Preparing your Dog for your LO's arrival

First the rant. Everyone and their cow gives me advice on how the dog is going to react when I'm finally going to have my baby. By the way, I'm 8 days overdue today, enough said.

Well, when I first told my grandma that I was pregnant, her response was: oh, then you need to give your dog away. Then as I was talking to my mother I got the whole talk of: when the baby is there, the dog can't be sleeping in the bedroom anymore. Later grandma added that I should not feed the dog too much, that I won't have enough money to feed myself anymore being pregnant.

Wow, where am I going to start? To give you a short introduction, my dog is about a year old, a pure breed Great Dane, and the sweetest thing ever. First of all, when I decided on a dog I picked that breed on purpose because I know they are good with kids and he is intimidating in case my husband isn't home.

Enough of my complaints though, here are some things we taught him, so that it will be easier with the kid...

• First of all he learned to sleep in in the mornings. I just don't let him wake me up, and he knows better than doing that.
• Next he sits next to our front door when we leave, so by the time we are ready to let him in the car we'll just call him up.
• He is the last one coming into the house when we come home.
• In case he stayed home, he waits for us on his bed to greet him, not at the front door.
• No jumping on furniture at all.
• And then of cause sit and down, they are always the most helpful.

He is a really good boy though, and I'm excited for the child that he can grow up with a dog in the house. Did I mention that we also touch his ears and lips a lot, in case the baby decides to pull on them one day?

Well, if anyone is having more advice, please leave me a comment or send an e-mail. Also I would love to hear some positive stories of how children live with dogs. It is just so encouraging to me and an alternative to all the worries my family is dumping on me.