Would you let your small dog curl up beside your newborn on a playmat?

[Amidoingitcorrectly]

I love dogs, had them as a child and hope to have one again one day when we have appropriate space for one. But for ages I've hated photos on social media of small children posing with (usually big) dogs, often the dogs don't look particularly happy or relaxed, and people seem to think it's cute.

Was shocked today to see an influencer's (who I generally really like) very tiny premature baby, not long home from hospital, with a chihuahua curled up beside it on the floor - the dog is tiny but still about the same size as the baby or a big bigger. And definitely stronger. It seems really risky and I can't get my head round it, the nicest softest dog can have an off day, or a moment where they snap by mistake?

AIBU and daft though? Is this something seen as ok and not risky if the dog is very little?

She has a reddit page of 15k people dedicated to bullying her and trying to get the baby removes by reporting her to cps. Her comments are full of faux concern for the baby, being cold, having imaginary bruises, she showed off the chest of the baby, she dresses the baby wrong, she feeds it wrong, her apartment is wrong, did I mention that the baby must be cold? Its blatant and constant. They all think it’s justified for xyz reasons. Its just disgusting.

Risk of what? Licked to death? Our ddogs have been raised with respectful knowledgeable dc...
As every ddog should be.

I follow and so saw the pictures. My immediate reaction was feeling quite shocked that anyone would think this was a good idea for a tiny baby just home from hospital and that parents were bring naive. There was also a fair amount of space around the area they were laid down on so not like an arm was literally just to one side ready to jump in. Hopefully it was as staged as possible in the circumstances. My dog is loud but small and pretty harmless. I don't leave him near any babies unattended for a second. Not at all worth the risk of something happening

Everything's fine until it's not fine.

YADNBU. Hideously foolish to put any dog near a baby...

No, I adore my dog. My DN is coming over with DGN, she's far more relaxed than me! She's like, oh your dog will be fine.

Me, no way in gods name is my dog being near a small baby.

I totally trust her, she's wonderful.

But I don't, because she's a dog!

Absolutely not. We have the most wonderful, adored, softest dog ever but she's never alone with the kids.

My sister was bitten totally out of the blue by our lovely friendly family dog when we were little - she ran into the house and past the dog as we'd all done many times and the dog just swiped at her. Must have got startled. The bite caught her face due to her height. You'd absolutely never have thought it from the dog, who was 8 or 9 at the time. Totally out of character. So I've always figured if Sally could do it, any dog can.

YANBU
A colleague showed me a pic of his 6 month old recently with her head resting on their springer spaniel. Dog looked uncomfortable. It's so unfair on the dog when it gets given up because it's snapped.

So as long as the premature baby is respectful and knowledgeable it'll be fine?

There was also a fair amount of space around the area they were laid down on so not like an arm was literally just to one side ready to jump in.

The dad is sitting on the floor next to her, giving her a bottle. I still don't think it's a good idea — I don't think you'd be able to react quickly enough if anything did wrong. But there is somebody closer than the person behind the camera.

If we're talking about the same photo the dad is literally right there bending over the baby and the dog is asleep? It's about as low risk as it can get TBH. The dog would have to wake, get pissed off, and decide to do something quicker than the dad could move his arm 3cm.

It's true you can't always predict your dogs actions but you can certainly predict their speed, strength and reflexes.

I've had babies and dogs together- would I encourage the dog to sleep on babies playmat? Never!
Would I put the baby in the dogs bed for a nap? Never!
I think it's stupid, unhygienic and does not teach the dog boundaries. (Same as toddlers/ children don't sit in the dogs bed ...)

Sleep startle is a very real thing, the most trained, “gentle” dog could severely damage a tiny baby like this. If you think a cute photo is worth the risk of permanently damaging your child or worse then you’re a fucking moron.

I don't like it. Why risk it?

No, because it’s a dog not a rational human.

YANBU. An animal is an animal.

But just wait for the "oh my furbaby would never hurt a fly, they are so soppy and one of the family" brigade to pitch up shortly.

I have a little dog, no way would I lay him with a newborn.

I think there may be different photos on different social media? I looked at the one I saw again and had missed Dad's hands maybe holding a toy right on the edge of the picture. And there are some knees as well. So yes lower risk than I realised but still not worth it surely. Hard to tell if the dog is asleep or not but if they positioned baby by a sleeping dog that feels quite risky

She does a lot to rise / bait the trolls . She knows what she is doing

It's the germs aspect that would bother me. So no, I wouldn't do it. In general, people do seem to do some pretty stupid things re babies and dogs.

No, I love our dog but I'd never trust him with a baby. Trouble is dogs are given equal or even higher status than children these days. I live next to a country park that has become an absolute shit hole and reeks of dog pee. Dogs run around off leash so that toddlers are not free to play there.
Dogs being called "fur babies" is ridiculous.

Dog lover here but I'm sorry anyone who puts a baby next to a dog is a idiot.

Some people are just idiots. Why put your baby at risk for a photo?

This 👆

Definitely not deliberately or "staged" and not if the dig looks uncomfortable.

That said, sometimes these things happen naturally.....

I was once changing DS on a mat on the floor and he was crying. The changing bag was just out of my reach so I kind of moved away on my hands and knees/crawled a bit closer to grab it and as I kneeled back in front of DS our dog had laid down beside him and cuddled her back into him as if to calm him.

I'll admit I quickly grabbed my phone and took a snap because it was too cute but then I moved her away.