Bodyguards

When I was pregnant, I was nervous about how our dogs, Mallard and Turk, were going to react to Layla.  I'll be the first to admit, they are also my babies and are pretty spoiled.  They are both definitely lap dogs, and I had this image of them trying to shove the baby off of our laps to settle into their usual spots.  We read up on what to do as far as introducing her to the dogs and did it all, like bringing one of her hospital blankets home for them to smell.  Nick didn't think there would be any issues, but I'm a worrier so I expected the worst.

However, they proved me wrong!  When we came home from the hospital, they were definitely curious about this new little creature that we had with us, but they just sniffed her a bit, no aggression at all.  They also didn't mind giving up their lap spots for the baby and only jump up on us when she's asleep in another room.  I won't ever leave them unsupervised, but I am really happy about how well they have done so far.

For the first few days at home, whenever Layla would cry, the dogs would run back and forth between me and the baby until I came over to pick her up.  Now, they still perk up when she cries but are far more used to it so they take their time "alerting" me.

One thing I didn't expect was how protective they would both be over her.  It's pretty common for me to find this:

Mallard supervising play time

Turk watching over a nap (please excuse the messy bedroom!)

I can't wait for Layla to get older so they can start to play together.  I'm sure she will love them as much as we do!