Puppy Advice

[abbs1]

My husband and I are thinking of getting a puppy sometime next year. Growing up my family never had a dog but took care of friends dogs at our house for weeks at a time and we loved it. My husbands family had a whippet for years.
We have a nearly 2yr old and baby due end of Feb/early March so looking at possibly getting a puppy maybe end of summer time?

We are thinking of getting a black or chocolate labrador puppy with short hair. We are currently reading up and doing research on them along with pros and cons etc. Both my husband and I have been talking about getting a dog for over 6 years but dont want to do it at the wrong time and regret it.

For anyone who has or had a dog with young children, can you offer and advice, tips, pros/cons of having a puppy with young children. We don't want to rush into anything as we both know dogs take a lot of time and effort but also show so much love.

Firstly, will you be home or both at work all day? I have spaniels but I'm home all day. My neighbours have a black Lab & the poor love is left home most of the day on his own, which isn't really fair. Obviously puppies need socialising & training, do you have time for this? If so, get one. Do what I've done & have 3 😆🐾

“We are thinking of getting a black or chocolate labrador puppy with short hair.”

Um... labs only come with one length coat...?

Honestly, there are very few pros to a puppy and children that young, it’s pretty much all cons.

Puppies usually bite, often for months, mouthing isn’t as gentle as it sounds, they can draw blood and often will target children because they’re playing and children are fun.

Housetraining means rushing outside and hanging out there for ages, about every half hour that the puppy is awake, logistically that’s a complete nightmare with babies and toddlers.

They take up a lot of time when they’re young too, you’re almost at adding an extra toddler level time.

You’ll have to be constantly watching where both children and the puppy are... which multiple times a day is likely to be 3 different places.

@Duchess379

Firstly, will you be home or both at work all day? I have spaniels but I'm home all day. My neighbours have a black Lab & the poor love is left home most of the day on his own, which isn't really fair. Obviously puppies need socialising & training, do you have time for this? If so, get one. Do what I've done & have 3 😆🐾

Oh no! Poor dog. Thats not fair being at home by himself. I love spaniels. My brother has one but its a bit too jumpy I think around young children. I'm a SAHM and my husband works from home permanently. His work is quite flexible so he can do walks etc before work, on his lunch break and after work and I can do walks etc as well. I want to get settled with 2 kids before adding a puppy in the mix as I know dogs are a lot of work but so much fun too! 🙂

@tabulahrasa

“We are thinking of getting a black or chocolate labrador puppy with short hair.”

Um... labs only come with one length coat...?

Honestly, there are very few pros to a puppy and children that young, it’s pretty much all cons.

Puppies usually bite, often for months, mouthing isn’t as gentle as it sounds, they can draw blood and often will target children because they’re playing and children are fun.

Housetraining means rushing outside and hanging out there for ages, about every half hour that the puppy is awake, logistically that’s a complete nightmare with babies and toddlers.

They take up a lot of time when they’re young too, you’re almost at adding an extra toddler level time.

You’ll have to be constantly watching where both children and the puppy are... which multiple times a day is likely to be 3 different places.

Thank you for your honest advice on this. This is one of my reservations of getting a puppy with such young children as it is like adding another child into the mix and needing eyes everywhere at the same time.

Ideally you want your youngest child to be capable of following instructions while a puppy bites them and to be reliable enough to stay safe while you leave them in a room suddenly for anything up to half an hour.... and as it’s not born yet... that’s a big ask, lol, school age is usually when those things are more manageable.

We have a7 month old black lab. He’s becoming lovely now (currently sleeping on my feet) but my god, it was hard work at first and we were lucky enough to have a good sleeper who immediately toilet trained himself and our child is 12 so not little. At first, it was none stop, I mean you literally have to watch them every second that they’re up or they’ll eat the house. Seriously, the walls, skirting boards, carpet, hard floor, things you can’t even remove! The biting is also horrendous until they get their adult teeth. I was prepared for “mouthing” but less so for hard biting and ragging at our clothes. I love our puppy so much now but I don’t think I could have done it with a toddler and a baby… no actually I know I couldn’t.

A puppy with children that young isn't a great idea.
Within a year he'll need 2-3 hours of walking/day - how will you manage that?
Plus all the training, and general parenting

god no with toddlers and babies. Have kids and dogs, all good now they are older. would i heck do babies and puppies!

In your shoes, I would get a puppy when your youngest is at least 5!

@tabulahrasa

Ideally you want your youngest child to be capable of following instructions while a puppy bites them and to be reliable enough to stay safe while you leave them in a room suddenly for anything up to half an hour.... and as it’s not born yet... that’s a big ask, lol, school age is usually when those things are more manageable.

Thats more my kind of thinking it to wait longer until the kids are older in school. Hearing honest opinions is very helpful. We don't want to just get a puppy thinking its all flowers and chocolates when it isnt and we want to make sure we do it at the right time for our family.

Bear in mind that house training can take a while until a pup is reliable. That potentially means puppy wee and poo on the floor in the house. Not ideal with a crawling baby or toddler. Plus puppies need to be with you all the time at first, including at night - they’re babies. If the baby is awake and making noise, puppy will wake up and you’ll have both of them to deal with. The constant biting lasts for ages and is really hard to deal with with a toddler. I know it’s hard to wait but I would get them both at school, then you can focus more on the dog (and they will be old enough not to put puppy poo in their mouths )

Please don’t, awful awful idea. Puppies nip naturally and you’ll already need eyes in the back of your head with 2 young babies. You can’t leave them alone for 2 seconds together - honestly sounds like the most stressful situation ever. Wait until your youngest is at least 5 l.

