to want to get a puppy while on mat leave

[HuntingforBunting]

Just that really..

Would love a black lab, want to be around lots when a puppy. I have ds 1 who's 3 so know what I'm in for there, but no experience of dogs really. People I've asked suggest a strain from working stock, so more easy to train. Any way, am i b u to think this is a good idea?
Btw we both work half the week from home each so always someone in the house when I go back to work

I love dogs but you are nuts!!
We are getting a dog next year when my children are 10 and 6, wouldn't have considered it before.
There will be black lab puppies available on a few years when you can give it all the attention it needs.

Don't do it. Having a puppy will mean you won't be able to go out to toddler groups, and take baby visiting relatives, and away for a weekend....all possible once the dog is older but not when they are little. Also you will be clearing up dog faeces and then handling the new baby. Even if you are the best hand scrubber in the world this always seems a bit dodgy to me.

I love dogs and got mine when my youngest was 2.5. As an earlier poster said, I wouldn't do it again. I had 4 months where my youngest was very ill and the dog was a complete millstone. You can't just leave an ill 4yo home alone whilst you pop out with the dog. I found an unhappy compromise of dragging out a very ill youngster, relying on the kindness of strangers, getting up at dawn to walk the dog before DH left for work, and having a dog that was underwalked and restless at home, and feeling like I had too much stress in my life.

Ok, you might not be so unlucky, but with a new baby? No way.

If you've had dogs before, know what it involves and think you can manage, a period of leave does seem a good time to integrate a new puppy.

It's a bit different...but we've just got a kitten. Wanted one for years but always felt it was unfair to get one then both bugger off to work iyswim.

However, DH is currently off work for two full months (got a new job, resigned his old then had a delay in new start date...still getting paid though thankfully!)
It was the perfect opportunity to get a kitten as there'll be a clear 2 months when he's at home to help integrate the kitten and for the time when they still need feeding 3 times a day.

YABVVVU Please don't. I am a very experienced dog owner; had a newborn and a puppy many moons ago and it was a nightmare.

I'm a sahm and my youngest of four started school this year. We recently got a puppy and I am shattered, it is hard work. I didn't have easy babies and the puppy is harder and we already have a dog so have a tiny weeny bit of canine experience. I would not recommend it at all in your situation.

I have always had German Shepherds, from when my youngest was four, but we had them in the family, so I was experienced. I fostered, as well. He was two when I got him from "German Shepherd Rescue".

That was a good age to mix the dog in with, they have lovely memories of my first male dog.

They are part of our leisure activities of walking and camping.

My present one, was my first puppy (my others were rescue). I had sleepless nights for a month and even with an insulated walk in kennel and run, I live with a level if dirt.

I mind my nieces little boy, from birth and the dog has to be put out at times. I have to clean the whole kitchen before he comes, the cupboards, skirting boards, freezer door etc.

We joke that my dog thinks she a Lab or Spaniel, she loves water/mud/swamps. Comes in all excited and everywhere is splashed.

I have time to clean, my now older teens help, but we live with an accepted level of dog hair and dirt.

It's not a level that I would want with a baby/toddler tbh.

I grew up with a King Charles, lovely little dog, didn't like dirt, loved getting bathed and dried with a hair dryer.

Invest in a kennel and run, first, £400+, if you do go ahead, there will be times when you need this, which such young children.

It sounds like it should be a good idea, doesn't it?

But, please no it's not!

I have owned Golden Retrievers [similar size and temperament to labs, only with more fur!] for over 30 years, plus had twins....the twins were easier

Seriously, we have a 7 month pup and an 11 yr old atm. Pup still needs to go out at about 4am although she is house trained, she will have "accidents" if you don't spot her asking to go out. House training takes lots of persistence and time: standing outside with pup every hour [in the pouring rain], cleaning up after them [the amount of poo and pee can be amazing!] imagine fitting that in round a fractious baby?

Then there is training...classes every week are just the start, practise practise practise everyday.
Then just when you think they are trained, they become teenagers and turn into "kevin" the canine lout.

Walking: little pups don't need much, the bigger they get the more they need! A lab will need lots and lots. In the rain, in the snow, when you are knackered after being up all night with a baby with colic....

Dirt and fur: just how house proud are you?? There is a thread the other day about mud and dogs, have a look at the photos and comments. Could you cope??

Holidays, days out, vets bills, food bills, chewed stuff [one of ours ate the wallpaper off the stairs and through a door frame when left for 3 hour as a "teenager"] you have to factor in all that.

The breeder we got our dogs from has good advice about puppies, relevent to labs too here and here

If after reading all this you still want a dog, great! But wait a few years....

I doubt you'd have enough time to train a puppy properly.

And trust me labs who are untrained are a bloody nuisance. (Experience of that here can you tell?!). wait until baby etc are at least 2-3 before contemplating or get a rescue lab already trained.

or a cat. far easier

A toddler and a baby is serious hard work...

Imagine the scenario

You haven't slept all night, the baby is feeding constantly, your toddler is running round, you are all on your PJs...its raining outside...

Now, do you all want to get dressed and leave the house to walk the dog?

please think carefully.

You have a toddler who is going to have to adjust to a new baby, you are likely to face some challenges there.

You will have to manage a toddler and a baby - this is exhausting!

You will have to give a huge amount of time and attention to training a puppy.

do you really think you can ensure your toddler does not 'play' with the puppy (play being code for tug and pull!) and that your toddler doesn't act out jealousy of the baby or transfer that jealousy to the puppy AND care for a newborn with all the exhaustion that brings AND take a tiny puppy - basically a second baby! - and put all the patient hours of training in that that puppy will need?

and make sure the puppy isn't barking when the baby is sleeping.

