The Dogs Meet Mackenzie

Another part of the welcome crew at our house was our two dogs, Scooter & Skylar. We were a little apprehensive about how they would react to the baby being in their house. We expected that Scooter, our rescue dog, would be pretty amicable to the whole situation since he is not the dominant dog in the house & seems just happy to have a house to live in & doesn't care who else lives there! However, Skylar was our first 'kid' and is a dominant dog of her territory & her mom (me)! We did not think she would adjust easily to a new family member.

As expected, Scooter didn't really care too much about Mackenzie. He sniffed her and moved on. He was a little nervous around her - like he knew there was something special about her & he wasn't sure what it was, so he kept his distance early on and started warming up in the coming days. However, Skylar was NOT happy about the situation. When we first brought her up to the baby she started to nip at her feet. Needless to say, she spent the next couple days either in her crate or outside. Brannon was ready to get rid of her - no dog was going to mess with his little girl!

Luckily, my parents worked with her while we spent alot of time upstairs (non-dog territory in our house). We had a bark collar that we had to use periodically when we let her outside in the early morning/late night due to a history of having the police called about us & our disturbing the peace with our barking dog! But we had never used the collar on her inside. Well, my parents got tired of her constant barking while we were upstairs, and put the collar on her for an entire day. She was like a new dog when the collar came off. If she got riled up, all they had to do was shake the bark collar at her and she calmed down. She even comes in from outside when you shake it (we had spent years trying to get that dog to come when called!!).

Now, Skylar has even gone so far as to become protective of Mackenzie. When I am nursing Mackenzie, Skylar sits at my feet and 'protects' us from Scooter (not that Scooter is doing anything, but she makes sure he doesn't come too close!). What a relief to know we are not going to have to get rid of her because she didn't accept the baby!