Making time for furkids with the new baby here, tips? As far as my Terrier What am I doing wrong?
Okay since I've had the baby I have have less time to devote to my precious dogs. I love them both dearly but they went from having me and my undivided attention 24/7 to having me maybe an hour or two a day on and off during the day. So very little time.
In the evening maybe an hour or two before bed I finally get to spend some time with them, usually when my husband is feeding and holding the baby I will get down on the floor and just love on them. Play with them. Work on obedience skills.
They get 2 walks a day with my husband and I know they enjoy that, soon we will all go for walks together, though I took my Terrier the other day just her and I.
Anyway my Terrier seems to be having an attitude issue with me, she tends to run off when I come in the room. I go to pet her and she allows it for a second but then jerks away really fast. She normally is a lap dog, loves to sit in my lap, a real snuggle bug. But she really wants nothing to do with me. So I don't ask for her attention I just go on, but I feel thats almost making matters worse. Its like she doesnt trust me anymore and I've never done anything to cause that, that I am aware of. She is still just as loving as ever to my husband, just as friendly as ever to guests, and she is good with the baby. But for some reason she wants nothing to do with me. And my husband said to give her time and space and she will come around.
Biggest problem I have is during the day I have to keep her confined in another area, because I can't watch 2 dogs that do get a little to rough with each other and a baby all at the same time. I would confine my poodle but he will then scream until he wakes the baby, where my terrier will just lay there or play with her toys, she finds ways to amuse herself and is very quiet. But lately she has been confined a lot and I feel that is part of the issue. \
I feel bad because its almost like I am punishing the good dog and I am rewarding the bad dog. (Both dogs are good overall but the poodle we have to keep on a shorter leash). And I think she sees it that way. Our poodle is loose because he barks and she is put up.
The big issue with our poodle other than he barks is, he has a heart murmer and severe separation anxiety which we have been working on for over a year...but the vet says not to do anything that will get his anxiety going because that causes way too much stress on his heart and he gets really anxious when he is confined.
What do I do? I feel like i'm doing serious damage to my Terrier and I know my poodle needs to be put him his place.
How do I tackle this? We never had any real issues like this before now, we had our poodles anxiety worked out and our Terrier never had to be confined for any reason.
I need to mend the relationship with my Terrier and let her know that she is still important, and my poodle needs to learn its okay to be behind a gate or in a crate, even though we are at home;. (They are only ever confined when we leave and they don't have an issue with that its when we are home, or that is how it used to be before the baby)
Thanks so much,
An overwhelmed mom
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One more thing: please don't say I'm a bad owner or I needed to train them before the baby came. Because they are both trained and I worked hard preparing them for this (a baby) their whole lives. Both are overall well trained, both graduated top of their obedience class. neither one is babied. In our home they are dogs, not babies....but they are also an important part of the family.
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