Anyone get rid of a family pet once they had a baby?
How long did you keep them separate, or allow them to be in the room together without you watching?

Baby came home and met the pets. We don't have allergies and our dog and cats are not bothered by the baby. Non-issue for us.

Though when my daughter was in the toddling, fall down stage, I watched her closely around my brother's dog. He never did anything but it did bug him when she fell near or on him!

Good question. My family keeps telling me that I will have to get rid of our dog once the baby gets here. My dog has never bitten anyone or been agressive......but my family just doesn't hold family pets in very high esteem. I on the other hand, have no plans of getting rid of my dog. The only way that would happen is if she ever showed agression towards the baby or bit her on purspose. Other than that I don't know why there would be a reason to do it.

We never had a problem with our dog. Somehow she smell that there was something in my belly because she use to sit in my lap and smell me. When we came home with DS she licked him for a little bit and soon she became very protective of him. The same thing with DD right now, I let her licked her face when she came home and now she stands right next to her crib whenever I pick her up and she sleeps with either DS or right beside DD's crib. Its hard to get rid of her eventhough we live in an apartment and she's an outdoor dog. I have to constantly take her out to go to the bathroom. She's part of our family and losing her its like losing someone special she's part of our family. Thank God both kids are not allergic to her.

That is soo cute. I'm there with you on the sniffing the belly....my dog does that too. It's the cutest thing. I hope she can be protective in the same way. Although I have heard that female dogs can get jealous.

we have a border collie and two inside kitties. The kitties didn't care much, except they didn't like the crying and now they just run from him as he tries to pull their tails (my MIL was actually concerned about them smothering ds, ridiculous old wive's tale!)
The dog loves ds, even though he gets annoyed sometimes. They are truly partner's in crime, working together to find cookies, dog or human He has always been very gentle with ds. The only issue we have had is Kai dog has become more protective since ds was born. He barks and growls at dogs that are bigger than him and started barking at sounds in the middle of the night. It got bad enough to make him sleep in the garage. Just now, he is earning back his sleep inside priveleges and ds is 19 mos old. I think border collies are a proctective breed though, so it was to be expected.
Ds doesn't have any allergies and research shows that children who grow up with animals from infancy are less likely to have pet allergies. There is a rise in allergies among children who live in a germ and dander free "bubble".

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We had no intention of getting rid of our dogs, but we were very careful with them. They were 9 and 10 when our oldest came along so they were sort of "set in their ways". The lab (10) was AWESOME! He was in pain from his hips in the last couple of years, but he would love to let the kids crawl all over him. Our Sheltie has not been as good with the kids, but he just goes and lays down away from them. He knows not to bite them. The only issue we have had is if the kids get too close to him while he is eating, but nothing serious. Now they are part of his pack.

I think if you work with your dogs, they can definitely adjust to the baby.

We never had any issues with our dog when baby came along! Brought him in Chip (dog) sniffed him in his carrier and that was it. I never left him alone with him but to me that is common sense. He loves all the kids that come and go through our house. (daycare)

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No problem. We kept them. And with our first human child, we kept them separate for a few nights. How mean! Then with the 2nd, we let them near, but due to the persian fur, which came off into her nose, we still ended up closing them out at night. Plus they would wake her up by checking on her up close on my bed. But otherwise, they were to be trusted entirely and never gave us reason to worry. In fact, they'd come get me if baby was crying and Foxi would sleep with a paw on baby's arm.

It was the animals that needed to be protected when baby got mobile.

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We had two cats when our first dd was born. The senior cat was nine years old, and pretty much just stayed away from baby and came out for snuggling at night, when baby was asleep and we were watching t.v.

The younger cat was one year old and would lay alongside dd on my Bobby nursing pillow while dd was nursing. So, dd was sandwiched between me and a warm, purring cat (Heaven!).

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