Should I?

[shineon]

I have been pining after a dog for ages. Since before I had my kids actually. My youngest is 1 & half now and I cant decide if its a good idea. Please give me your opinions. Im home full time. I suppose im most worried about the safety issue & the hard work that goes into a puppy. Am I mad?

There are lots of posts from people talking about the shit times, I've seen loads of posters wanting to cry and rehome their recently acquired pups

There are also lots of threads 'should I get a pup when I have a toddler?' and many, many replies saying no - so a bit of searching would throw up lots of advice and opinions

In this case the op asked for advice, and was given it, then decided to completely ignore it and get not one but two pups! Unbelievable

Do rescue centres actually hand over puppies for fostering at such a young age? I can understand giving them to an experienced fosterer if they are totally full and have no resources to care for them. But clearly that's not the case if they took them straight back.

And I'm even more surprised they gave them to you without a home check,

Credit to the OP for coming back and saying what happened. I hope that many who are in a similar situation will read.

There are good, thorough rescues and less good rescues. Without exception they are completely overstretched and I have seen some not great decisions made in placing dogs in homes where it may not be ideal., out of sheer desperation to deal with the volume of dogs, :( Handing out two tiny pups to someone with no other dogs but small children does sound very strange...

"can I have a dog with toddlers?" is a question that comes up time and time again. It depends as much on your children as on the dog. If you are of the 'my toddler can't possibly be expected to understand' school of thought, then please do not get a dog. If your children are going to upset when a puppy nips them, knocks them over and steals their toys, then please do not get a dog, because this will happen.