Last weekend, Jason, Cy and I drove up to Seattle so that all of our Washington-dwelling family could meet our newest addition. Jason's cousin John and his wife Sandy were kind enough to host us and a little gathering on Saturday. They have two boys, a 5 year old and 2 year old, and twin girls on the way. On two different occassions, John held Cy, and we all got a taste of how his youngest boy would react to new babies - jealous! As soon as John picked up Cy, his little boy began frantically insisting "Baby down, baby down!" until John handed Cy back over to one of us. I suppose the reaction is fairly common for little ones.
Well, last night we encountered the dog version of "Baby down". For the past several weeks, Jager and Cy have pretty much just been co-existing. Jager sometimes tries to lick his feet, and at times even seems a bit protective of him, but really hasn't shown much interest in general. Last night, we decided that maybe they should interact a little more. Afterall, both are part of our family, and we want Cy to be comfortable around dogs. So, put Cy on the floor, and had Jager come over and lie down next to him. That went all right, so we tried propping Cy up on Jager. That seemed ok for a few minutes, until Jager suddenly got up and walked away. Jason was holding Cy on the ground and I was sitting on the couch. Jason tried calling Jager over to lie on the floor next to him, and she promptly turned around, came over to me, and sat down. As Jason kept trying to get her to come over to him, she became more and more insistant on my attention. First she put her head on my lap and nudged my hand. Then put one paw in my lap. Finally, she put both paws in my lap and pulled herself to standing, practically getting in my lap. No matter what Jason said, she would not go to him, and she insisted that I pet her.
I guess this is her way of saying, Enough about the baby, pay attention to ME! She hasn't gotten hostile, for which I am grateful, but I am curious to see if this behavior will subside, or if she will keep insisting "Baby down". Has anyone else had luck getting their pets to interact with a new baby?
