When I saw Julia’s comment on my Cooper’s Morning post, I had to laugh. When I was pregnant, people would always tell me heartwarming tales of dogs protecting the new baby in the house, or snuggling up for a nap. It all seemed very idyllic, and just how I wanted my life post-baby to be. Of course, like a great deal of my actual post-baby life, it did not turn out the way I had hoped.
My poor dog has been with me since February of 2004. I adopted her from the Augusta County SPCA just a few months after starting my first post-college job. Since then, We’ve moved to Roanoke, all around the NYC area, and back to Northern Virginia. She’s been through 8 moves with me, all to drastically different settings. In that time, my mischievous puppy has turned into an old, put-upon dog, but she’s remained faithful. The baby, however, was the last straw.
Buckley hates this kid. As she’s gotten older, she has become less tolerant of other dogs invading her space, and this tiny, mewling hairless one is the worst of all. The sad thing is Cooper loves Buckley. He, much to Buckley’s chagrin, is obsessed with her. He chases her all around the house, to the point where Buckley is running out of dark corners in which to hide. He loves playing with her collar and trying to pet her. Buckley does not share his enthusiasm.
It’s so funny watching him try to pet Buckley, because she’s so clearly torn. She loves affection of any kind, but as you can see, he tries to pet her eyeball. Sometimes she’ll submit to it for a few minutes, but just as often, she’ll growl as soon as he gets within two feet of her. It’s not a mean growl, mind you. She’s never been even close to violent toward him; she just wants to let him know that she doesn’t have patience for his nonsense.
However, recently Cooper seems to have figured out that the way to Buckley’s heart is through her stomach. He’s taken a “one for me and one for you” approach to feeding himself lately, an approach of which Buckley is a huge fan. Of course, it doesn’t always work out, as Cooper still has a hard time letting go of small objects that he has grasped.
Mmm. Sanitary.
Cooper has been routinely feeding the puppy for the past few weeks. I know it’s a terrible habit for them both to get into, but at this point, anything that keeps poor Buckley from being the angriest dog in the world, and helps Cooper realize his dream of getting her to love him is going to be okay with me.
Hah! I had no idea how wrong I was. I probably shouldn’t be surprised. Dogs do tend to have two reactions to babies, either “I love you!” or “Dear god, what is that thing?”, as I learned from my stint working at a dog daycare. And beagles, I learned and should have remembered, tend to lean towards the latter. (They usually are not fond of invaders, strangers, or things changing in a way that they have not previously decided they will agree to put up with.)
If it makes you feel better, many a great, great dog has fallen prey to the invasion of of the babies. For instance, I own what I consider to be the greatest dog ever created by the entire universe, but if we go walking to the elementary school next door and the tiny cretins try to pet her, she sits down and gives me this look like “Please know that I am only letting them grab at me because you are making me, and if I am not suitably rewarded when we get home, all hell will break loose”. And the children, of course, love her because she’s very tiny, very soft, and very cute looking, so of course she loves them. Right? Right? (I was that child like these tykes and Cooper who believed that puppies REALLY TOTALLY LOVED my harassing them. I still am that child.)
At least look on the bright side – Cooper is learning a valuable lesson about dog psychology (the way to the heart is through the stomach. When he is older, it will be a properly executed belly rub). I have found when watching a baby (two or four legged, furry or drooly), it is best, for your sanity, to stick to the bright side. It’s such a nice place to be.