[aislin22]

Hi Everyone!

I wanted to know if I could have some opinions and advice. My husband and I are first time parents, (very unexpectedly) 3 years ago we adopted a Siberian Husky mix dog. She's about 5 years old now and is very sweet. She's a medium sized dog, but smaller than a Siberian only weighing 30 pounds. Since we have had her, I have never seen an ounce of people aggression in her. She has no food or toy aggression and is pretty obedient. I can take her bone out of her mouth or her toys away and she will sit still until I give it back.

DD Olivia is just over 6 months old now and plays on the floor. Mika (the dog) will come lie right next to her and chew on her bones or a toy. If Olivia reaches for the toy or bone, Mika will get up and move or not pay attention to her.

I am concerned that Mika will get these bursts of high energy with the husky in her. She will get real excited when we play with her toys with her and will take off running or get jumping excitedly. She will get clumsy and not watch her footing and has stepped on or ran across Olivia's hands and feet. (Hasn't drawn blood) My sister brought her chihuahua over one day and the chihuahua went to Mika's bed and started chewing on her bone. I have never seen Mika aggressive before, but she ran over to the chihuahua and snarled at her and bit her.

I wasn't raised with dogs. I didn't get my first dog until I was in high school and she was a 7 pound pomeranian. My husband was raised with Huskies since he was small and isn't concerned. My side of the family wants me to re-home my dog and has pressured us to do so since Olivia was born. I honestly don't feel Mika is a threat but I have no experience with babies and dogs together. Does anyone else have a dog? My family all seems to think all dogs eat babies and lose sleep of the danger I am putting my baby in. Am I putting her in danger? Can you all be honest with me?

[aquariussweety21]

Honestly, as long as you do not leave your baby alone with the dog unsupervised i am sure she will be fine. There is always a chance that any animal can or might injure anyone though so you never know. However; if she shows no aggression with her at all now she should be ok. Is the dog used to being touched all over (its ears, face, tail?). If so that helps. If not i would start getting the dog more used to that slowly. Make sure the dog is getting attention too so it doesnt get jealous of the baby. Mika will probably be protective over your little one if anything. As for the aggression with the other dog, sometimes certain dogs just do not fet along. They are territorial and if they dont know the other dog well they may not like that its in their space.

I have a lab pointer mix about the same size. She gets crazy spurts of energy on and off through the day too. When she gets too hyper i try to keep the baby up or In his pack and play. Shes typically gentle around him too but like mika, doesnt pay attention to her paws always. Id say as long as you and your SO feel comfortable with Mika, keep him/her. Maybe working on training Mika more will help everyone feel better too. We also have 3 other dogs where we are currentt staying so it is interesting lol but as long as you keep an eye on them and teach the baby to be gentle and respect the dog when they are eating or have a treat things usually go well and it can be a huge benefit to the child :-)

[jojo2bee]

We have a dog, shes a tiny 9 pound mal-shih lol but she is a great dog with our son. we have always played rough with her and she pla rough back but since weve brough Matthew home se is great with him. she just lets him pull on her fur and she has never done anything bad to him, well she did jump on his carseat while in the car to look out the window but didnt hurt him and he didnt even care lol and she hasent done it since either. but I honestly think if the doggie is good with your DD now that you dnt need to worries to much, theres always a chance a dog can snap but usually if there good with baby from the begining they will stay that way, I just do not recomend leaving them alone together. I can understand your familys worries but I think there over worrieing honestly. but of course in the end its your decision on wha you feel to be best for your baby girl. good luck and I hope I helped a bit!

and welcome to our playroom!

[curlygirl77]

If the dog is good with your baby i wouldn't worry. It's good for kids to be around pets from an early age. We have a largeish dog who is kind of clutzy and skittish, when micah is mobile i will probably gate off an area of the living room when i can't directly supervise her and the dog, so i won't have to worry about the dog stepping on her.

Also, is your dog crzte trained? I find it helpful to send our dog to her crate for a timeout and calm down when she gets too crazy excited with the kids. The kids know that is her private area and never to go in there, that way she has somewhere to escape if they are harassing her, lol.

[3Sapphires]

sounds like you have good advice, we've got 2 labs that we had since long before we had kids, and they areboth wonderful with the kids, of course they don't really like being shooed off the couch and usually grumble about it, but that is as far as it goes.

sounds like you have done a great job training your dog!

[aislin22]

Thank you so much for the advice everyone! When I was pregnant we took Mika to a "Dog and your baby" class which really helped. Yesterday, she was laying on the floor next to Olivia on her play mat and olivia rolled over and tried to pull up on her. She was pulling on her trying to get up and Mika sat there patiently and didn't really seem to notice. I am really not concerned but every time my mom comes over she reminds me of all the horror stories she's heard on the news or the kids that come into the clinic with disfiguring dog bites. (she's a triage nurse at a pediatrics office) "It only takes one time, Emilie" she will remind me, ugh. I just really can't see her doing something like that. I dunno