To rehome my dogs?

[toughdecision]

I've NCed for this and apologies in advance for the rambling nature of this post. Am trying not to dripfeed.
DD is 8 months old. My dogs are 9 years old and I've owned them since they were 8 weeks old, they are 5 months apart in age.
One of my dogs has growled and challenged my DD on a number of occasions, she's never bitten anyone before (she has mouthed me when she was a lot younger, when I was grooming her as she hates it. I don't groom her now at all, I send her to the groomers every 2 months for a short clip to keep her coat in check). I'm worried she might bite my DD although she has shown affection towards her as well at times.
I have been removing my DD when the dog has growled/challenged and locked the dogs in their sleeping area. I spoke to a behaviourist at a shelter this week and she said I shouldn't remove my DD as this is sending the wrong message to the dog, that what she is doing is okay, she says I should leave DD where she is and correct the dog's behaviour by banging 2 saucepans above her head and this will show her I'm pack leader. I tried banging a biscuit tin when the other dog was barking incessantly and she did stop but my DD was sobbing because the noise was so loud.
I'm very nervous about not removing DD as I do feel it's putting her at risk.
I'm waiting for the shelter to get back to me as I'd want them to be rehomed together as they've never been apart from each other for longer than a few hours if they are at the groomers separately or at the vets.
At the moment, they don't have much of a life. They spend a lot of time in their sleeping area because of the growling and they never get walked anymore as I can't manage them and the pushchair on my own (I have to go down steps to get out of my house and they are very unruly on the lead) and my DH doesn't feel they need to be walked as they're quite sedate breeds and he thinks they're happy [sceptical]. They used to spend all their time being fussed and loved, now they're just being told to constantly move or get in their bed.
But when I look at them, I can't imagine them not being here or with us, they've been our babies for so long.
I've talked to friends and family in RL and I'm getting very mixed opinions, they all know how we feel about them.
DH doesn't really want to rehome but feels that it's making me very stressed out (which it is) and it would take away that anxiety for me.
I really don't know what to do. I feel guilty for keeping them as their quality of life has decreased as they never get walked anymore and they confined a lot of the time but then I also feel guilty if I rehome them that I've not tried hard enough.
I also can't rehome them separately or get rid of one because they are very attached to one another, when we do take them out if one of us crosses the road before the other and they're separated, they are desparate to get to one another. They are in excellent health for their ages and although they are unruly on the lead, they are small dogs and are very affectionate and friendly (apart from the growling dog with my DD).

Wildpoppy - no you don't have to go with the majority, but others' posts made relevant points which you clearly hadn't taken into account.
If you disagreed with those, then that's absolutely fine.

Or do you think that pets are disposable toys?

happypants, I'm not actually defending the OP here, but I do think that people are being a bit extreme. And I think it is perfectly possible that a peson could have a physical infirmity that means they can only cope with 'so much'. Perhaps the combination of dogs and baby is too much for the OP to cope with properly. Perhaps she should never have become a dog owner in the first place, or perhaps she could not have known that she would find herself unable to cope..I don't pretend to know! But I don't think it is impossible that she may now find herself in a position of not being able to both care for the dogs as they need, and care for her child. That is obviously a bad situation, and many people have pointed out practical ways she could try to address or minimise it. But in the end, it isn't really rational for people to say "well, I manage under much tougher circumstances so why can't she?" If she can't - or won't - then the dogs have to go, don't they?

squoosh she already has the dogs. We all get it - people think she's a bad dog owner. But that ship has already sailed.
Maybe she made a mistake in being a dog owner. (I'm actually not commenting on that at all.) But the virtual screeching about it is really kind of pointless.

Pets are not disposable, no. Neither are children. But when one finds oneself unable to care for either as they deserve, or when one is a threat to another child, then maybe it is appropriate to rehome.

unwilling =/= unable

The end result is the same.

which is why i said "can't or won't". I have no idea which it is. And only the OP knows which it is.

I don't see it as virtual screeching. People are just pretty disgusted that these dogs are being shipped off without any attempt at resolving the situation, if indeed there is a situation aside from her not having the inclination to be a dog owner anymore.

The amount of pets that get the heave ho once baby arrives is pretty staggering.

Rehoming is not something you can just do because you've decided to though. It's really not. There can't be all that many homes out there for dogs of that age, especially spoilt, yappy growly little dogs who've never even been trained to walk on the lead. I can't say I'd want them.

And it might improve their behaviour (and hence their chances of finding a home) if they had regular walks!

Agree with Kalisi. I wouldn't be surprised if the "danger to baby" thing is a load of old bollocks designed to assuage the last remnants of the OP's guilt in planning on getting rid. I suspect she thought she might come on here and get validation for her intention based on that "fact", and then she could dispose of her pets and tell herself she'd done nothing wrong as "loads" of other people supported her. Well, she must be rather selfish and thick then if that's what she thought would happen because thankfully, most people - despite the appalling stories which are all too familiar - do think carefully before getting a pet and do try everything they can to resolve problems.

