AIBU to consider a labrador puppy with two young children and an older dog?

[banana77]

We have 2 DC, 3 and 5, we both work full time (DH works from home) and already have a 12 year old Jack Russell. I really enjoy running but our JRT can no longer come with me, he prefers a short stroll around the block these days. The kids also want to play with him all the time and he generally just wants to curl up on the sofa 😂
We’re considering getting a labrador puppy- will we regret it?!?
our eldest loves animals and has been asking for a puppy as well (although obviously wouldn’t get one just for this reason).
anyone done similar and have any success/horror stories?!

Yes

on so so many levels

We have a Labrador and had no children at the time we got her and my god the puppy biting stage was AWFUL! I said to my husband the other day if she was a puppy now my 2 yo would be terrified of her because of how nippy she was. She was also rather nutty for the first few years and needed lots of exercise and entertainment/enrichment etc. They are brilliant dogs but personally I would say maybe wait a couple of years for the children to be older

A lab puppy is a terrible idea with kids that young and with you wanting to go running with a dog.

Lab puppies are cute furry piranhas - they will bite anything and everything, including your kids. Their teeth are little but very sharp and pointy.

And they won’t be able to run with you for a long time - their joints are very vulnerable, they’re not supposed to walk for more than 5 minutes per month of their age for the first couple of years.

Why a lab puppy in particular? Why not get an adult dog that has been rehomed but will already have an established personality and can behave more around your kids and run with you?

Ohhh this is really useful thank you! Everything I read says how gentle they are etc but I guess it’s that in between stage when their body is fully grown but their brain is still in puppy mode 😂 I’ve only known older ones!
shame they’re so cute too 😭

I really would not with such young children as the biting can be awful, and young DC struggle and your husband will struggle to work with a young puppy too. Labs are amazing, but hard work as pups.

I’ve considered this as well to be fair- sounds like a better idea to get a young-ish still energetic dog that isn’t a puppy maybe!
this is the reality check I needed 😂
I just thought a puppy would bond more easily with our older dog than an adult dog, but this could go either way, the super bouncy/bitey energy might get on his nerves 😂

Also very difficult for your elderly dog. Let him have the last years of his life in peace and then get a new dog by which point your children will be older

I really wouldn't. They need so much exercise and training. You might go for a run but multiple times a day? Also dogs want to sniff etc so they're not necessarily going to be running happily alongside you.

We had shih tzus when the kids were small and I was surprised at how many of their friends were scared of them. Sometimes made having people round difficult. A bouncy Labrador would be very scary to small kids.

Also labradors are very greedy in my experience and so you'll need to train them to leave your kids food alone. Also all their toys could end up chewed. So many reasons not to.

Go ahead.

Just be aware that no good breeder will sell to you with two children that young. So whichever dog you do get will be defective (health/temperament) at best and probably puppy farmed at worse.

I’m a grown adult and I hated the biting stage. To be honest, having a Labrador puppy wasn’t that enjoyable at times. Not only is there the biting, but there’s the relentless of it all. It was better when we got a routine, but for a long while, it was two hours awake, two hours asleep, plus sleepless nights. Basically, you’re introducing a toddler crossed with a Duracell bunny into the mix.

I think your post has just put me firmly in the no camp 😂

It very much depends on the pup you get, we have a rehomed Lab, who we took on aged 5 months because she was so different from the 11 month old Lab dog already in the family that they couldn't cope with her.

We also have Lab litter sisters, 4 yrs older than the rehome, their breeder had young children and they were the easiest pups we have ever had to train in 60+yrs of dog owning.

I had a couple of labs when the girls were young and they are wonderful pets, but omg the puppy stage was traumatic for all of us. Wouldn’t have changed them for the world, but young children and bouncy huge pup was fucking hard work. I’d maybe go for a rescue or dog needing to be re homed at about 2 years old, but then you don’t know what you’re getting so also a gamble. Maybe wait a few years, let your old dog relax in his dotage and get a lab when you’ve got kids old enough to walk it for miles.

I’ve got a golden now and he’s wonderful, but it’s taken two years to get to this stage and got another year to go until,the raptor stage is over. I think that being in my 50’s now has made it more difficult as I,m older and tired since the lab stage - so don’t leave it too long!

When my friend’s year old lab met me for the first time it launched itself at me and it was like being hit by a speeding sledge. Hurt! Did it to everyone apparently. So it’s a no from me!

Thanks everyone for your comments- very helpful! Do we think a smaller breed would be easier? Or avoid pups entirely?

avoid another dog until your JR passes!

I’ve got children ranging from 24 to 5 years old and I’ve always had golden retrievers. Little land sharks, just like labs and god, they are hard work the first couple of years. My girl turned 2 in January this year and she’s only just calming down. Like retrievers, labs take a long time to mature.

We got our latest girl when dd was 3 years old. You just have to manage the biting well; it’s very do able if you are on top of it. Tiredness really makes puppies overwrought so we crate train which helps enormously with getting them into a sleep routine, stops the overtiredness and gives them a safe space to go.

I’ve had pups with older dogs - again, crates are brilliant as they can both go to their own spaces.

Would your dh really have time to toilet train etc while working from home though? I’ve always found a puppy to be a full time job for the first few months. I don’t work, I don’t think I could have done it while trying to work from home too.

I would completely agree with this.

You can train them well not to touch food and toys. None of my retreivers have ever touched anything. BUT, I wasn’t working from home, so I had all day to train them.

As someone with a Lab and 2 young kids, my advice would be not to! I adore my Lab, he is the most amazing family dog, perfectly trained, so gentle with the kids and absolutely everyone, I trust him as much as you can ever trust a dog, amazing on lead, amazing off lead, perfect recall, doesn’t steal toys/food/anything that isn’t his, he is just perfect- BUT, and there is a huge but- I can say with absolute certainty that he would not have been the dog he is now if we had gotten him as a puppy once we had the kids already.

Lab’s are brilliant dogs but they get big quick, they are strong, they are clever and they are full of energy- from puppy to about 2-2.5 it is quite honestly constant work. Training, more training, more training, corrections, training him to the point he is at now took most of my free time for that 2 year period and because we had no kids I was able to do that and be really consistent with it in a way that I just simply don’t have the time, energy or patience for now with young kids. Without that training he would be a total different dog and a poorly trained dog the size of a Lab is a recipe for disaster.

You could contact some rescues and explain your home situation and see if they have any dogs that would suit. I've fostered lots of dogs over the years that love a good run and are quiet and calm in the home and love a play session.
Elderly JRT are notoriously grumpy but a younger dog who knows to give space can become quite civil companions.