Pets vs. Kids

Alright, I might take some heat from this one, but I hope you'll hear me out.
 
How did becoming a parent change your relationship with your pets?
 
This dog. She's actually an amazing dog. You wouldn't know it because all I do is b*tch about her. But when she's on a first name basis with the local PD because she jumps fences and we have yet to find a consistent method of corraling- well- she can frustrate a saint. I think. I don't know that for sure, and no one's ever accused Jen Lange of being a saint.
 
I digress.
 
My first dog was this amazing, sweet, little, obedient, protective- but- didn't- know- a- stranger stray. I realized that all those years ago I saved her from life on the street but she really saved me. We lost her the year before we had Gemma.
 
Enter Gigi when Gemma was four months old. I picked her up after my husband told me to "look" at dogs at the dog shelter. Rookie move, Lange. She just looked at me with her one blue, one brown eye and I was hooked. I knew a big black dog like her didn't have as good a chance and her neighboring pomeranian, so Lange became her last name.
 
But she jumps. And has a ridiculous whine. No matter how often we trim her nails she clicks through the house. She throws hissy fits if she's not allowed on the bed. Becomes downright destructive is she's locked out of the bedroom.
 
She's just not as easy as Maddie-dog.
 
So while I love her, I just don't like her as much. So much of my attention has to go to kids that she gets neglected, acts out, pisses me off, gets neglected more because I'm mad, does something sweet or excessively tolerant of the kids, but the cycle inevitably repeats itself (especially when she goes "exploring" and I have to drag sleeping kids out of the house to go looking for her).
 
Does anyone else struggle with balancing pets and kiddos? Please tell me I'm not the only one that changed once I had kids.
 
P.S. I have a freaking animal science major- so loving animals is something I'd think is semi-ingrained, but heavens this dog pushes my buttons.  Is it just the dog or do people who once loved their animals shift once they have children?