How areShelties around newborns generally?

[AtlantisLuna]

Hi! I'm new here. I am picking up our new tri colored sheltie in 2 days and I am so excited to meet her. She is 13 weeks old. I do have one concern....I am 5 months pregnant & nervous about how she will take to our newborn when he arrives. We have two other children, 8 & 6 that i'm sure she'll love.
So, can any of you experienced sheltie owners tell me what you have observed, noticed, or anything else about Shelties & newborns please? I honestly appreciate all your respones in advance. :) Oh, any advice is welcome as well.
Thank You!

[MisfitBrian]

Max has always been outstanding around babies. He's very gentle without jumping & barking. Here he is with my cousin's daughter.

[dmeyer123]

A picture is worth a thousand words....right?

[Diana]

I have a similar picture of my sheltie Buffy with my 3-month-old niece. When we visited they fell asleep next to each other. It was so cute. She was very gentle with the baby and just sniffed her and watched as people held her.

However, since your sheltie is a puppy you may need to exercise a bit of extra caution. You may want to consider taking a puppy class or consulting a trainer. The more training you get done now, the easier it will be when the baby comes.

I think it is possible that the puppy could accidentally hurt the baby or vice versa. Not very likely because shelties are great, but possible since puppies go through a nippy stage and some are more hyper than others. And babies don't always have much control or awareness of their movements. It's always a good idea to supervise even if you have the most well-trained dog in the world.

This is true of your other children as well as your other baby. I always supervise Buffy around my little cousins; kids just don't always understand that you need to be gentle with puppies. (Buffy was just 3–4 pounds when we brought her home.) Kids also move in unexpected ways that activate a sheltie's herding instinct.

On another note, I am also also interested in any additional tips people might have about shelties and babies.

[ute_fan]

My daughter and I both got Shelties last year (they're sisters), and now my daughter is expecting and due the end of May. I had a similar thread about expecting a new baby, and one of the hints that I'm definitely going to use is to bring something with the baby's scent home from the hospital, so the dogs can get used to it.

I'm also very interested in this topic, so any hints are appreciated!

[AtlantisLuna]

Thank you all sooo much!! After hearing & seeing these postive things about shelties I feel much better. :) I had it in my mind that she would be ok around the baby, but mothers love has you doubling checking, triple checking things that you are unsure of. By all means lets keep this thread going and filled with tons of info, pics, tips, & stories for all the future mothers and their curious family members. I'm sure the shelties everywhere will appreciate warm voices too.