Thursday, August 19, 2021

Help! I don't trust my friend's dog around my baby. What do I do?


Hi! FTM here and I'm looking for advice on how to navigate a tricky situation. Sorry for the long post.My husband and I have another couple we are best friends with, I'll call them X and Y. They are wonderful and supportive people and we love them to death. They quarantined for two weeks before my daughter was born and stayed quarantined for the entire first month so they could drive us to and from the hospital and give us whatever help we needed (my husband is legally blind and cannot drive, hence needing a ride).The situation is this: X has difficult mental health issues stemming from brain damage. She has not been coping well with consequences of that (not being able to work in her chosen field, or at all really, not having as much stamina, many of her hobbies no longer being possible). To help with that, they got a dog to serve as an emotional support animal. Since then X has been doing much much better.The problem is the dog. It was abused prior to being with them, and is uncomfortable around men and was never trained. X has some background in animal training and has been working with it, but that takes time. We thought my visiting wouldn't be an issue because the dog doesn't seem to mind women. The last time I was at their house with my daughter (she was about 3 month old) my daughter began screaming while X was doing a diaper change and I came to assist. The dog was between me and my baby, and i had to step past it to get to her. The dog bit me hard on the calf and growled at me. X finished the diaper change and then went to discipline the dog. To it's credit, it listened, but continued to watch me warily. About half an hour later when I had put my daughter down for a nap, the dog cornered me in the hall and growled at me. It wouldn't let me pass till Y came and got it.I have been around dogs my entire life. I've trained them from puppies and many of our dogs were also trained as hunting dogs. I've never been uncomfortable around them, but I am uncomfortable around this dog now. I haven't been back since, and left early that day.They have been asking if they can take my daughter for the day so my husband and I can have a break. I don't trust their dog around my daughter. She's 6 months now and starting to get more mobile. She can roll and kind of army crawl around, and she's not yet learned not to get in an animal's space. Our cat corrects this by doing a single clawless bop on her hand and walking away. I don't trust their dog to do something similarly harmless.X and Y adore our daughter. Before getting the dog they had bought a packnplay to have her stay over when she was ready for it, and they babysit at ours while I work regularly. I trust them, but not the dog.How do I navigate this situation? via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/37X2QiE

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