I'm not sure another puppy was a good idea. . .UPDATED

[LemonPie]

I'm just trying to sort through this.

Our little Chihuahua was hit by a car and killed in April. We'd had him for 9 1/2 years and he was completely trained, housebroken, etc before we had kids.

In May, my mom's pair of mini-dachsunds had a couple of puppies and we decided to take the male puppy. He's been with us for a week and he's 10 weeks old.

I'm just not sure I'm up for this now. I feel terrible about that, but I forgot how time-intensive a puppy is. I have a 6 yo, a 4 yo and a 9 month old baby and having a puppy feels like having another baby on top of it all.

We're crate training but he still pees in his crate every day. I'll take him out to his "potty spot" in the yard for 15-20 minutes and he'll refuse to go and then come in and immediately go in the house. Last night he peed on my nursing pillow and I just about cried. I have to watch him every. single. second. that he's in the house and out of his crate.

To top it all off, my 6 yo seems to have some aggression towards him now that he's in our home rather than just at grandmas. He's finding the responsibility of a puppy to to be bothersome if I ask him to pause whatever he's doing and take the puppy out or to keep an eye on him so that I can get something done. He wants to just lock the puppy up in his crate when he's tired of playing with him. Yesterday I caught him *throwing* the dog into his potty area. He lost some major privileges for that and I told him if I caught him doing it again we were going to have to find a new home for the dog.

It's been a week and I'm spent. I just don't have the time and energy that this dog needs I think. Especially with a 9 mo baby. I feel like the dog is getting time and attention that SHE needs. I'm starting to seriously think about re-homing him.

[Krisis]

It's really hard. I think it's kind of like parenting - you read all the stuff beforehand that tells you how hard raising a baby is going to be, and you're like "okay, but I can totally do it." And then the baby comes and you're like HOLY CRAP, THIS IS SO FREAKING HARD, HOW COME NO ONE WARNED ME?!

Just wanted to say, I've been there. We adopted a puppy in early June and it was just overwhelming with my DS and the puppy, so we rehomed him. I was devastated that it didn't work out, but sometimes you just need to wait till your kid is older/better prepared. Maybe have a long talk with your DS about how puppies are a lot of work and he needs to help cheerfully or the dog has to go? I'm not really familiar with 6 year olds, sorry!

[prairiemommy]

That's so hard. The one thing about mini-dachsunds is that they can be really, really hard to housetrain. What about backing up and trying pee pads? Then you can gradually move outside. Or I've seen those things that they make for people in apartments - like a little grasspad thing that is intended for training help when you live far from your grass. That might work too.

But if you really think it's not going to work out, rehoming at this stage is probably the best idea. At least there hasn't been too much attachment either way. And if you feel you are ready for a dog but not a puppy, you can always look at adopting an older rescue that comes housetrained and out of the puppy-stage.

Good luck - it's a hard decision but in the end you need to do what is best for your family and the dog.

[mistymama]

Dachshunds are hard to housetrain. I bragged to my hubby (pre dachshund puppy!) that I'd crate trained many, many dogs with an excellent track record. And that I would have this dog potty trained in no time. HAHAHHAHAHAHAA - this little guy taught me a lesson, for sure!

Ours was not able to hold his pee for very long at all until he was about 12 weeks old - before that he would pee in his crate if left more than 1.5 hours and overnight was a freaking nightmare. Plus the little thing broke me down and I ended up putting in a dog door to our apartment patio and putting a wee wee pad out there. At least that way I could train him to go outside, and it does work well. He's 7.5 months old now and does not have pee accidents inside (thank God!) but if it's raining the little sh*t will poop right in front of the dog door. He does not like to get his paws wet. :eyeroll:

He's been the hardest dog I've ever had to housetrain, but I think we are nearly there. I still crate him at night and while I'm at work and I must say, he has not had an accident in his crate since he was very small. I do think it helps to feed them in there, so you might want to try that.

I've also got a 6 year old, and in no way, shape or form does he really care for the dog. I have him help with feeding and walking, more to establish his pack order than anything. But he's just not capable of say, walking the dog alone, etc. He needs to be a few years older to do that.

I can only imagine how stressful this is for you - I was stressed and I only have one child! I can't imagine having this puppy with 3 children, one a baby. If you think rehoming is what will work, sooner rather than later will be best. If you decide on another dog, I'd recommend getting an adult, one that is already trained.

Good luck on whatever you decide to do.

[Ola_]

Puppies are a lot of work and very stressful - even if you don't have kids! It sounds like you have a lot on your plate.

I wanted to mention too that at the age your puppy is, they don't really have the muscle control to hold their bladder/bowels reliably. It's just a matter of getting them out there often enough to prevent accidents to prevent bad habits, and wait for them to be able to hold it a bit.

Totally off topic and feel free to ignore me - your mom's dogs are fixed now, right?

[Carson]

Oh, you have your hands full for sure!

Based on my neighbor's experience in getting a puppy with kiddos the same age as yours, I would suggest rehoming him. They didn't have time to potty train the dog, so he went all over the house, so they gate him in the back room. They don't have time to train him or give him attention so he's destructive, and full of too much energy. He spends a lot of time outside, chained up, but barking and howling because he doesn't get attention from his pack. It's not fair to anyone...

IMO, the dog would have been much better off if they had just honestly said they couldn't do it right then. A good friend adopted a rescue and had a hard time (it was her first dog and this was not a 'starter dog'). So I just want to tell you it's okay, you're not a bad person for thinking of rehoming the dog.

[LemonPie]

Thanks all for your kind words.

Based on my neighbor's experience in getting a puppy with kiddos the same age as yours, I would suggest rehoming him. They didn't have time to potty train the dog, so he went all over the house, so they gate him in the back room. They don't have time to train him or give him attention so he's destructive, and full of too much energy. He spends a lot of time outside, chained up, but barking and howling because he doesn't get attention from his pack. It's not fair to anyone...

This is exactly my concern. I feel like my kids need too much attention right now for me to give enough attention to a dog, and it's just not fair to the dog. He really is a sweet little puppy and I think he'll make a fabulous pet for someone who has the time to really work with him.

So we're going to re-home him. I talked to DH about it today and he remembered that my SIL had a client who was interested, but the puppies had all been claimed by the time she called us. So he called his sister today and she talked to this client, who was SUPER excited. They're going to give us a final answer tomorrow. My SIL is a HUGE dog lover and if she approves of this family then I trust her completely--her standards are probably higher than mine

If that falls through, my mom has a possible co-worker who is interested and if THAT falls through, then another SILs sister (you following this? LOL) said she would take him--she already has one of his siblings from a previous litter. So that's three possible good homes lined up for him.

Now to dealing with my kids. . . One of the reasons I agreed to the puppy was because I thought my kids would play with him a lot and that would exercise him. . . but they won't. They play for just a minute or two, get bored of it, and then move on to other things, so I really don't think it's going to be hugely traumatic for them. I suspect that, like me, the *idea* of the puppy was more appealing than the *reality* of a puppy

So I'm a combination of sad and relieved at the moment.

[Carson]

I am really happy to hear your update. There are ways to keep your kids involved/learn about animals without having one under your roof - volunteering at shelters, taking care of neighbors pets, etc...