Visiting a home with a dog - baby in tow

welshmoneylover

Best of luck to you, I hope you manage to sort it and it doesn't ruin your christmas.

SugarSpun

Thank you - I was looking for dog people's advice as I'm not a dog lover and didn't want to be too stubborn in the way I was looking at things.

I also don't think their dog is properly looked after. He isn't walked very often and when he gets excited will forget things like Sit and Stay, so my concerns were higher than they would have been with my friend's neapolitan mastiff - a dog that knocked me over more than once by trying to love me too hard but who could be trusted to immediately retire to her chair with just a whistle.

jamespir

i think you have to rember the dog was there first and it would be unfair to kick it out because your husband has a fear of dogs and you fear it might not like your baby


youll probably find the baby will sleep through the noise


i have a fear of dogs so i know how it feels but you have to face your fears

as they can sense your fear

mikey72

welshmoneylover wrote: »

If you are so concerned, why are you going?

Not being nasty or anything but it is the dogs house and the dog lives there. I think it's a bit mean of you to ask the dog be shut out of the room.

You sound fearful of the dog, your partner sounds fearful and you may be transposing your fears onto your little one.

I hope you make friends with the dog, they are great company.

A dog with a mortgage, interesting.

"I can see my brother, especially, deliberately letting the dog in"

If the uncle wants to upset his niece or nephew for a laugh, appropriate response seems fair.
It's a miniature Schnauzer, scruff of the neck, underarm into the kitchen would work for me.
Should break the ice and laughs all round then.

eco

Like another poster I hope this doesn't sound harsh but if someone said to me we aren't visiting if you don't shut your dogs out of the room I'd say fine don't visit.
But as your trying to compromise I would work something out, one of my dogs is a bit OTT with visitors, he loves them too much especially kids, and would deliberatly misbehave if he was shut out, you might find your brothers dog settles quicker if everyone doesn't make too much noise and fuss, and is given an escape to another room, some dogs like visitors for 10 mins then get bored, and prefer to go to there bed, especially if there given some treats.

smileypigface

We have two dogs - they are very much a part of our family and they live in our house.

However, when we have visitors they rarely get to meet them - this is for everyone's comfort - ours, the dogs and the visitors.

Our younger dog is a 2 year old springer - he is still very bouncy and gets excited in his eagerness to meet and greet everyone.

Our older dog is a 5 year old rescue springer who is very fearful of strangers. Her first reaction to new situations is to try and make herself look scary - we haven't yet met anyone who likes being barked at!!!

So, out of consideration for our visitors our dogs are given a good long walk before visitors are due and are settled into their crates in the dog room (yes, I know - it's supposed to be a study!!). The dogs are happy and we can relax - so it's win all round.

Just because we love our dogs we don't assume that everyone who visits us will want to love them too!!

So, if you were visiting me OP you probably wouldn't get to meet our dogs That's the view of this dog lover!

Raksha

If a dog never gets to learn how to meet and greet visitors, then the situation is never going to change.........

mikey72

Raksha wrote: »

If a dog never gets to learn how to meet and greet visitors, then the situation is never going to change.........

And if you would use your 4 month old grandchild to learn with, that would be up to you.
I'd use my grandparents personally.

Raksha

mikey72 wrote: »

And if you would use your 4 month old grandchild to learn with, that would be up to you.
I'd use my grandparents personally.

After working down from adult humans, through teenagers, children and toddlers if possible, yes. How else do you introduce dogs to babies? All of my dogs, except my most recent two have been around babies, presently there aren't any babies amongst my friends and relatives, but when there are, the dogs will be taught how to meet and greet babies too.

smileypigface

Raksha wrote: »

If a dog never gets to learn how to meet and greet visitors, then the situation is never going to change.........

Yes, but some visitors are not good candidates to use as a 'training opportunity' - all the time we have 'work in progress' our dogs don't get to meet our visitors. Especially with our rescue dog - a negative experience sets her back so we are carefully managing the situation to build positive experiences. She can now happily meet and greet off lead and last week even took a treat from a friend we were walking with.

We do however have dog savvy friends who visit our house to help us to build our rescue dog's confidence and help us train our younger dog to meet and greet more politely.

But, yes I agree in principle Raksha, doing what we currently do is managing that particular situation - addressing the long term issue of good meeting and greeting is done under much more controlled cirrcumstances with dog savvy friends.

Even so, my overriding feeling is that I don't expect everyone to love my dogs like I do and I respect that some people don't want to even meet my dogs - that's fine as far as I'm concerned.