And make sure the toddler isn't pulling the puppy's tail while you're feeding the baby

And make sure the puppy isn't sitting on the baby while you're entertaining the toddler

And make sure the toddler isn't eating the puppys food while you're changing the baby

and make sure the puppy isn't weeing by the baby while you're bathing the toddler

do you get the picture?

oh FWIW you don't NEED classes, you can train the pup itself, females are more docile/quieter than males.

If you're very energetic you can puppy walk it round shops, cafes etc - not taking it in (this is what my mum did with her puppy in 1980ish time).

But with a baby??

the more I think of it the more a kitten seems more suitable!

Why a lab particularly?

Would a different breed be easier maybe? A smaller dog, one that won't necessarily need the huge amount of exercise a lab will?

YABU - this is a terrible idea

There is a reason most reputable breeders won't home a puppy with a family with very small children....

I did it. I had a 2.5 year old daughter and 2 week old son when we took in a 9 week old rescue puppy. I figured it would get all the poo and wee over with in a one-er rather than start all over again once my youngest was old enough, whenever that is! It was hard work but not insurmountable.

Worst idea ever! Why on earth would you want to double your work load! A puppy is actually more hard work than a baby. This is the voice of experience! My puppy is 3 and he's still in puppy mode, personally I think there are better ways to spend your time (and money) during your maternity leave.

I have a 9 year old labrador. I adore him and have had him since he was an 8 week old puppy. It certainly hasn't been plain sailing all the time though. I won't lie there and I love the breed.

When I got him my youngest child had just turned two, whilst the two older ones were 9 and 5. I must tell you that it was VERY hard work. I wasn't an experienced dog owner, he was my first dog. Trying to toilet train a toddler and a bouncy puppy simultaneously was no walk in the park (sorry for pun) and caused a number of disasters from both. There was also the nipping and chewing phase, which was very trying too. Added to all this, you are soon to have another baby, if I understand you correctly.

I am not trying to put you off from ever having a dog, but would suggest you wait maybe a couple of years (or perhaps longer) until your children are a bit older. Use that time to do your research, get your children used to other nice, friendly dogs you know so that they begin to understand how to behave around dogs, and to find reputable breeders who have done all the necessary health testing on the dog and the bitch prior to mating. That is if you decide to go for a puppy rather than a rescue dog.

You need to be sure that you know what you are into. Labrador puppies are very cute, yes (and I am biased too, as a lab owner/lover), but they very quickly grow into large, bouncy dogs and you need to ensure you can cope with that. They can also be major power chewers, and often explore things (and sometimes people) with their mouths for a fair few months too. It does usually settle down as they mature, but you may get something like 18 months of a destructive stage which you need to control too.

Someone said they are simple to train. Some may be, some are not. There are many different types of character within the breed, so many variables. They need time and patience and TLC just as human children do.

In so many ways it is like having yet another baby, but a big, mobile and often destructive and chewy one too. That is why I suggest waiting until your children are older and you know you will be able to give this the time it needs.

Hey OP - I totally understand, as I think it's probably a form of 'nesting' - you have a picture of what your home will look like with new baby and part of that is a mad naughty dog.

I have to concur with others though, as puppies really are something else: all dogs really but pups - OMG! My friend and I both got puppies for the wrong reasons really and we both had to rehome them in the end. It was utterly heartbreaking and put both of us off ever getting a dog again.

My friend has a son and daughter and has said she found he dog far harder than children, I think as you can go to places you can't with a dog. So with a baby you can have a couple of hours with a latte in Starbucks assuming she's sleeping. A dog - you really can't. You end up either sitting outside so cold, leaving the dog at home jumping all over you when you return or not going at all.

Definitely get a dog but maybe in a decade or so. Your children can help out, and it won't all fall on you. X

A unanimous vote for you OP. I hope you listen. And good luck with the baby

Maternity leave is one of the few times we can be home. So yes its a good idea to get a puppy then, as long as you LOVE dogs. Sure it will be harder work, but as long as you realise that.

When it's cold and wet and dark outside will you be ok going out to walk the dog first thing in the morning? Even when you had really broken sleep because the baby woke up, then the toddler, then the baby again and by the time you got everyone back to sleep it was nearly morning? Everyone will have to be wrapped up and dragged out in the rain so the dog can be excersied and the process repeated later in the day too. I appreciate it doesn't rain every day, but it seems to be a common theme around here at the moment and I am so glad we don't have a dog when I look out the window and see neighbours trotting off down the road wrapped up against the weather while walking the dog.

Hi OP. I love dogs and my last dog was a Lab.

Please don't do this.

To bring a puppy - especially a bouncy, slow-maturing breed like a Labrador - up to be a well-behaved trustworthy member of canine society is a full-time job in itself. Not something to be squeezed in between dealing with a toddler, a newborn and exhaustion. Plus most reputable breeders wouldn't let one of their puppies go to a home with such young children, which means you're left with the disreputable ones, the puppy farms and the well-meaning but ignorant novice breeders. All of which increase your chances of ending up with a dog with physical or psychological problems which need experience, money and above all time to overcome. Time which you simply won't have.

Wait until your children are old enough to know how to behave around dogs and then reconsider. Between now and then, maybe you could volunteer at a local rescue centre (if/when time allows) and start getting some of that much-needed experience?