@LadyCatStark

We have a7 month old black lab. He’s becoming lovely now (currently sleeping on my feet) but my god, it was hard work at first and we were lucky enough to have a good sleeper who immediately toilet trained himself and our child is 12 so not little. At first, it was none stop, I mean you literally have to watch them every second that they’re up or they’ll eat the house. Seriously, the walls, skirting boards, carpet, hard floor, things you can’t even remove! The biting is also horrendous until they get their adult teeth. I was prepared for “mouthing” but less so for hard biting and ragging at our clothes. I love our puppy so much now but I don’t think I could have done it with a toddler and a baby… no actually I know I couldn’t.

This is my worry the puppy literally chewing everything in the house. Having my hands full with a toddler and baby is going to be a lot so having a puppy as well when they're so young is going to be too much. Thank you for your honest advice. 🙂

@WaltzingBetty

A puppy with children that young isn't a great idea. Within a year he'll need 2-3 hours of walking/day - how will you manage that? Plus all the training, and general parenting

Thank you for your thoughts. Much appreciated 🙂

@GettingItOutThere

god no with toddlers and babies. Have kids and dogs, all good now they are older. would i heck do babies and puppies!

In your shoes, I would get a puppy when your youngest is at least 5!

This is more my thinking. Kids need to be older.

@GiantCheeseMonster

Bear in mind that house training can take a while until a pup is reliable. That potentially means puppy wee and poo on the floor in the house. Not ideal with a crawling baby or toddler. Plus puppies need to be with you all the time at first, including at night - they’re babies. If the baby is awake and making noise, puppy will wake up and you’ll have both of them to deal with. The constant biting lasts for ages and is really hard to deal with with a toddler. I know it’s hard to wait but I would get them both at school, then you can focus more on the dog (and they will be old enough not to put puppy poo in their mouths )

Very good points. Thank you. Dont want my kids thinking the puppy poo is chocolate 🙈 and having a baby awake at night is enough for me. Sounds like waiting until the kids are in school is a better idea. It was my thinking but my husband is a bit more keen than me but i know i will be doing a lot of the care while he's working so need to make sure we make the right decision on timing.

Our puppy was on a schedule of going out every 20 minutes. We still had accidents in the house so dropped it to every 15 mins built back up to 20 mins, then 30 minutes. When he got to every hour it was so much easier but still tough.

Shared puppy housetraining with my dd(21), it was still hard with two of us.

@Teacaketotty

Please don’t, awful awful idea. Puppies nip naturally and you’ll already need eyes in the back of your head with 2 young babies. You can’t leave them alone for 2 seconds together - honestly sounds like the most stressful situation ever. Wait until your youngest is at least 5 l.

This is my thinking. Adding a puppy too soon will be too stressful. Thank you for your thoughts on this. Much appreciated

Thank you everyone for your honest thoughts and advice. Very very much appreciated. I've just spoken to DH and will definitely be waiting until the kids are in school before adding a puppy to the mix.

My lab was quite honestly VERY hard work until she was about 3.. far far jumpier than any spaniels I have had.. she mouthed hard until 1 ish and it really bloody hurt - it used to make me cry at times as I was despairing - despite lots of work on it. We currently have a whippet puppy who is mouthy but nothing like the lab was. My kids are late primary and I really don't think they would have coped with the play biting any younger. I know lots of people do have young kids and dogs and cope, but a puppy with toddler/baby just seems a nightmare combination !!

@abbs1

Thank you everyone for your honest thoughts and advice. Very very much appreciated. I've just spoken to DH and will definitely be waiting until the kids are in school before adding a puppy to the mix.

Very very wise !!! That way you have half a chance of actually enjoying both the babies and the puppy rather than just surviving both and praying it gets better !

We didn’t get a pup until our youngest was at school.

Incase you need any further deterring 😂 here’s a picture of my wall last week… no idea what he was thinking but he went through a few days of trying to do this all the time and he hasn’t since. It only takes a few seconds to destroy something, even when you’re supervising 🙈.

Don't get a big bouncy dog (which labs are) with toddler/baby! That's a terrible combination. If you want a dog right now, get a small companion-breed dog

Please don't get a puppy when you have a toddler and a young baby to contend with.

Puppies are hard work. Do you really want to be getting up in the night dealing with a baby and settling the toddler because the puppy is crying and needs the toilet for the third time?

As PP have said - puppies wee and poo on the floor, they bite and can easily draw blood, they scratch, they jump up at you and a Labrador puppy will very easily send your toddler flying (not out of aggression - just sheer excitement) - they chew (labs in particular are big chewers) and anything your kids leave on the floor will be fair game to a puppy. You'll also need to factor in walks in the pissing down rain and howling wind and mud with a toddler and a pram.

Honestly - don't do it to yourself. Wait until your youngest is in primary school.

Personally I think it's bonkers to get a lab puppy (or any puppy really but lab particularly because of the size) with two small children.

Both young children and puppies have to be watched closely and require lots of attention. Add to that when your youngest is just starting to walk you'll have a teenage "bull in a China shop" dog.

We waited until our youngest was 5 before getting a dog and it was ideal. (3-4 would be ok, at least the child is more robust and independent by then)