We are the proud owners of a feral 11 year old Maltese x Shih Tzu named "Charlie" and a 3 year old English Pointer named "Lucy".
I got Charlie when I was 14 so he is very much part of my life. My slogan when I was dating Neil was "Love me, love my dog" and they have become good pals with a love/hate relationship.
Charlie rules the world. He has small dog syndrome and, unfortunately, I did ALL the wrong things with him when he was growing up. He will attack children or adults if he feels cornered or if someone "looms" over him, he will bark when someone knocks at the door, he will go any other dog that walks past him (even if it is 1000 time larger than him) and he sleeps at the end of our bed. Now, I figure that the baby is just gonna have to adjust to him (probably easier) but we do plan on changing a few of his habits before the baby comes along. He currently stays inside all day because he can get out of the horrid back fence that we have. He has ended up out on the highway once because our "neighbour" let him out of his back yard. The dude is nasty! He refuses to help us get a new fence and yet he hates it when the dogs end up in his back yard. Urrgh! Anyway, we are in the process of building some decking out of the back door. As soon as it is complete, Charlie will be able to be outside all day. I will get him a nice, cosy bed and he will just love it. There's plenty of shelter and he can bark away to his hearts content (well, within reason that is!).
Lucy is our gentle giant. She is completely un-tamed (it would probably make you cringe Christy), but she is just adorable! I have no qualms about her and the baby. Lucy lives outside and barely ever comes in. She doesn't like it. She doesn't lick, doesn't bite and hardly barks. English Pointers are very peaceful dogs and they don't even sook! It's great! She is full of energy and will jump up (though this is getting better) and just loooooovves cuddles! She has no idea about personal space. So my main issue with her will be being careful while I am carrying the baby around because she is likely to jump up and clop the baby in the head with her big paws. Once the baby is walking around, Lucy will probably bowl him/her over but not intentionally. I don't really have a major problem with this because, let's face it, kids fall over all the time.
So they are our two little darlings! I have grown up with pets all my life. Kids are great at adapting I think.