Hi Annie,
Thanks for your comment. It sounds like you have established a good trusty relationship with Joey and she accepted the new addition (baby) to the family very nicely. I don't understand the people who get rid of their dogs because they got a baby. You should be able to manage the change in your family if you have handled the dog properly and if you introduce the new addition in a proper manner. It is also true with adding another dog to your family.
Anyway, I am so pleased to hear that you and your family are enjoying Joey as a part of your family.
I have read your posting about scolding your toddler in front of your dog. I don't see any problem doing that, just from my own experience of raising dogs and children at the same time. My kids were 14, 8 and 6 years old when we got Max and Roxy (they are both gone now). Since we had and still have our dogs anywhere they want to be inside, they often happened to be at the scene where our kids were being scolded by us. Our dogs reaction is either feeling bad/afraid since they thought they did something wrong that made us angry, or feeling sympathetic to the kid being scolded. In fact, our kids and our dogs were good buddies so our dogs always tried to comfort our kids when they were down by licking their tears, etc. It never raised the dogs position in the family. We never placed them at the bottom of the family to start with. They knew they were different from the human family members. They are smarter than we think. They know who feed them and take them to walk and play with them. Don't worry about scolding your toddler in front of Joey. This is my 2 cents for the day.
Cheers!
