Puppy Overwhelm - AIBU in partially regretting getting one

[bubbaflash]

Hi All

So we got a puppy just over a week ago. Not our first dog, we lost our old boy at 15 in October last year, and we miss him badly.

I vaguely remember the puppy days being hard - but goodness the memory does block some if it. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. DH works from home, and I work from home the majority of the week, but I do have some client visits. For the first month DH and I are using some annual leave to work part of the week and to bed puppy in. We also have a DS who is 12.

The problem being we are used to a routine with our old dog where we could leave him a bit, pop in and out and (once through the destructive puppy stage) you could reliably leave. He was happy mogging about with us in the day, but also doing his own thing.

Now we are back at the start. Work is fine when she sleeps (which is a lot I suppose at the moment as puppies need a lot of sleep) but it is hard when she is awake.

Toilet training is going well, and she is generally quite a sweet puppy, though full on when she is playing as puppies should be.

We are crate training at night (it is slowly getting better) and we have brought a playpen to put round the crate for daytimes when we need to pop out. She hasn't been left yet as she is only 10 weeks old.

I have googled and I think i am experiencing the puppy blues. I do know it eventually gets better, but omg at the moment life feels harder.

AIBU to currently regret our decision? Any advise or support on how to cope would be appreciated. I know in time things will ease, particularly when we can get out for a walk, but i feel a bit anxious and loI

Completely normal, hang on in there!

Another who regretted it so much but aged two and a half, my only words to anyone are what a lovely legend he is. Easy peasy puppy Squeezy book is always my recommendation and teaching them to pick up a toy every time they ‘mouth’ (no such thing, our cs bit. Properly bit!!!

Oh goodness yes

I regretted the first one deeply for the first 3 months. He was dreadful and I don't do 5 am starts. It was like having a toddler around again. He needed constant supervision every minute he was awake.

3 years later I did it again. This was even worse. She was a little demon and I had real regrets. Again by 5 months things were a lot better.

It's good to remind myself of this as I was considering a third....

You are def right about this time of year being rubbish for Dpuppies and all their malarkey!
Ddog came home with us at the beginning of the October and it was no fun standing in the cold and dark at stupid-o’clock hissing ‘go pee-pee, go pee-pee” and the soaking wet rainy walks that must be done or the fur-tornado will complete a one-dog destruction of your home in retaliation! They have to be walked and socialised no matter what, and it’s no bloody fun in the winter!

I love the puppy stage. I'm sad that I'll probably never have another puppy. I'd love to be a puppy raiser for guide dogs or similar but I'm not sure I could cope with giving them up.

Oh I remember how hard the puppy days are. I would take my DC as a newborn again over having a puppy.
Our dog was a hard puppy. She cried all night unless she slept with us. She went through an ankle biting stage so bad that one day she spent 2 hours straight going for my trouser leg. I clearly remember breaking down crying as nothing was distracting her. Eventually, I had to just put her out of the room (which was against the advice I read online) and I poured myself a large glass of wine while I cried.
She's now 4 years old and a very good little dog (other than barking at anyone who cares come intothe front garden and stealing DR'S soothers if we're not looking)

The first weeks are relentless. This too will pass. Remember that, the last time you went through this you were younger, didn’t have DC so the whole dynamic has changed. We got DDog4 when DDog3 was almost 4. It was much easier than the 13 year puppy gap we had when we got DDog3 after DDog2 had died. DDog2 was much harder than DDog1 was 13 years before that. Lickimats and scatter feeding might help burn up some mental energy.

It can certainly feel overwhelming. I have been very lucky since my dogs have all been quite easy puppies. But the constant vigilance at first can be exhausting.

I agree with the recommendation of PPs to join the puppy survival threads on the Doghouse. I really enjoyed those threads a few years ago and still sometimes lurk on them now, though my dog is 3 years old. Also as others have said, you will probably end up forgetting the negatives. I recently saw a post from someone who had been on the puppy survival threads at the same time I was. She declared proudly that her dog had never chewed anything he wasn't supposed to, not even as a teething puppy. It made me smile, because I vividly remember the same person writing about her puppy destroying several remote controls. She had obviously forgotten all about that. 😃