What I Wish I Had Known Before Getting a Puppy While Raising Young Kids

By
Liz Ewing
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My husband and I talked since early in our marriage that someday we wanted a dog to be part of our family. We talked about what characteristics we wanted in a pup and all the ways a dog would be good for our kids. When our youngest child was about a year-and-a-half and our three-year-old was asking about pets, we shrugged our shoulders and thought it was at least something to think about. I asked friends with dogs for their advice, researched temperaments of different breeds, and really pictured our lives with a furry bundle of joy. So when we met our future puppy, Abby, a few short months later, I was so in. One look at her big gray eyes and it was happily ever after…
 
Except it wasn’t. At least not all of the time.
 
Despite my research and shared knowledge from friends, it wasn’t until we had a puppy that I realized how challenging this would be. I, a cat enthusiast, had never had a dog (but had always wanted one) and my husband, who had had multiple dogs in his life (but had never been the grown-up in charge of a puppy AND children) found ourselves wondering what on earth we had gotten into. So many times we have looked at each other and said, “I wish I would have known…” 
 

I wish I would have known how hard it is to keep puppy toys separate from kid toys. 

It sounds simple: a basket for dog toys, kids toys go on their shelves or toy boxes.  Except my daughter’s favorite stuffed animal goes wherever she goes, and if she sets it down for a moment, within seconds it seems like our puppy has it in her jaws. We’ve lost many Barbies, stuffed animals, Little People, markers, game pieces, Legos and more, for the same reason. Our kids don’t mean to leave toys out, but they are kids and this is their home that they love to play in. Toys get left out sometimes and in a puppy’s eyes, it’s all fair game.

I wish I would have known how much attention a puppy needs.

I already struggle with mom guilt for not giving my kids enough undivided attention, but a puppy will want the same. It’s not enough to just give the puppy food, water, and a backyard to play in. She will want to be in your lap (no matter her size), with you gazing in her eyes as you scratch her head. Or she will follow you around with a toy in her mouth wanting to play fetch. Or she needs to go potty. It’s a lot like having another toddler! On evenings that we are particularly busy, I’ll put the kids to bed and then turn around and put our puppy in her crate and wonder if any of them got enough of me that day to feel loved.

I wish I would have known how hard it would be to train a puppy with small kids around.

We were really lucky with a puppy who crate trained and potty trained easily. My husband and I high-fived each other in the early days that we had this puppy training down… except training a puppy to sit, stay, drop it, or come is very difficult with two young kids running around. Our children love our dog, but they are so distracting to her when we need to get serious.  My four-year-old is learning and loves to “help” but it’s still a lot to handle to teach a child how to train a dog. We are definitely still a big work-in-progress in this area!

I wish I would have known how much our puppy would bring joy to our kids.

Despite the chaos we often have with two littles and a puppy running around, watching my kids laugh and play with our dog in the back yard melts my heart every time. They love coming home from preschool and daycare to see our dog who is beyond excited to see them. Somehow we are surviving raising a puppy with two young kids and I know that one day all too soon I’ll look back and smile at these days, wondering how we made it through but thankful that we did with so many memories of our kids growing up with a dog.  

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