I've had cats all my adult life - almost 30 years and they've all been rescue- and have had at least 2 and as many as 5 at one time for the last 17 years . It's quite clear that some people lie through their teeth when presenting their sob story to the shelter - anything to pass their unwanted animal on and make it someone else's problem. Am not saying that there aren't animals with behaviourial problems, of course there are, but in my experience animals which I was "warned" about based on their "history" have turned out to be quite different. One of my cats was taken to the shelter by a couple who'd had him for 3 years since a kitten when, allegedly, he'd "gone for" their new baby. I read through his resume and they claimed they didn't want to take the risk with an aggressive animal etc. Well ..... I visited him several times over a 3 week period, when he was accommodated with other cats (i.e. potentially stressful for many) and he showed no signs of aggression at all - and hasn't shown any for the last 3.5 years we've had him either - and that's despite sharing the house with 4 other cats until earlier this year (lost 2 to old age) and a young child who was very fond of grabbing him (obviously I don't condone that). I also took a brother and sister in at 6 months after the girl had apparently kept peeing all over the owner's bed. Sadly she was later run over but in the 5 years I had her she had one indoor accident all the time I had her. These animals were unrecognisible from the way they'd been described. Okay ..... maybe I have such a lovely cat friendly home that they instantly forgot all their troubles the moment they got here but I think it far more likely that in their cases the previous owners had lied to get shot.

I hope to god the OP has taken some of the advice here on board and if she has, and has the guts to come back and tell us she has, then I will be the first to congratulate her for facing up to her responsibilities. I don't hold out much hope though. Failing that, I really really hope she never gets another pet .... as I said before, pet ownership isn't compulsory, so don't bloody well embark on it unless you can give 110%.

There was another of these threads just last week.

OP has had 9 years to train these dogs.

She has had 9 months of knowing she was pregnant and knowing she had dogs who pull on the lead. She could have and should addressed these issues then.

She has then had 8 months of having both dogs and baby together. She still has not addressed this issue.

I would bet my last penny that the problem has been getting worse and worse with each passing week that they are not walked. She still has done nothing.

Now it's gotten too much for her to consider dealing with she is passing the problem she created onto an already over stretched rescue.

That is why I am being "extreme". It's nothing more than sheer laziness, imo. Not to mention utterly selfish and cruel.

I simply cannot understand why someone could not walk there dogs for so long and expect no problems to arise from this. Or how can they know about the leash issue for so long and not do anything at all to try and address the problem.

You can buy harnesses to stop pulling and head collars. There are many, many products on the market to help people who struggle with training their dog to walk properly on the lead. Has OP looked at any of these? Or has she simply done nothing? Perhaps she thought the dog training fairy would pop by one night?

If the OP has any physical problems that make it difficult to manage with the dogs and a baby she still hasn't explained why her husband isn't more helpful. However, she appears never to have trained the dogs properly ie walking on lead even before the baby came along.

If any of the "virtual screeching" comment was aimed at me I make no apology for it.

We get behavioural issues 5 minutes after LittleBastardDog decides it's now time for walkies. Months and months of not walking would have him climbing the walls. It's beyond cruel.

Mine haven't been out since last night they are lined up on the sofa staring forlornly out of the window into the park to remind me how cruel I am

I shudder to think what will happen tonight if they do not get out.

That said, the female would be quite happy to never get walked so long as she gets to chase the cat round the garden occassionally. Frequently she doesn't get walked because she refuses to go.

I do worry for her baby, if she really is that ill she can't walk a dog what is she going to do once DC is walking and perhaps on reins

Mine does that Dooin, sits on the back of the sofa with his best misery face on.

D0oin and midori, I have PMed you. I've been in contact with the OP via PM and she is after some expert support which I cannot give as I am off to the pub because I am not a rescue person but I know you two have some knowledge in this field.

Meerkat, have got your pm, but cannot get on my laptop to properly reply until the DC are in bed later, I'm not ignoring you though and will reply as soon as I can.

That's ok, have just got in and had a response from D0oin, my poor dog met her doppleganger at the pub, it confused her and she looked very worried until she was given pork scratchings shh don't tell anyone.

to op, you have my sympathy, have the dogs re-homed and ignore the judgmental bunch on hear.

to all those saying its unforgivable not to walk her dogs, thats why she wants to have them re-homed. youd all be down on her if she kept them dident look after them properly and was reported to the rspca. youd all be saying "why not have them re-homed if you cant look after them"

i had my 2 dogs re-homed when i had a baby, baby was 4 weeks early, baby myself and DH were stuck in hospital for 3 weeks. when i got home i could not walk and DH was working from 6 am tell 5 pm.
it was the right thing for us at the time, and that is all you can do.
i miss them still but it was that or be fined by the rspca.

Pft.

RSPA will do fuck all about a dog that's not being walked, sothats a totally irelvant point.

And the people on here making judgements according to their skill sets, patisnce and kindness do a lot more good, than the people judging them for having an opinion.