Strollerderby

I'm pretty sure she has a kid.

I agree that equating dogs (or any pets) with a child is terribly annoying. My pet peeve, too!

Hax has three young sons.

I think that in some ways our hound prepared us for certain aspects of child-rearing.  Most notably, our dog had given us this little lesson: 'An Intro to the Cleaning and Disposal of Unpleasant Waste Materials Issuing From Various Orifices'.  

But yeah, the two experiences aren't generally comparable.

MsC - Just what I was going to say!  After the Month of Stairway-Carpet Diarrhea, I fear no diaper.

And I guess pet-proofing might prepare you in some ways for baby-proofing, though I'm more worried about a baby choking on floor debris, and less worried about my purse being eaten.  Again.

Other than that, not really seeing the similarities.

I said this once (pre-pregnancy) about my parents' dogs.  In my defense, I was dogsitting and getting up six times a night to let them out or give them medication.  Yes, everybody made fun of me.

Let it be known that from the time she was born, my daughter NEVER got up as much as those f*cking dogs did.

When my twins were about 4 months old, I met a woman with an adorable puppy. I stopped the stroller to admire the dog, and we started talking. As I was gushing, "awwww... I want one!" She looked at me very seriously and told me that puppies are a LOT of work. I laughed and said, "believe it or not, these babies are too!"

There's a sign at my local (San Francisco) SPCA that says: "Puppy Equals One-Year-Old Child." Ha ha ha ha...ha. I appreciate that they are trying to impress upon pet-adopters the responsibilities of ownership, but hell, I've had puppies and I've had kids, and there is NO comparison.

I think lots of stuff about training a dog translates to raising a kid, first and foremost the need for simple, consistent, loving responses. I actually think the two experiences are remarkably similar in many ways, although of course having a kid is much more... everything.  

I have two dogs and used to compare them to babies all the time because they were a total handful when we got them. And then I had a baby and felt like a big jackass :-(

They are still a handful, but I've never had to breastfeed them every hour. Big difference.

Yes kids are a much bigger responsibility than owning a dog. However, I do believe that owning a dog did prepare me for having a child in several ways. As other commenters have said, cleaning up a dog's various messes takes away all fears of diaper duty. But also, trying to train and love a dog that was previously abused gave me more patience than I had ever previously had. I also learned not to sweat the small stuff or freak out over little messes and I think that has made me a better mother.

I also agree that it's not the equivalent, but it's a START.  When we had a puppy, I was up every few hours to let it out, couldn't be away from home for more then three hours or we had to find someone to watch him, couldn't leave him alone for even a minute, got used to poop/pee and messes, etc...all of which were not as big of a deal when we had kids because we'd been through it before.  Those nighttime wakings from the puppy really awakened my mom sense - I became the LIGHTEST sleeper now and will wake up in a split second if I sense anyone isn't where they are supposed to be.