I'm Starting to Get Asked This a Lot

Singapore isn't really a pet-friendly society yet. To be specific, a dog-friendly society. The closer I got to my due date, the more I got asked: What about your dog?

The underlying statement seems to be that, with a baby in the family, it necessitates that the dog has to go, or at least be locked up somewhere lest it attacks and/or devours the baby. And perhaps some people have hang-ups about how animals could trigger allergies in babies.

I'm not saying that their concerns are unfounded. I have my concerns, too: that Guinness would be too rough with Baby K too, or that he would not welcome her arrival into our pack, at least initially. But as his adoptive family, we have a responsibility to ensure that we do the necessary groundwork to ease her into his life. We have to at least try, not throw up our hands and surrender the moment we know we're going to have a baby.

For example, once I found out I was expecting, we started enforcing the "No Jumping" rule strictly. We also read up on how to introduce a baby to the pet dog (for the record, before baby goes home, we should let the pet dog sniff some items of clothing she has worn before, to get acquainted to her scent).

And that's only the responsible thing to do, right? Once we make a decision to adopt a dog, that decision should be for the dog's entire life, and not until we experience a major change in ours lives, whether it be moving homes, uprooting to another country, or, in our case, the arrival of a new member to the family.

On that note, some links I find helpful on introducing the pet dog to the new pack member:

Tips from Cesar Millan
The Pet Friendly House
Introducing Dogs & Babies

Wish us luck!