Living Pretty with Your Pets: Oh Everything Handmade

As promised last week I’m returning with the “Living Pretty with Your Pets” series again. And I’m thrilled to introduce you to the talented Bettina today who was also raised in Germany but unlike me she was born in Romania. You can talk German to her though if you want 😉 Oddly enough our emails are in English though. I think that should change!

 

Living Pretty with Your Pets

Hi there, cuckoo readers. My name is Bettina, I am the blogger, crafter, and designer behind Oh Everything Handmade. I am also a mom of two cute little kiddos, a boy (Bailey) 18months and a girl (Jasmine) 3years old. But today, I am very excited to share a little about the doggy of OEH.

 

Her name is Ginger, and she has been with us since 2009 when she was only 7 weeks old. This little girl is a Miniature Pinscher, which loves to lay in the sun, preferably by a window – but if you ask me, I think it’s all about keeping the eyes out on strangers.

She loves to race through the house just for fun, to make the kids giggle and scream. Ginger can also be very talkative, especially when she wants something like a treat or a doggy bone. My oldest, Jasmine is all about helping “Ginger Sister“, as she calls her. She feeds her, gives her treats, walks her and even gives her baths. Of course only under mommies supervision!

I’ve also received a lot of questions about how I introduced Ginger to the kids after they were born.

Since we had Ginger before both of our Kids, we took into consideration that she might react jealous. Which in fact, was the case when I had my first born. So, here is my little story about how I introduced a baby to a dog.

When I brought baby Jasmine home, 2 days old at that time. Ginger was already awaiting me anxiously (friends had watched her for me, since the hubs was on deployment). And as soon as I walked in she started jumping and barking which she never did so intensely before.

My first reaction was to keep Jasmine away from Ginger as much as I could, because I didn’t want Jasmine to get hurt. But Ginger was constantly barking when I had both in the same room, or even just when she heard Jasmine cry, Ginger went off like an alarm. At the end of the first day with both Baby and dog under one roof, I called my friend for help while crying my eyes out.

My friend was a dog trainer, so I naturally hoped she would have a few tips on what to do about the whole dilemma that I was in. After, I had told her all about my heartbreaking day, she promised to stop by first thing in the morning and help me fix the issue.

The next day, was life changing! My friend had stopped by to help me introduce Jasmine to Ginger. First, we made sure to pick a quiet room, then we sat down on the floor, I was holding Jasmine in my arms and my friend was holding Ginger. Since Ginger is a very small dog we didn’t leash her, but for bigger dogs it would be highly recommended to do so (just in case). We also had some treats ready for Ginger, to praise her warmly for gentle investigation.

Avoid nervous or agitated behavior. Talk to your dog in a calm, happy voice as you invite her to approach. Convince her that meeting and interacting with her new friend is fun, not stressful.

This totally worked, and after Ginger got to sniff on Jasmine, her body language immediately changed and she seemed much more relaxed.

The second time around was much easier, since Ginger has been already used to a baby/toddler! I couldn’t think of a better dog for our family, she is gentle, playful and knows her way around with kids.

Thank you Julia, for inviting me over! This was so much fun to write, and it brought up so many beautiful memories. I am excited to read about other animal lovers!

To read more animal posts you can click HERE.

 

 

Ginger is adorable. I’m so glad that Bettina was able to figure out a way to introduce her baby to her dog and that it all worked out in the end.

You have to make sure to check out Bettina’s gorgeous house and all her projects and DIYs (please pin from her site):

Such gorgeous spaces! I wasn’t kidding 😉

Have a wonderful weekend and talk to you on Monday.

Tschüß