Pitbulls, Mutts & Kids...OH MY!
Feb 19 '00
I am writing from a different point. I already had 2 dogs when my first son was born. A mutt male dog and a purebred pitbull female dog. (YES a pitbull!)
My pitbull was still a baby herself when my son was born. She was only 6 months old. She was the one I was worried about the most with the new baby, as how the media would always hype up about pitbull attacks, etc.
Anyhow, I was very concerned the first night home with baby. I had read a couple of things on what to do with the dogs. What we did was while I was still in the hospital, my boyfriend took home the shirt I was wearing when I was holding the baby. He put it on the floor for the dogs to smell. This way they would smell my scent, along with a new scent, but would know it's a good new scent.
Then when we got home, the baby was in the infant carrier seat, and I sat on the bed with the baby beside me in the seat. The dogs had to come and jump up on me to greet me, but at the same time they were sniffing the baby. Mind you I was very nervous with them being so close to the baby, but after a minute or so of checking out the new baby, they left him alone.
Both of my kids have become very attached to my mutt. My older son used to sleep on top of him when he would take a nap during the day. I could not get him to nap otherwise. My older son used to play with my pitbull all the time. If he got a little too rough with her, she would just snarl at him to let him know that's enough. Not once has either of my dogs ever placed their mouth on my kids.
So although these dogs were first mine, you would actually think they were my kids dogs. I am teaching my kids to be responsible for taking care of other living things. My older son has just started to feed and walk my mutt. And my little guy now sleeps on the mutt for his afternoon nap. I have never seen kids sleep on dogs before. LOL
My pitbull is no longer with us. She had kidney failure last Christmas and I had to put her to sleep. To this day my older son still talks about her and how she is in doggie heaven now.
So since I had the dogs before kids, I cannot give advice on if your child should have a pet or not, but I think my dogs needed some kids in the house to play with and sleep with.
I have never yelled at my dogs to stay away from the kids, nor have I ever yelled at the kids to stay away from the dogs. I did not stop giving my dogs attention when the kids arrived, because I think that would create a jealousy problem between the two.
So if you have pets before kids, just remember not to ignore the pet once the baby is home.
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tiffer0220
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Member: Tiffany
Location: Florida
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R.I.P. Bo 10/17/94 - 2/28/08 Our bodoggie...
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