I’ve never been the kind of person to refer to the dog as my furry baby, or buy her outfits, or attempt to carry her around in a fluffy pink crystal embellished dog handbag.  Still, I love my dog and I think she’s a bit fond of me, in a “oh, there’s that person who walks me and puts food in my bowl” way.

So when I got pregnant, I wasn’t too worried that the dog would feel like she was replaced and get upset or jealous of the baby. And she wasn’t, as long as she kept getting food and walks.  Well, there were a few instances when I was especially sleep deprived with a newborn and the dog was hungry and my brain couldn’t work out what she wanted. Dog barks. I look at her dimly.  Dog stands by her empty food bowl and whines. The gears start to turn slowly in my mind. Dog tries to hack her way into the dog food bin. Oh! Food. Yes. That only took about five minutes to work out.

And so things went smoothly, until the baby started crawling. Do you know what the most fascinating thing in the whole world to a crawling baby is? Dog or cat food bowls. No toy can compete. Mom and dad are dull in comparison. There’s water to splash, either squishy wet food or interesting kibble (yum), dog cooties and dog drool, and the dog or cat will appear and query what baby is up to, plus mom will scream and remove baby which is the best way to make a baby want to do it again.

The dog (or cat) is also a bewitching creature. I have a theory that babies with a pet in the home start crawling earlier than those who don’t, because they want to be like the dog.

And they feel good too. Tail to pull, fur to grab, ears to poke fingers in, whiskers to yank. Sharp claws and teeth do not mix well with delicate baby skin so babies must always always always be supervised around animals and that includes the gentle creature that you’ve had since she was a puppy/kitten and who has never hurt a fly. Any animal can snap or scratch if baby is hurting or annoying them.

I’m currently trying to teach Daycare Baby to be gentle with our dog. The routine goes like this. Daycare Baby crawls up to dog, attempts to whack dog in the face. I grab her and hold her hand and stroke the dog gently. “Gentle, gentle” I say. So far, this has not worked.

It took my toddler son a while to understand the concept of “gentle” so I know that I have to persevere and try to protect the dog as best I can until she does get it.

Did I say that my toddler son understood the concept of “gentle”? Yes, I did, and he does understand. But one caveat: he understands but he’s quite capable of pretending he doesn’t. He’s also much faster than me and has pulled the dog’s ears several times. Toddlers are rarely being mean when they hurt animals, there’s no malice when they pull tails, they are interested in the reaction it gets, and it’s often a good one from the animal and the parent.

So my policy with toddler and the dog is keeping calm, removing him from the dog and quietly but firmly telling him that he’s hurting the dog when he does that, and he must not pull her ears or throw things at her or poke her.

That one is taking some time to work too, but he’s getting better. And the spontaneous moment of kindness to the dog – stroking gently, wanting to help feed her – make me hopeful that he’ll grow up and be nice to animals.

This week, the New York Times says that dirt and worms are actually good for your baby.

Babies love putting horrible stuff in their mouths. Rediscovered ancient cheerios dropped weeks ago, fluff from under the bed, and grot they find in the grass at the park. I know a couple of babies who love to eat sand, and the contents of the dog’s bowl is irresistible to just about every crawler.

Scientists and moms alike have wondered why on earth babies do this. It’s hazardous, for one – small objects can choke a baby. And things from the ground are covered in germs and dirt and dog drool and other unpleasant substances that make babies sick.

Or do they?

Being worried about small objects choking a baby is a very real and valid concern, us moms have to always be vigilant about what baby is putting in her mouth.

But dirt, dogfood and Jurassic crackers? That could be a different story. A growing number of doctors are advocating letting your child play in the dirt, and taste it too.

A newborn baby’s immune system mostly doesn’t know how to deal with germs in the real world. It has to learn what to do with bacteria and viruses that the baby may encounter. When a baby sucks something she finds on the floor, she’s ingesting a small amount of bacteria and viruses and her infant immune system gets to practice responding to the bacteria or virus. It’s critical that this happens, so when baby is exposed to a large amount of that bacteria/virus, her immune system knows what to do and she won’t get sick, or won’t get as sick.

Some scientists theorize that today’s clean environment is responsible for kids with perma-stuffy noses, allergies and eczema, and serious immune system disorders like multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease, which are all on the rise. Babies just aren’t exposed to as many germs as they need to train their immune systems.

It’s well known that children who live on farms and are exposed to all kinds of germs get sick less often than children who live in nice clean houses in the suburbs. And I’m sure you know a parent who has a spic-and-span home but a baby who is always missing playdates because he is sick.

You probably have heard that theory already, and maybe you quoted it to yourself when you decided to watch Gossip Girl instead of wash the kitchen floor. And you probably did the right thing.

And now scientists from the University of Iowa have upped the ick factor. Not only do they encourage babies tasting muck from the sandbox, they theorize that intestinal worms are responsible for training infant immune systems. It’s becoming much less common for someone to have worms in America these days, and the researchers lament the demise of the worms. Apparently, worms play a very important role in learning immune response, and the scientists have successfully treated and improved symptoms of patients with the immune disease multiple sclerosis by infecting them with intestinal worms.

When you say “worms”, most people think of tape worms, the kind that give you an itchy bum. And while some types of worms cause serious complications, there are also many other species of worms that live in human gastrointestinal tracts, such as the whipworm used in the MS study, which don’t cause symptoms in low numbers, and are basically harmless in healthy well-nourished people.

It ties in with the theory about the kids raised on farms who don’t get sick so much. They are much more likely to have contracted worms from the farm animals.

I can’t get my head around letting my kid get worms. I love that someone has thought up this theory and it’s even more wild that it seems to improve patients with MS and Crohn’s disease. But I still don’t think I could willfully expose my son to worms. I think I’ll wait for more evidence.

