I want to take a break from posting about raw feeding and health for a minute and put together a post about something that is just as important to me and that is raising kids in a dog household.
My husband and I had our dogs for 5 years before our daughter came along and they lived the life! They had their own couch, got to cuddle in bed with us, had their hikes during the week and on the weekend and got to have mommy and daddy all to themselves. Well that was about to change big time, especially with me.
I had a lot of mom guilt before Brooke came along and felt unsure of how to handle everything. I remember 2 days before Brooke was born I took the dogs for a 3 mile hike at our favorite park and we had a great day, albeit cold because it was January, but a great day nonetheless.
This may sound a little crazy to some, I get it, but this is how much we treated out dogs like our children.
When Brooke came home they were wonderful, they would just sit with me while I nursed her, were very interested in what she was doing and would initially get up when I did with her but than realized how much this was affecting their beauty sleep so that stopped ;)
As a new mom I got very busy and preoccupied with our daughter and found myself getting very frustrated with the dogs; their barking, the mess they made, their neediness. I found myself not being a good dog mom and that made me really sad. I had to find a way to figure it out and manage it all. Our child was of course number one but instead of getting upset and angry at my dogs I needed to find a way to make them understand their new life. They needed to learn their pl
ace and understand the boundaries but also feel loved and included.
As time passed and our daughter grew up we constantly find ourselves making adjustments. We have provided our dogs a “safe place” in the house if they want to get away from the noise and the chaos and we also don’t just work with our dogs on boundaries but work with our daughter too. She understands to be gentle with them, to not chase them with her toys because they don’t like it and so on. We have had our dogs their entire lives so we know them and trust them but also make sure we are always aware of everyone’s safety. We will be welcoming twin girls in the next few
weeks and life at home is going to just get more hectic so we are preparing not just ourselves but our dogs.
People do ask us a lot “how do you have those huge dogs and kids?” and the answer is simple, we just do. Whether it’s a golden, a corso, a yorki it doesn’t matter. Raising dogs and kids can be a beautiful thing if you are patient, work at it and just remember to be safe.
I am no expert and have no profound advice except to trust your gut and ensure everyone’s safety and the end result will be wonderful!
Σχόλια