Having a baby with dogs

with my sister having her baby (she's two weeks now, its flown!) got me thinking of how people juggle both with dogs and children.

i was thinking, how do people cope with walking so far, particularly if its warm and youre heavily pregnant.. my sister couldnt go far at all before she was due.

how do you juggle everything about, walking the dogs with a pram, having the dogs in your bedroom or not, kids toys all over the place.

what about shows? taking a baby to a show, as well as having to get the dogs ready.

do dogs tend to take a backseat when a baby comes along.. just got me thinking, as i dont know how people cope with both.

i know there's plenty of you on here with dogs and children so feel free to share your stories.

its certainly got me thinking anyway

I don't want children haha, but i know a woman who has horses not dogs and i used to see her going to gallops at 8.5 months gone. All babies been perfectly healthy, and horse mad hahaha.

I'm currently pregnant so trying to plan how to work things out between dog and baby. Luckily we picked a low maintenance dog for this reason as we always intended to have children. We chose a breed that is happy to sleep a lot and take as much or little exercise as offered. That way I don't feel as guilty if he misses a bit of exercise or attention as he happily dozes through both anyway if possible!
I will be getting him used to walking with a pram nearer the time and getting baby stuff out so he's used to it. We're lucky that the house we're moving to has nice local walks so it shouldn't be too hard. We don't do many shows so no worries there

i see people at shows with kids and wonder how on earth they juggle it all. its not too bad when they are older, but i couldnt imagine having to juggle a pram, a baby, a dog and all the show stuff

i guess its just one of those things you learn to do, and seeing as i dont have kids (and even though i said never, my niece has brought out my broodyness!) im sure at one point i will do..

I didn't stop anything for my children. I was jumping a horse and then lugging hay, straw and heavy buckets of water the day before I gave birth to my first son.
After I had given birth I used to walk the 5 miles to and from the field with him to do the horses. It was good for him to get out daily in the pram whatever the weather and get fresh air, he was always very healthy.
With my second son we used to take him and my first to dog shows all over the country. I used to walk the dogs as normal, baby in a pram and toddler in a pram seat on the pram, dogs beside the pram.
With Charly it was the same, in the pram walk a couple of miles to the horses, walk the dogs.
I couldn't drive back then and lived in the countryside, so we then also used to walk a few miles to a shop. I was out with babies most of the time.
Too many babies and young children spend their lives cooped up indoors with no fresh air just breathing in germs that breed in a warm still enviroment and then people wonder why they are always ill.
I also think sitting indoors with a baby makes it harder work as babies tend to sleep when out in the pram in the fresh air.
I loved my children dearly and still do but I would never ever let them rule my life. Life has to go on, so I got on with it and all my children are happy, healthy well adjusted law abiding adults who appreciate life.

I think it's not only illegal, but biologically impossible too, sorry...

I thought about saying that but even I didnt ...lol

HAHAHHAAH that made me laugh!

Agree with Madmare, neither of my parents let us rule their lives, as neither left work for anything greater than the absolutely necessary period of time. They are both successful, all three of us had wonderful childhoods and they didn't have to see us as a huge sacrifice either.

I have a 5yr old and am currently 6 months pregnant. I'm still competing at agility shows and my last competition will be when im 8 months gone, the dogs are still having their normal length walk daily.

My 5yr old is autistic so in effect is still very much like having a young toddler around, when he comes on walks i use a buggy as he cant walk far, all my dogs are trained to walk with the buggy without pulling. It obviously limits places I can go as its a hassle getting over farm fields/styles etc but I still go off around the woods/countryside etc.

At agility shows my son usually stays with his dad, although he does occasionally come with me, the only problem this causes is my GSD wont run when he is nearby as she doesnt like leaving his side in public! When he was younger I queued with him in his buggy and plonked him by the finish line just before my run!

When baby comes along it wont stop the normal walks/competions, it will be exactly the same, walking with a buggy though my son will have to get used to walking more with only having one buggy!
Saying that though, when he was ill recently and couldnt go out or to school, the dogs werent walked for 3 days, they managed just fine-though obviously its not a regular occurance.

With toys I have to keep an eye on rave and particularly mav as they will steal/chew certain toys, but only if they are in the middle of the floor, I just train them to leave them alone so they wont steal them from toy box etc.

My dogs sleep downstairs, they are not allowed upstairs/in my bedroom so no change there!

It took me AGES to get this!!!