However, Deborah felt that since the baby was nursing it was preferrable for the baby to sleep with mom alone for the first few nights. To prepare for this change in the family s routine, dad slept with Jack in the guest room for a week before the baby was due to facilitate mom and new baby working out their feeding schedule once Rebecca came home. Such heads-up, thoughtful sensitivity to their Scottie s potential sense of displacement goes a long way toward explaining the Balcom s success in nurturing their family. 4. Positivity . There is such a thing as self-fulfilling prophecy, and I believe our dogs mirror in important ways the spirit of the environment in which they live.
Neurotic people foster neurotic dogs.
Aggressive people, aggressive dogs. Happy people, happy dogs. But it s manifestly simplistic to blame the dog if family life is less than ideal. The point is not that wearing a sempering grin all day will guarantee relational success. The point is that a family, including Scotties, is a complex, reflexive system all the parts of which contribute to both problems and solutions.