#NewBaby #DogDilemma #FamilyStruggles 🐶👶
Hey everyone! Need some advice on a situation that’s been causing tension in my household. So, my wife and I recently welcomed our first baby into the world, and on top of that, we have two fur babies – a 1.5-year-old golden retriever and a 7-year-old pug. Here’s the kicker: my wife spontaneously brought home the golden retriever one day, despite my initial reluctance.
Now, she’s expressing a desire to get rid of the dogs because she feels overwhelmed taking care of them along with our new baby. I, on the other hand, feel attached to our furry friends and don’t want to see them go. Here are some thoughts and possible solutions I’ve been considering:
* Have an open and honest conversation with your wife about each other’s perspectives and concerns
* Seek the help of a professional dog trainer to work on any behavioral issues
* Come up with a schedule or plan to divide responsibilities when it comes to taking care of the dogs and baby
* Consider enlisting the help of a dog walker or pet sitter to alleviate some of the stress
What do you all think? Any advice or personal experiences to share? Let’s help each other out! 🐾❤️👶
It is very very common to suddenly hate your dogs postpartum. But her concerns are real concerns, find some solutions. It took me entirely too long to realize it was totally ok to crate my dog when he was being an ass and driving me up a wall. Turns out, he likes snoozing in it anyway since he was overstimulated by the baby too. So I’m sure there’s something you can come up with to ease the actual concerns she has. Keeping them to one area, doing most of the walks/etc with them and so on.
It is common for resentment of animals postpartum. It can be overstimulating and stressful especially with your baby still being so small. If their fur is the major concern, maybe consider a robot vacuum or a large air purifier i had one and it did pretty well in the major animal areas of my home. Maybe a cleaning service. Maybe some kind of support for her might be good too. I see it all the time where people hate their dogs right after giving birth who they love and then coming to a point where they can start enjoying them again. Maybe if you have someone who could watch them or a doggie daycare to help with the overstimulation and feel like you’re able to clean without it immediately being destroyed.
All very valid points, the biggest concern really is that my wife is an absolute clean freak, and you know Golden retrievers and Pugs shed ALOT so she feels like she constantly vacuuming 2-3 times a day and yes I help her clean the house, I just cannot keep up with doing it that often.
We have a section of the house gated off so they can have their own space and we can have our own space w the baby, but we can only keep them in their area for so long, they have a massive backyard, but of course one has a digging problem so it’s hard to leave them out there unsupervised.
But there is no issue for entertainment, I throw the ball for the dogs everyday for about 20 min, and then most of the time the dogs entertain themselves w bones or just playing w each other.
Going through this as well. My wife and I welcomed our first 11mo ago and she immediately started hating our dogs once our little one was here.
All I told her was, we made a commitment years ago when we got our dogs. We have our word, and the dog my wife got (Husky) saved her. By this I mean, my wife told me countless times when she was at her lowest, that little pup kept her going. As for my dog, she’s a rescue and I’ll do anything in my power to never let her set foot in a shelter again.
So, the problem at hand? I took over ALL responsibility with the dogs. I walk them, feed them, clean up after them, take them to the vet and so forth. When my wife wants the space to play with our child, I take the dogs for a walk or down into our basement while I work.
It’s not the best situation, but we’re making it work. I hope this helps you and I hope she can stay true to her word/actions and be committed. The situation is by no fault of the dogs. They’re our children too.
I think you need to sit down together and come up with a plan about what exactly is bothering her and how to fix it without rehoming the dogs.
Like is it possible to hire a dog walker in the neighborhood to take them out of the house routinely, do they need more training, do they have a fenced yard they can spend time in outside the house and away from her and the baby for a while? Would getting them bones, food puzzle toys to keep them entertained longer help out? Would she appreciate you taking them out on a 15 minute walk after work to tire them out for the night, or in the morning? Maybe a dog daycare? (Though cost could be an issue there).