DH overwhelmed with puppy

[Usedphone]

We've had a new puppy for the past 3 months+ . He's a Labrador+springer mix and TBH he's WAY more chilled than I expected BUT he does love counter surfing, stealing food, etc .. I would say fairly normal puppy behaviour. He's also an early bird and by 530 he's wide awake (I'm normally awake too by then) and will only calm down with cuddles.

Now to me, this is all OK and even kind of cute, but my DH can't stand it. Our older doggie is super chilled although she was a bit like this when she was a puppy, and my DH did lose her cool with her, but promised to never do it again.

My DH is grumpy, tired all the time and has lost all sex drive. He had a full blood panel at the GP, but everything came back normal.

Any advice before rehoming one of them?

We've actually never had my issues! He doesn't sleep with us all night (comes over around 3) so it's a non issue in that sense, but we don't fit in our bed (an IKEA double)

If you take the path of least resistance then, to be fair, you've only got yourselves to blame.

And it's not fair on the dog

Maybe that's why he comes in to you

He, not the puppy, would be gone...

I would rehome the husband and train the puppy x

“Getting a puppy is almost equivalent to having a baby. It turns your world upside down.”

First post nails it. Puppies are hard work and it sounds like Dh has a case of the puppy blues.

Anyone who hits an animal is a cunt.

And you’re absolutely irresponsible to have brought another puppy into the household. Shame on you @Usedphone

He has changed over the years and he has admitted he was wrong and regrets treating our girl the way he did.

Also the owner of a springador and she was a proper handful as a pup - she's now 15 months old and a still likes to nick socks but is so lovely natured and really good in general.

I WFH full time so she's mainly with me but DH does loads for her too.

I found once we could get her out on proper walks and found that doing anything that involves her using her nose (hiding treats around the house, throwing her lunch in the garden, snuffle mats etc) tired her out then we found she was much more manageable.

She has a morning walk then sleeps, lunchtime walk with sniffing in garden after then sleeps and then is played with & entertained by the teens from 4 until she has a proper walk in the evening and settles to sleep about 9:30.

They have the same face!
He gets two walks a day and is free to roam our garden.

He really just sleeps on the sofa when inside. Zero destruction

Agreed

Wow. I'd have left any man for that. Disgraceful.

@Usedphone would rehome the husband. He sounds a right dick. He hits animals because his mates said so 🙄

I will take him OP!!

We do borrow my doggy regularly but don't have one ourselves - one of our regulars is a red working spaniel -she's adorable but yes I too think she's hard work . The other regular is a lazy but lovely 3 year old cockapoo - I think it's the contrast your H will be finding hard - I know when we have the spaniel she kind of takes over the house -whereas the cockapoo kind of just 'is'

We are lucky that we work for ourselves though so don't have to rush up - we have fantastic national trust fields 2 minutes walk away

It sounds like you need more boundaries in place with your puppy. They learn what you teach them in terms of behavioural expectations. Definitely I wouldn’t be having a puppy getting up at 5:30am (but if that’s what time you get up every day, okay, sure, but consider if one day you won’t or maybe others in the house won’t if you’re away?). Jumping up, counter surfing, etc sounds like a puppy who is over tired and overstimulated and needs a time out to sleep.

This is realistically the pup I experience all day. In that sense I think I definitely have a DH problem, not a puppy one!

😁

Your pup is gorgeous (and I love his little bow). Your husband sounds like an absolute arsehole.

Not surprised at your DH.
Counter surfing and food stealing by the animal is not on, however cute little face it's got.

Oh he's gorgeous op, we have a fox red lab and the puppy training days are tough work but so worth it imo. She also had a doggy teenage naughty behaviour period which is common with all dogs, so a bit of a relapse but with some advice from a trainer we got through the issues.

Was your older dog very different as a pup? Surely your dp knew what the puppy period would be like?

OMG. His colleagues are morons and so is he for listening to them.

Humans are supposed to be more advanced than other animals - I despair at some people's inability to use their supposedly superior frontal cortex!

Dogs need to be trained to behave. It requires persistence and a lot of doing the same thing over and over. With positive, not negative reinforcement. It's tedious but it pays off. God - angry little men are so annoying !!!

I'm coming on just to say how gorgeous she is, and that she reminds me of my grandmother's dog I knew as a child - a springer / lurcher cross I think - called Goldie. He was adorable too. I first met him and his brother as older puppies, my sister and I were 3 and 5 and we all learned about snow together (we were only visiting the UK from abroad). Then on later trips age 9 and then 13 I was able to walk him up to the churchyard where he grumbled a bit if we stopped too long to feed the donkey.

I hope you can navigate the next few months with all your family members till things settle down into a sensible new normal that works for everyone.

Husband or dogs? - which is it to be?

Your poor husband - not able to relax in his own home after a day at work without this misbehaving dog on board.

Just get rid of the blessed dogs FGS.

Oh and at 3 our girl still has the odd relapse or testing the boundaries like counter surfing, scratching at the kitchen door at night etc, our trainer said training is ongoing not just for the puppy period, this surprised my dh! Positive reinforcement and patience all the way, not sure what to suggest for your dp thought!