But dirt? I am in agreement that a little dirt isn’t bad for you. In my house everyone washes their hands before meals, before and after preparing food, and after diaper changes, but otherwise my household is generally clean but in no way sterile. So when I see my son picking between his toes then eating the gerber puffs that have been under the couch for a month, I don’t care.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get a little annoyed when people try to compare caring for their dogs or cats to what I go through caring for my kids. I particularly dislike when folks refer to their pets as kids and they aren’t kidding. It’s one thing to say jokingly, “Fido is my baby,” but to say “I would go away this weekend if it wasn’t for the kids” when “the kids” are a couple of cats…it boggles my mind.

The other day I was at a pet store to buy some cat food and I noticed one of the most bizarre things I had ever seen. I spotted a woman walking along the aisles with her small dog in her arms. She was talking to the dog like a baby – no big deal, I see people do that all the time – but then when I got closer I noticed the dog had a diaper on. I thought that was odd, but figured the dog had a medical problem.

As I passed by her cart I saw something else: She had a baby seat, but no baby. I couldn’t help but follow her around a little to see what would happen next, and sure enough when it came time for her to leave she loaded the dog into the baby seat and left for her car.

I was amazed. She was treating this dog exactly like a baby. I’d read about anthropomorphism in school, but this was strange indeed.

If she had psychological issues then I feel really bad for her. If she lost a baby and needed something to nurture then I can see this sort of thing developing. If, on the other hand, she just thought this was a grand time to dress a dog up like a baby and tote the poor thing around in a baby seat then I’m mystified.

I have a cat, and I love my cat, but it’s just a cat. Besides, if I tried to put a diaper on it I would probably wind up with claw marks across my face.

Maybe someone can explain this one to me.

Pesticides in fruits and vegetables? Growth hormones in milk? BPA in water bottles? These are just some of the health issues that we are worried about and try to avoid. But what we probably don’t know is that our pets can be carriers of toxins, too.

This is based on the study of a Washington-based Environmental Working Group who checked the blood and urine samples of 37 cats and 20 dogs at the Hanover Animal Hospital in Mechanicsville, Virginia. The samples were tested for 70 industrial chemicals and pollutants.

The analysis showed that these animals tested positive to 48 of the 70 chemicals tested. Some of the animals had high levels of chemicals used in making furniture, electronics and fabric. It is possible that these chemicals accumulate in our pets when they chew plastic toys or fabrics or lay on the ground where these chemicals are present.

The animals also tested positive to high levels of mercury, most likely coming from fish used in pet food products. These results may sound scary, but we are not yet sure what they really mean. Now the next question is…. how will these affect our pets? Or more important… how will these affect us and our families?

German researchers claim that having a dog in your home during your child?s infancy, reduces your child?s risk of developing allergies. Their findings were based upon a 6 year study of 9,000 children and were published in the European Respiratory Journal recently. The findings show that having a dog in the home is associated with a significantly lower level of sensitization to pollens and inhaled allergens.

Scientists admit that they aren?t totally sure how the presence of a dog would reduce the risk of allergies, but theorize that perhaps the results give credence to a theory that growing up with a pet trains the immune system to be less sensitive to potential triggers for allergies like asthma, eczema and hay fever. Scientist believe that perhaps youngsters may get beneficial early exposure from the germs carried into the house on the animal?s fur, which helps their immune system develop.

When I came across this study recently, my husband and I joked that our dog isn?t quite up to snuff as our son has developed both allergies and asthma. Then again, we?re in the middle of home renovations which our doctor pointed out can stir up dust and mold which could cause the allergies and asthma.

So, do the negative effects of home renovation outweigh the positive effects of having a dog? Sounds like someone should research that!

We have a 3 and a half-year-old black Lab/Border Collie mix named Cosmo. He has been a part of our family since a few months after my husband and I got married. We used to joke that he was our first “baby” and, at times, it’s like I really do have three kids instead of two when you throw him into the mix.

We decided to get a Lab because of their reputation of being so good with kids. We ended up getting a Lab mix rather than a purebred because we found Cosmo through a Lab rescue shelter and he needed a home.

When we brought my son home about 7 months later there was never a jealousy problem. Cosmo accepted him and was very protective and watchful of his new brother. My son loved him of course – licks, wet noses, fur, and all.

Now the two little ones both love Cosmo and he loves them just the same. He has behaved just as Labs are said to behave around kids. And, most importantly, he is patient – despite his fur and ears being grabbed by little hands, despite being pulled-up on by beginning walkers, and despite being woken up by curious, poking fingers.

I have seen such joy in my children’s faces from our dog that I can’t imagine our life without him. There is something unspoken between dogs and kids – they just get each other. My kids light up when they see Cosmo. He thinks he is their protector and “big brother” and, really, he is. We definitely couldn’t have asked for a better tempered dog.

I really hope my kids will remember the joys of dogs when the time comes for them to decide whether they want a puppy as an adult. My husband and I always had dogs while growing up and we wanted the same for our children. We realize that there are great lessons to be learned from our furry, four-legged friends. We learn about loyalty, unconditional love, and that there’s nothing more fun in life than going to the park.

Every household accumulates old, raggedy towels that typically end up in the trash bin. Why not donate those old, useless towels to your local animal shelter? They have all sorts of uses for them from bathing towels to cage linings that act as bedding for the homeless animals.

The ASPCA’s Web site makes it easy to find local animal shelters close to home. Most of these shelters have a wish list that they encourage kind hearted people to donate from, and towels are usually on the list. If they aren’t, you will find all sorts of things they do require, and most of these items can be found around your home.

So help your community’s animal shelter today by donating items you would otherwise throw away, and you are also making the GREEN choice by recycling and reducing your impact on the environment.