Balancing A Baby & A Dog (Your ‘First Baby’)

For as long as you can remember, it was just you and your dog. You had a solid routine down. You could anticipate each others needs. In both your minds, it seemed that life was complete. What more could you want? And then–you had a baby. Now what?

As a new mother, and a dog trainer, I never thought I would get hit with the ‘dog mom now real mom’ inner guilt trip. But with exhaustion combined with raging hormones and a stickler for solid routines, when my son came into the picture, all the change completely threw me off balance. I panicked as to how I would combine both worlds peacefully. How would both my dogs and my baby know that I loved them equally?

And then literally, I had to say to myself ‘Kate, chill out! Take a step back, pause, deep breath, and focus.’ My self-made anxiety and inner panic attacks were only doing my dog and child a disservice. My energy was completely off and it was effecting the balance of my household. Panicking fixes nothing.

I realized that the more I invited my dog to join activities that involved the baby, the better we both felt. I put a dog bed in the baby’s room so he would have a place to go to. Every time I go to change the baby or feed the baby, I invite my dog along. When we are on the couch together,  I invite my dog to lay at my feet. When the baby is on his swing, I invite the dog to come join us on the floor. And when I walk the dog, the baby always joins us. By doing everything together, we are all learning how to live this new life together. My dog gets to know my baby by just existing with him and I am never without the steady companionship of my dog. Life isn’t always about making sure something is happy through constant affection and stimulation. A lot of the time, it’s about just being together, and loving each other through the pure enjoyment of each other’s company!