We brought home a puppy a month and a half ago. My sweet, low maintenance adult dog died when I was expecting our first child, who is now 8 or so months. Puppy is 4 months. I’m home all day with both and handle most of the dog training and enrichment.
I made a mistake and left my puppy outside unattended for 30 mins and she destroyed something my husband had to fix. Now he’s saying he “understands why everyone said not to get a puppy with a baby”, all of his patience goes to the baby, and I need to train her better. She’s basically already potty trained and knows a lot of commands, but still is jumping up on things and tearing at them. She’s crate trained and does well around our baby (not triggered by baby noises, interacts well with him with supervision).
In my mind, she’s still a baby and his expectations are completely unrealistic. I grew up with dogs (this is my first young puppy) and of course his only direct experience with pet ownership was with a cat. He knows how important dog companionship is to me, especially after losing my dog while expecting.
Again, I am the one who handles the majority of dog and baby care during the week- he handles bills and home maintenance things.
I really don’t want to rehome as I would feel terrible, miss my pup and would worry about difficulties getting another dog in the future. We returned an adult shelter pet who wasn’t a great fit (aggression towards our child) after a day so I’d feel especially guilty doing so again. How do I help my husband have more patience with the puppy and convince him it’s worth it?
Please no “rehome the husband” type comments even though I understand the sentiment.
submitted by /u/accidentaloverdrive
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