Cassie and Anna

About 4 years ago we adopted our puppy Cassie who has grown into a 70 pound fluffy dog who is sweet, yet hyper. We had no clue how Cassie would react to us bringing a baby into the household. We read a lot online and even took a free class at Babies R Us in anticipation for the day they would meet. After attending the class I was extremely nervous - is this sweet dog going to eat our baby?!?! I know it wasn't, but if it was a marketing ploy by Babies R Us, it worked, for we left the store that night with two baby gates. The gates were for me to use if I needed to separate Anna and Cassie. Another recommendation was to walk Cassie with the stroller before Anna came so that she would be comfortable with it - so we took several strolls around the block with the dog and an empty stroller - haha!! (a good resource is Dogs and Storks).


It has now been over 4 months since Anna came home from the hospital and things are going well. For the first 3 1/2 months Anna paid no attention to Cassie and Cassie paid little attention to Anna. Around the 4 month mark, Anna began to watch Cassie as she would move around the room and Cassie was quick to give Anna a lick whenever she has a runny nose. So far, I've never had to separate the two by gate - only separate Cassie from visitors since this is when she gets extremely hyper!. The above picture is very typical during the day (except for Anna's startled look) - wherever Anna and I are, Cassie is also.