New baby and dogs inside

Hi there,

Just wondering what your thoughts are on pets being allowed inside once baby arrives.

My partner and I live with my partners father and he lets the dachshunds inside of a night time to sleep with him.

Im forever cleaning up dog hair and having to change the sheets in his room because they stink so bad.

My partner and I have just finished putting a lot of sweat and tears into painting all three bedrooms before bubs arrival and I find myself stuck between a rock and a hard place in saying the dogs should be outside 'permanently'

Please help me!!!!

Mmmmmm.... thats a tough one.

On the one hand you absolutely have to monitor any animal around baby & insure that baby is safe & clean at all times.... this is something you already know (let me say I also have a very fluffy 'inside cat' & have struggled against family disaproval regarding her)

Secondly, you are infact living in someone elses house. It is thier generosity & hospitality which provides a roof over your head at the moment so you need to respect thier particular priorities (the dogs)

Is there a halfway? Do you have an open communication with DP's dad?
Without disrespecting him can you mention that you are pretty concerned & maybe trial leaving the dogs out or contributing to some really nice & cosy kennels (dog box) as an alternative? If that doesn't work can you suggest some boundries? ie. this is a 'dog free' section of the house?

Not sure if any of that helps.... just some thoughts & I hope you find a happy solution :D

Our dog has always been an inside dog and has never entered the kids rooms off a night to sleep, she will always sleep in our room. She is also a dog that drops alot of hair. if the kids are playing in their room with the door open she will go in there to see what they are up too but doesn't generally hang around.

Love

I'm not a fan of dogs inside at any time!

Our dog will be inside, but we are training (trying) her to stay away from a blanket, bunny rug on the ground...

As you are living in his house & to him his dogs are family, I guess you can't really do much?

Tambear - If you put the dog outside when it's used to being in, the dog will come to resent the child which could be disastrous. You should try not to affect dogs routine too much as it is part of the family too, but train it not to go in the baby's room if you're worried. As far as hygiene goes, as long as the dog is bathed each week or fortnight and is up to date on its vaccinations, there is really very little concern for the health of your baby... in fact, exposure to pet germs helps the baby to build up a tolerance. :D

I worried about this a bit before we bought Olivia home, as we have a inside dog (who is a short-haired fox terrier who sheds little white *****ly hairs all the time).

In the end though, we just trained him quite quickly that he was not allowed on any of Olivia's blankets or rugs on the floor. So he used to sit about a foot away from her, on the tiles.

From a hygiene and hair perspective we never had any problems at all, and she was never sick at all until she turned a year old, so he did her no harm.

In fact he adores her. He has slept under her hammock/cot since she was about 5 months old, and it is adorable!

We have 3 kelpies and they are inside dogs and are staying inside with the baby. We did plan on moving 2 of them to the bungalow but we changed our minds. Our baby has been home a few days and the dogs are fine. They have never slept a night outside in their lives so putting them outside would have been a big change for them. We taught them well before Amy was born that they were not allowed in the baby's room so they just hang around outside the door sometimes when I am in there. The dogs are supervised at all times.

i think the question comes down to who's house it is. if it is your partners fathers house then aside from asking him politely for a compromise there is nothing much you can do anyway. if it is yours and your partners house however - then you should certainly feel free to ask that the dogs be kept outsid permantly - or at least go no further then the laundry.

sorry i could offer more - hope this helps a little.

I think there are a lot of things to consider in this situation.

I wasn't actually 100% certain from your post as to whether you lived in your FIL's house or if he lived in yours....but if you do in fact live in your FIL's house, then it becomes a bit more complicated I think as you have to respect his wishes. Having said that, you could implement some fairly simple training exercises in order to help the dogs stay away from baby-related things, or to not be startled by the sound of the baby crying.

When I was PG with Jacob, we had 2 cats and a dog and we were very concerned about all of them......not least of which being our oldest cat who was blind (he sadly died a few weeks ago). The cats had been inside all the time, and the dog inside only of an evening....outside for the rest of the time. What we ended up doing with the cats was relocating them outside, but they actually had a sheltered area where they slept (and were safe etc and could not get out of during the night as we locked them in), but they were allowed to come inside as much as they liked. Once Jacob was born, DH brought home some of Jacob's clothing and laid them in different spots around the house......he even put the rocker in the lounge room and sat his clothes in it so that the cats got used to not only the rocker being there, but also Jacob's scent. We ended up having NO problems whatsoever with our cats!

So I guess my suggestion is perhaps to try some basic training exercises (you could speak to a vet about this) and also do some things like bring home articles of clothing from hospital so that the dogs are familiar with the scent and don't freak out when you come home..........