Should you get a dog before you have children, or wait until after you have children?

My husband and I got a dog first. We hope to have a kid soon and have now had our dog for a year and a half. Having our dog has been an excellent experience!

While it adds a lot of responsibility to most people's lives, it is a good chance to ease into having more responsibility. Although having a dog somewhat ties you down, you can still leave it for most of a day and be able to do other things that you enjoy. Valuable things we have learned from having a dog: 1.My husband and I are able to share responsibility really well.

We can seamlessly take care of the dog such that either one of us will do more or less of the work depending on stress, sickness etc. 2. We both share the same values regarding training and behaviors that we allow and agree to similar "parenting" styles. Given that our dog has turned out to be unusually well-behaved, I now feel far more confident in my parenting abilities.

I have learned to act like the alpha dog such that our dog is submissive to us and we have a great relationship. There are many articles online about how to go about introducing a new baby to a dog that you already have. However, they don't seem to address which to get first.

I think it's somewhat like the chicken and egg scenario.My personal experience makes me feel that getting a dog first was definitely the right thing to do for me as it's been a very valuable learning experience. I do think you need to be somewhat careful in selecting a dog breed as well as temperament that is well suited to being around a young child. If I find any relevant links, I will post as a follow up comment.

We got a dog about 2 years before we had our first child, and she's still with us 11 years later. My answer would be to get the dog first. As other's have pointed out, dogs are a lot of work and while they can be great companions, you might have a rough first year as you get to know each other.

The main reason to get the dog first is: if you can't handle a dog - you can give it away. And if you can't handle a dog, you should seriously reconsider having children. Children are about 1000 times harder than a dog, and require a whole new level of responsibility in your life.My advice would be to get the dog, but spend the money to go through several rounds of obedience training with your dog - if they aren't already trained.

Once you can trust your dog to understand your commands and listen to you, you can feel a lot safer having the dog around the kids. Our dog was partially trained and I still kick myself for not completing her training - but other than the first week or so of newness, she's been great with all three kids. The other thing I would suggest is to heavily research different dog breeds to find one that might be better suited to be around children.

(We have a lab. ) Good luck!

We've done it both ways. Our Bichons were terrific when we brought home our first two children. By the time our last was born, they'd passed away (one the month before, sadly enough).

We got a new dog when the baby was a couple of months old, and while he was great with our older kids, he was always really weird around her--afraid of her as a newborn. That should have been a clue, because he turned on her when she was two and we had to have him put down. So I think it's best to have a kid-oriented adult dog, fully trained, before you have a baby.

Babies need to have help with every single little part of their day for a very long time; once they're walking they need even more attention. I can hardly imagine trying to potty train two different species at once!

A dog first, because then you learn responsibility and love towards a being that returns love, and not even as much love as a child! You learn to take care of someone who's not self sufficient and needs to be fed and taken care of.

I don't think it particularly matters! Dogs aren't babies and the dogs can be kenneled, or ignored- not a good plan with a baby ( I kid! ).

But I don't think you learn the responsibility of having children by getting a pet. On the other hand I had my first son at 18 and he was the first baby of three total- and he was the first baby I had ever held! So babysitting will prepare you better in my opinion, than a dog.

My partner and I had a dog before we had children. The dog was around, in fact, for the first years of us having children. Caring for a dog is very much like caring for a child.

Loving a dog is different, of course, but the exercise of having responsibility for another living thing has proved to be good and invaluable for my wife and I. When we were caring for children, caring for the dog took a lower priority. We exercised him less, gave him less attention during the day and in the evenings.So, for these personal and experiential reasons, I strongly believe it's better (for the parents and future kids) to have a dog before you have kids.

It's worse for the parents and the dog to have a dog after having kids, especially if its the couple's first dog.

Before children, we felt like we needed pets. With Children, in their first year or two, our pets got ignored. Now that our children are getting to be a little bit older, we are finding a slight amount of time more for our pets.

But, most importantly, at 3 and 6, our children now enjoy them also. Dogs - I don't like having them around babies. Even our 3 year old pulls our sweet dog's ears and has gotten a nip or two.No skin broken (yet).

I LOVE dogs. However, I don't necessarily agree with having dogs around small children. I've heard too many horror stories.

Here are a few statistics: 1. The odds that a bite victim will be a child are 3.2 to 1. (CDC.) 2.

The majority of dog attacks (61%) happen at home or in a familiar place. 3. The vast majority of biting dogs (77%) belong to the victim's family or a friend.

4. When a child less than 4 years old is the victim, the family dog was the attacker half the time (47%), and the attack almost always happened in the family home (90%). And before you think small dogs will be okay, take note that in 2000 a 6-week-old baby was killed by her family's Pomeranian dog.

