HV visit and dogs?..

BellaRiven

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So I have just had a letter through to say the Health Visitor wants to visit on the 12th March and I will be 30 weeks by then hence posting here.

I'm worried because I have 2 dogs that can get a little hyperactive when anyone comes to the door, they are not vicious they just like to say hello! and they do it quite vocally, they calm down after about 10 minutes and will just go and curl up.

I don't want the Health Visitor to be to alarmed by them because after 10 minutes they will slink off and lay down calm as anything.

I have heard some bad things about health visitors and dogs and I don't want her to think badly of them or me, I am by no means stupid enough to leave them alone with babe at any point, they are a part of my family and should be aorund, I have had one for 12 years and one for 5 years.

Not sure if I shouldn't get my mum to come take them for the day, what do you guys think?

I am more than happy to put them in another room before I open the front door and check if she is ok with dogs first before I let them out, it's what I normally do with new people first anyway and i'll obviously walk them in the morning to tire them out a bit. Do you think that will be acceptable??

This is the only thing that has me really worried in a month where I have 4 other appointments that should be more nerve wracking....
 
If it's something that's going to play on your mind get your mum to look after them for the day. If you are nervous when the HV turns up your dogs will pick up on it and might take longer to calm down. Make the arrangements now so it's off your mind xxxxxxxx
 
Some health visitors are dead snooty and disapprove of dogs. I'd say that it's just tough. Dogs aren't detrimental at all to baby, so it's just something she's going to have to lump. xxx
 
I have the same thing to think about. I have two digs that get very hyper when someone knocks at the door. And considering ones a Rottweiler people tend to get nervous but he's a big old softy! I haven't had any info about health visitors coming up but when they do I'll have to make sure it's a day when OH ain't at work so he can take em out or something
 
I'd say just let her meet them as normal. Maybe if they take as long as 10mins, your mum could be there, do a quick intro then take the dogs out.

My folks dog was here when we brought LO home, and saw mw for first appoints, by second time she was in he was used to her, she asked did he not get jealous, but we explained this was his 3rd "grandchild" and he was more protective she was fine. Xxx
 
I have 2 VERY friendly staffies, we have a lounge/diner and have put a baby gate up inbetween. When we have visitors the dogs get locked in the dining end. They are very vocal (howling) when someone firsts comes in
no health visitor ever had a problem but if they did they would be shown the door. They are my dogs & this is their home
 
My dogs don't come into our living space, they have a big kitchen to live in so wasn't a problem for me. Some people don't like dogs so I'd put and leave them in another room x
 
I am very lucky my HV is a horse and dog fan!!

My dogs (8 of them :lol:) don't go past my kitchen (we have a stable door forom the kitchen to the lounge) and during the day they are mostly outside.

When the HV first visited I had 3 of them in the kitchen and she asked to go in and meet them whilst I made the tea!!

I would say pop them in another room or behind a baby gate.
 
U never had the hv before but I locked her in another room or my oh held her why they were here. She's only a jack Russell so easy to pick up!
 
No we haven't had a HV before, it's her first visit.

Unfortunately we only have a small place so I think it will be the hallway with the door closed and I will ask her if she is ok with dogs, thing is they sound bigger than they are, one is a beagle and ones a JR terrier/alsatian (size of a JR terrier).

I guess we will see what she says, to my mind after I finished panicking about it, is that I am not silly enough to leave the dogss on their own with babe, and by the time he is born he will be used to the barking anyway :)

Thanks for the advice ladies as usual your all amazing :)
 
o be honest my dog is part of the family so I'm not bothered what the HV says. I have got a stairgate to put up at the kitchen diner door so he can go out there. To be frank if it wasn't for his excitable bladder when he meets someone then I probably would have introduced them if she was ok with dogs.
 
We have 3 large breed dogs that are 2, we have had them all since a puppy.
We had a fair few problems with HV concerns with our dogs to the point of social services coming to see us. After rubbing their tummies and giving them several biscuits we never saw SS again.

How-ever, our health visitor who is at the children's centre we use, is again starting to be an ass.

So long as you dont exclude your dogs from interacting with your child and dont neglect them they are brilliant with children and become part of the pack. Ours even scare delivery people into shouting from the main road rather than ringing the doorbell but thats what good dogs do, they look after you and their house. We never shout at them barking at people coming to the house.

We do how-ever have them crate trained so if we need them to be kept confined for a short time we just say the magic word and everyone walks into it. Once they smell people and say hello everyone calms down and just wants to play. If you are confident with your animals and treat them well there will be no problems so just reassure the HV that everything is fine and like I said, just dont single them out from interacting with your child. As soon as we brought our new born home, we put him on the floor in the car seat and they all came over sniffing. One even gave him a toy which means I like you :)
 
Also when baby is here you will have the midwife visiting all week and the health visitor for a few weeks after so no doubt she will meet the dog at some point. They might have more of a problem if they think you have reason to hide the dog away from them. Mine didnt bat an eyelid and our dog at the time went mental when someone chapped the door.
 
This thread is nearly 2 years old!!! Where did you drag it up from??
 
I just noticed that lol I googled dogs and HV as ours is being a pain again :)
 
I would put them in another room first and ask if she's ok with dogs... Getting skneibdcrksex to take them may look to the HV who seem suspicious anyway) as being like you're hiding something.

Dogs are part if a family and its good to have them around children do they grow up with a healthy attitude to animals - it shows them responsibility too and they're less likely to be scared of animals if they're around them. We plan to get a div when baby is older when were able to afford them more.

We have 2 house cats and 2 outdoor rabbits and they're all very tame but won't be left skins with baby obviously

Also the person who had a Rottweiler... I know someone who trains them and says they have the best temperament but bad rep because of some bad owners, he has 7 of them and 3 kids under 6 and they're great dogs :)

Their oldest likes to sleep in the couch with three dogs lol adorable
 
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My health visitor came round for the first time this morning, my dog is very vocal so I warned hv first but then just let her in and let dog sniff her. My dog is very nosy and has to inspect everything and everyone that comes in our home lol. She was even sniffing inside the hv bag which she found funny, if she had felt uncomfortable out of courtesy I'd have move Lucy (my dog) into a different room, but hv said she had 2 dogs at home and really didn't mind. Lucy ended up fetching all her toys one by one to hv and then trumping in protest when nobody played with her ha!

I really wouldn't worry, having a dog isn't a crime! Xxx
 
Hello don't worry I have 2 dogs the Westie is fine but the pom is really dubious of strangers coming in the House. He is normally ok with females but he wouldn't stop barking when the MW came round last week luckily my Oh was there so he brought him upstairs with him. The next day when she came round he wouldn't stop barking she said she was ok as she had dogs I put him upstairs in the bedroom and after a while he stopped barking.
 
I will be placing our dog in the kitchen for the visit - we have a baby gate up there anyway because of his accidents when we're out. He's quite vocal if he hears someone come to the door so I used to shut him in the kitchen and check with the visitor that they were ok with dogs as he's harmless. Once he'd done sniffing then I'd get him to lie down in his basket . No unfortunately the poor lad is old & is either hard of hearing or has selective hearing & won't settle in his basket when we have a visitor so he would continuously badgering the HV! I shall put him in the kitchen when she visits and leave him there being vocal & just explain why.

As long as your house is clean & tidy (i.e. doesn't smell of dog pee or covered in dog faeces), they will have no reason to be concerned xx
 
Just another perspective, but I'm an NHS professional who does home visits and our home visit risk assessment states that we should ask dogs etc to be in a different room while we visit. I work in mental health and the reasoning is that due to the work we do people can become upset and/or angry and in a dog could blame the visiting professional.
 

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