Pawsome Pets: City parents break taboo of kids growing up with pets

This results in the child fearing animals during their formative years; a fear that will probably last lifelong. But a few families in Chennai strongly feel against this. The dogs were the first babies in their house, then came the mini humans.

Ishani and Abhimanyu Prakash became parents to a beautiful baby girl less than a week ago. Their three pugs and handsome black Labrador Retriever, Sombra, were ready to welcome the latest addition home. “Our pediatrician is an animal lover so she didn’t have any qualms about our child being around our pets. She told us to ensure the dogs don’t climb on the bed and to wash our hands well after we played with them,” says the proud papa. His wife tells us, “The pugs really don’t care much but Sombra isn’t so. He knew something was different even before she was born. So he started becoming more gentle, wouldn’t jump and began walking slowly by my side.” 

The couple initially let the dogs smell them after they came back from the hospital. “On the second day, we slowly encouraged the dogs to be in the same room or vicinity of the child,” Abhimanyu shares to which Ishani adds, “It’s all about how well you raise your dogs. If they’re docile by nature, training them to get along with the baby is easy. He’s never barked since our daughter came home, in fact, he’s really protective of her!” We can see he’s going to be an amazing older brother. 

Jennifer and her husband Murali had a similar story — “We adopted our child when she was little over a year old. At that point, we had many dogs at home. Dia took time opening up to people but she immediately got along with our biggest dog, a Rottweiler!” Jennifer goes on to say, “We were fostering a rescue dog who had a displaced pelvis. So we’d kept her inside a large crate, which Dia loved crawling into alongside the dog. Eventually, we adopted the dog because our little girl had made her choice clear!” 

Initiating baby and dog is quite simple, so don’t stress out — that’s rule number one according to Jennifer. “Give the dog and child sufficient attention so that neither is averse to the other. Also, I think that a child’s immunity increases around pets. Dia picked up an infection from the swimming pool in her school but not because of our pets!” Teaching the child to be patient and not scream around animals is key. “Dia’s very gentle but by accident if she does yank their tail or ear, she apologises and gives them a kiss on their head,” says the happy mom.