:-)
So well written. We actually did have to find a new home for our dog after realizing it was going to be better for him elsewhere. My level of resent for 8000 naps ending in useless barks got to be too much!
We have 2 dogs and a toddler and things start to get real crazy when they all start mouthing each other’s toys. I figure she’ll have an excellent immune system between dog slobber and daycare. Crap hits the fan when a dog gets ahold of Mickey Mouse though…I love the “forage like the wolves” comment- may have to start using that one!
I so understand. I never through my Kayla would get “demoted” to dog, but it was pretty much instant. To her credit, she stayed up with me pacing the floors with the baby through the first few weeks of colic and has tolerated the baby pretty well, but there’s only so many kisses, hugs, and attention to go around. There’s a pecking order and the pups gotta fall to the bottom…… It is so sad though!
oh that’s so difficult… i’m sorry.
I had the same problem when we had our daughter… i immediately had huge problems with everything about him… so sad.
You know, you put it just right in a reply to another poster.
It’s just…different. I love her, I want to care for her, but she’s definitely been demoted from “child” to “pet.”
People it’s OK to treat your pet like a pet cause ……yeah….that’s what they are. It doesn’t mean you neglect, mistreat, or love them less. Once you have a baby, you just naturally love your furbaby differently (and probably less creepily).
“& probably less creepily”
::dead:: The is the best line of this entire thing.
Word. Seriously. And a high energy dog who is smart but refuses to listen + twins does not a good time make right now. And when she barks when a package comes and the girls are sleeping. Um, yeah. That is all.
I love her, but COME ON!
I feel the same way about our two dogs since having a kid. Love them but holy hell they get annoying.
For those who say, “What did you expect?” – I did expect it. After reading “Marley and Me” I told my husband to set me straight if I “turned” on our dogs after the baby was born. I knew my patience with them would be thin and it would be an adjustment. At the end of the day, they are well cared for and loved and if once in a while I turn to them and tell them I’m going to punch them in their dog faces, no biggie. (Note there is not actually any punching of dog faces going on.)
I laughed for real! Where do you keep Tuck during the day when ya’ll are at work? I swear Ginger is heaven sent, poor dog! We are trying to rebuild the pedestal we knocked her off of when Charlotte was born.
I can recommend Dog Diggity Daycare on Ebenezer Church Rd. They are awesome! She goes there once every other week when the cleaning lady comes. It helps her burn off a little energy and have “dog only” fun. The rest of the time she “forages”. Ha!
She’s at home! Usually sacked out on a chair
We crated her during the day until she was past 3 years, but slowly started trusting her more to be out. We still gate off the upstairs so she can’t get into toys or diapers.
I’d LOVE to have her in daycare at least once per week, but there is NOTHING close to where either one of us works. Our kennel runs one & while we love them for long stays, their daycare program just isn’t up to snuff.
I think this post scares me a little bit. Me and my boyfriend are thinking about having babies soon (Maybe in a year or so). We have 4 dogs and three cats… nuff said.
I really could have written this post! Especially today, when my dog somehow got into my daughter’s dirty diapers, and I find crap (literally) all over the carpet in her room.
The dog is lucky to be alive.
OMG. I feel so much better now because i feel the same way. I still love my dogs but it is def. adjusting to life with dogs plus baby and the dogs have to give a little and they don’t always GET that which makes life on us harder!
This is me with my cat. Except I have no kids. Just an annoying cat.
I won’t lie…even though my dog is super awesome most times with my son, I’m still convinced that he’s turned into a grumpy attention seeking asshole.
I am talking about the dog not the kid…also can be substitutes for the husband
I find this post kind of sad as well. While I can identify with the demotion of the dog (we have two and they were slightly demoted when our daughter was born), I think it’s terrible to make your dog sleep in the garage. If she’s in a crate, why not let her sleep in the crate in the house? I’m pretty sure she knows the difference and banishing her to the garage seems mean. I also think your comment about telling her to “go forage” is cold.
Our dogs were our first “babies” and although they unfortunately get less attention from us than they used to, they have adjusted well and usually like having a toddler play with them, help walk them, and drop food on the floor for them.
Hi Blair,
We have dogs but still no baby (hopefully soon). I’m having a difficult time imagining how our life would be when we’ll have a baby. We have 4 golden retrievers. And reading your blog makes me think harder. Though I wouldn’t “demote” the dogs, we’ll probably be setting new rules when (and if) a baby comes a long.
I really enjoyed reading this. It shows the reality of how to cope with having a dog first before a baby.