Toddler + puppy

[happymum94]

Feel like I've bitten off more than I can chew 😩 we got a pug puppy yday, my husband has been desperate for a fawn boy forever - we already have a black girl who is 7. Now our little boy is 16 months I finally caved as I felt he was old enough but he absolutely hates the new puppy, he is very jumpy and a bit nippy so every time the puppy goes near him he cries even though this is never unsupervised and I don't let the puppy jump at him at all. I just feel like this is going to be so much harder with a toddler around and I didn't expect it to be so hard - my husband works a lot so the majority of responsibility is going to fall at my feet I can already see it. I just feel so overwhelmed already, does anyone have any tips to make this any easier?

@xelam thank you, I know I do hope this would be the case. My DS and adult pug are the best of friends, barely bother with each other but when they do really gentle and she is so patient with him.

@bogeyes I mean clearly I would not ignore my sons happiness, that is the whole point of this thread? But I also can't disregard the pup.

@piccalino3 completely agree I've clearly made a huge mistake and a massive error of judgement but I really don't want the pup to just be another shelter statistic. I think it's best to try and give it a couple more weeks and hope once he can go for walks and starts training classes it will get better, if not then we'll definitely look at rehoming him whilst he's still young

These situations can work out if you are prepared to go through a few tough months.

We got a puppy when our youngest child was a year old. I never had enough time to train the puppy properly (okay recall, though), but other than that, things calmed down after about six months. The puppy grew into a stable and confident dog who gave all the DC a real love of dogs and lots of confidence around them.

Your option is returning the puppy to the breeder.

Where did you find the breeder? A responsible breeder will insist that you return the pup to them at any time in the future.

Honestly the fact that you’re already struggling I would ask husband to speak with the breeder as they should want pup back, as they’re saying no I would be inclined to report them to the council. I would then say it’s his responsibility to advertise pup for the cost you paid and check out potential new homes to rehome him.