So, I guess my answer is after. Get a dog when the children are responsible enough to know how to act around/care for it.

I would wait to get a dog until after your children are old enough so that the dog isn't a threat to their health. An out of control dog could do some serious damage to a young child.

You should wait until after you have children -- once they are old enough to want a pet, they should be old enough to take care of it. And, if they don't take care of it, they are old enough to realize that they should never expect you to have to get another one again :) Also, you should realize that pets do not like kids intruding on the amount of attention that an owner would normally be giving to the pet. Some pets become malicious towards the kids in that case, and when they are young, it can be a real problem.

I don't believe it really makes a difference which happens first, it's all in the way you handle the transition period. I had a dog before I had my son. I had family bring a baby blanket home from the hospital and put in my pups bed to familiarize herself with my little boy's scent.

There is going to be an adjustment period, normally it only takes a couple of weeks. You can try socializing your pet ahead of time with friends and family who already have children. I do recommend looking into the breed if you get a dog and are bringing it into a home with children.

Some breeds are more aggressive than others, some are more submissive and you won't want a hyper active pup with a newborn.

Well a lot of "experts" suggest you get a pet before having children so you learn how to be more responsible and take care of a living animal/person. Having a dog first can teach the basics of having something dependent on you for their well being. The dog cannot exist or live without your support and care and the same goes with a child.

But you have to consider the dog may feel a bit left out if you get it before a kid then have a kid and stop giving the dog attention. Although dogs do not get angry(generally) with that sort of thing. There is a reason they are known for loyalty and all.

However different pets are a different story (ferrets for example will become very jealous and try to kill the baby for attention) so in a nutshell I would suggest getting a dog first. You will be better prepared to raise a child not to mention you will have a buddy (the dog) to share the joyful moments with of raising a baby.

Wait until the children have been established and marked their territory. That way the dog will know who are bosses (the children and adults in the family) and who are not (the dog and house guests).

I would get the dog before. This way, the dog gets used to you and you really have a bond with it. It will trust you and you'll know (if) you can trust it with children.

I think it's very risky introducing a new dog into a household with children unless you either get it as a puppy or find one you are sure is gentle. Even then, the dog could be hostile to small creatures. (children).

Depends on how bad you want children... I used dogs as a way to prolong not having children. I decided it might be cheaper to have a child instead of investing in a 3rd dog. Now having a 3 month old, I'm glad we decided to get the dogs prior to having a child.It gave us some responsibilities without being so tied down.

You can always board a dog when you go on vacation.

Personally, I am glad that I decided to get a dog before I had children. My dog, Cookie, has definitely brought out my nurturing and motherly side. My husband even uses my interaction with her as proof that I will be a great mom.

:) On the flip side of that, it is typically easier to introduce a dog to a family when the child is there first than to bring one in later. I have a close friend who had to find a new home for her dog because it was so jealous and threatened by her new baby that she feared for its safety. This article has some interesting comments on the issue: dearsugar.com/1591078.

The best thing to do is get a dog when your child is of age to understand that it's a give and take, loving relationship. We are waiting until my son is 5, and believe me it's been hard! Lol If you already have a dog, you have to worry about how the dog will react (could be good or bad) when the baby comes, and/or how the baby will treat it when he/she is too young to know that pulling tails and ears hurts.

Please remember- opinion drawn from experience. Aloha!

Dogs are a lot of work. If you go away, they need to be put in kennels. They need to be walked every day, house-trained, given attention - and they still might just decide to tear up everything one day without understanding why it is wrong to do so.

They only learn through trial and error. When you're walking them, you need to clean up behind them, and they don't "do their business" out of the way, but in the middle of your lawn. Don't get me wrong, I love dogs, I'm just too lazy to have one.

I love other people's dogs. Having a dog at the same time as a baby would be a complete nightmare, especially if you're not used to having a dog. The puppy stage is by far the cutest and most fun (and destructive) but your kids would need to be at least 2 or 3 to appreciate that properly.

I'm a cat person, because they can look after themselves and like I said, I'm lazy - but you shouldn't really have cats around pregnant women because of diseases bacteria in their faeces can carry. I guess my answer would be - if you are asking this question you probably really want a dog. Don't imagine for a second it will prepare you for children, but go ahead and get one now, just because they're fun, good for security, loving and incredibly loyal.

Just be aware a pot plant would be easier to care for.

I would say wait till after you have children because if you get a dog before.. it's going to used to having just you and your partner around. The dog will not be used to a baby crying and stuff, and it may get a feeling like you don't care about it anymore and dogs can get dangerous when they become jealous. So I would wait until after you have children so the dog gets used to the children immediately.

:).

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.