Hi McSandd,
I'm also waiting for my dog. I have a 3 and 1 year old.
Hope the wait goes quickly. There was a previous thread somewhere in the past about having a puppy & small children, it was super-funny. If I can find it, I'll link to it.
C.
Hi Kuriooo,
I have not been on this forum in quite awhile, and just got caught up! I was wondering if you got your dog or not! I see you have decided to wait, and so have I! My son (who will be 2 at the end of June) is such a handful! We are also still planning to move sometime this year. My daughter, who will be 5 in July will be fine with a dog. I'm still torn between a Havanese and a Miniature Poodle. Anyways, that is where this funny post came from! Copied with permission from the Havanese forum...read it and laugh! Good luck to all with your waiting!
"Back to the original subject...the best news I can give you is that by the time the puppy is old enough that you can begin to relax about things, you won't remember how incredibly hard it all was!
My grandaughter lives with us, and she was 4 months shy of her 2nd birthday when Mojo the nine week old wild man came home. Constant vigilance isn't too hard to maintain considering you will be running around every waking moment trying to keep things halfway under control. Actually, forget about control, you won't have much...
Maybe (I hope) you'll get a calmer pup than we got, but Mojo seldom had a waking moment that didn't include his sharp puppy teeth snapping at anything within range. I will say that for some reason, Mojo never put a scratch on my granddaughter, while we were bloodied everywhere. He did, however, jump and bite at her clothes, hair and anything else remotely attached to her. Here are some of the highlights you will have to look forward to:
1. The puppy will adore diapers, either clean or dirty. There couldn't be anything more messy when shredded.
2. The puppy will be unable to distinguish between his toys and the toddler's. You will hear constant anguished cries of, "No, MINE!!!!" Expect a few of your toddler's favorite toys to be destroyed, or at least muddied beyond hope.
3. If you are toilet training and using a potty, DO NOT LET THE PUPPY IN THE BATHROOM IF YOUR TODDLER IS POOPING. Trust me, this can go badly.
4. The toddler will likely not be gentle with the puppy, and may be jealous of the attention this new "sibling" is getting. Do not underestimate the danger to the puppy. Do not even think about letting the baby pick up the puppy. My granddaughter had been wonderful with our 15 year old mutt, but the puppy was a whole different deal.
5. The toddler will want to eat, and will succeed in eating, the puppy's food, and vice versa. Feed a human grade food. The toddler will want to play in the puppy's water dish, or even pick it up and dump it out.
6. The toddler's needs and the puppy's needs will be in constant conflict. The puppy will bark and wake your toddler from her nap, or when you have just spent ten minutes very carefully extracting the child from the car seat without waking her up, have successfully gotten her through the door to the house and are just about to gently lay her down in her bed.
7. Any toddler eating or play activity will need to be above the puppy's reach, unless you are using an x-pen. We didn't do this, maybe we should have.
8. I didn't notice if your 2-year-old was a girl or boy, but expect that any hair scrunchies or other adornments will be among the puppy's favorite hit-and-run targets.
9. Everyone will tell you to never chase the puppy. You will chase the puppy. Often.
10. You will have to keep the baby's shoes out of reach. This won't work. You will spend time searching the back yard for the left shoe of the pair that is the only one your toddler will agree to wear to pre-school.
11. You will be late to pre-school, because as you were ready to head out the door, the puppy grabbed A, B or C and you HAD to get it back.
12. You will read many suggestions on how to keep control of the challenges of having a puppy and a toddler simultaneously, and you will think you can just have a well organized set-up and firm rules and strict discipline and training for the puppy and the child, and it will all be fine. It won't. It will be chaos much of the time, and you will be harried and frazzled and exhausted, and you will wonder, a couple of weeks into the deal, how you could have so badly underestimated the challenge you were taking on.
13. After the first 4 months, it will all begin to get easier, and by the time the puppy is 8 months old you will have mostly forgotten the crazy early weeks and months.
But...you will have lovely moments shared between toddler and puppy, hilarious anecdotes for dinner guests, and they will adore each other. And the insanity is only a short interlude in a longer and very rewarding relationship between the puppy and his family. I would do it all again...I think...
We chose a Havanese specifically because we wanted a toy breed that was physically tough. You will have to be careful for the puppy's safety while he's small, but he will be an excellent match for your children once he's grown.
I will have to remind Mojo, who can play hard for hours, run 2 miles with me every day (probably could do more, but I can't), and is strong as an ox, that he is a lap dog; I am still laughing over this. He will cuddle when he's tired, for a few minutes, anyway...but I think he merely puts up with it, rather than seeking it out."
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Happy Mom...
of a Happy Hav
