I Have A Jealous Child

When you bring home the second child (or third, fourth, etc.), you may find some jealousy come from one or more of your other children. It's commonly called "The First Child Syndrome". Well, I have a bit of a different situation going on...my jealous child is my Siberian Husky, Dakotah. I suppose she thought of herself as the baby (we did get her after Tanner, after all). She was definitely a spoiled dog - sleeping in our room (often on our bed), going on walks all of the time, having run of the house...etc.

Well, once Breckin came along, I have to admit some things changed for Dakotah. She wasn't allowed in as much when he was younger for fear that her howl and general talkativeness would cause him to wake from his naps. Also, she sheds like crazy, and the last thing I needed with a new infant was to have to vacuum the house every day. Some of her walks were given to Breckin instead. She had come to expect a certain amount of attention, and once he came along, it diminished quite a bit.

She's never been hostile toward Breckin, but shows her jealousy by trying to nuzzle up between Breckin and me when I'm playing with him on his play mat. Or anytime I'm cooing at him and talking to him in a babyish high-pitched voice, she automatically trots over and tries to rub up on me and again, get between the baby and me. She even tries to crawl her way into my lap and if I don't let her, she actually tries to use her paw to pull my hand toward her to let me know she would like to be pet. If I gently push her away, she starts talking back (I'm serious). Siberian Huskies are known for talking (you can YouTube it to see what I mean). So what she does is she howls at me in a low tone to let me know of her disapproval for the way she's being treated. And she will go on and on and on....and on. Then after that little fit, she generally goes and finds a spot to lay down...and let's out an loud, and completely obvious, sigh of disappointment. I mean, c'mon, does YOUR dog do that?

I absolutely love my dog...because she has this crazy personality as if she actually thinks she is a baby, almost human, and should be treated as such. We've slowly let her have run of the house again in the last couple months and she's back to sleeping in our room - on the floor. And once the weather warms up a bit, she'll be going on a lot more runs with me. She's my little princess - and definitely acts as such. So I guess in a way, I do have my girl.