Puppy indirectly injured me

[Anonymous]

We have a 7 month old puppy, a sweet breed of dog (purebred). The puppy indirectly injured me 2 months ago and I'm having a really tough time with it. What happened is that I was walking down the stairs and the puppy raced up the stairs, got underfoot and tripped me. I fell down the stairs and sustained a permanent injury that bothers me constantly (not a broken bone). This injury will never go away according to the Drs. and I am bothered by it every minute of the day. This has been really hard to adapt to, especially because it involves a body part I've never had any problems with.

Anyhow, I am having a tough time dealing with this and I feel resentful towards the puppy for causing this injury to me. I regret getting this puppy. We are experienced dog owners and have had dogs for 20 years, all the same breed. We also have an older dog, same breed as the puppy.

The puppy has other challenging behaviors--he chases and play attacks our older dog several times a day, really annoying her.

He's also extremely mouthy and chews everything. Our other dogs (who we all got as puppies) never chewed to the extent this puppy does.

I'd consider returning him to the breeder because I feel he is not a good fit for our family but my daughter (age 5) is super attached to the puppy.

What would you do?

[Anonymous]

Return the dog before the child is even more attached. Get her something super special that she wants - major toy or something

[Anonymous]

I would rehome the dog. I’m sorry this happened to you, but it does sound like a freak accident.

[Anonymous]

If you think you truly will never get over it, return the puppy. Sounds like you are making a lot of excuses for why you don’t like him other than him tripping you. But don’t get another. That’s traumatizing for your 5 year old.

Personally, I would realize that it was exactly what you said: an accident.

I think it is pointless to compare behaviors amongst puppies. They are all so different, just like human babies are all so different. Maybe he needs a trainer.

[Anonymous]

I think that you need to come to terms with the fact that you are taking your anger out on this poor puppy for something that wasn't his fault and was truly a freak accident. If you get rid of the dog, but don't resolve this anger you still won't be happy.

As for the playfulness and mouthiness of the puppy, these will go away overtime and can be dealt with. They aren't deal breakers to me. Our puppy was very chewy when young, but we constantly worked on it with her and gave her appropriate chew toys, bully sticks, cow's ears and other such things. She is great now and only chews what she should chew.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you think you truly will never get over it, return the puppy. Sounds like you are making a lot of excuses for why you don’t like him other than him tripping you. But don’t get another. That’s traumatizing for your 5 year old.

Personally, I would realize that it was exactly what you said: an accident.

I think it is pointless to compare behaviors amongst puppies. They are all so different, just like human babies are all so different. Maybe he needs a trainer.

+1 OP your post seems to be trying to frame this puppy as defective and not representative of your "sweet breed of dog." You tripped over your puppy. Give him back to the breeder if you can't get over it, but stop trying to build a case against the dog because it tries to play with the older dog or chews on things. That's exactly what puppies are supposed to do.

[Anonymous]

OP here. The main issue is that my daughter, who is an only child, is super attached to the puppy (she doesn't really like our older dog who is super attached to me).

I think she would be so upset if we re-homed the puppy. That is why I am not sure what to do.

I agree, it's not the puppy's fault that he tripped me. Now I am super careful that if I'm walking down the stairs with laundry or something, and he's racing around, I put him in the bedroom until I'm done.

The other thing that bothers me is that he play attacks our older dog a lot, upsetting the older dog. I talked to our vet about it, who suggested a calming supplement to calm him down.

This puppy is much more energetic/active/hyper than any of our previous puppies.

[Anonymous]

dogs on stairs while walking down is a very common injury. not the dogs fault and based on your experience, i am, surprised you are mentioning the other issues you are having, all very normal dog behavior especially with another dog to play with.

training training training but you sound resigned to get rid of him, i hope he ends up in a better home.

[Anonymous]

OP, you don't want to keep the dog. You have a strong dislike of the puppy -- this comes through in your posts. Even though your daughter is attached, she is also going to have to deal with your attitude and reactions toward the dog, and that is going to be confusing and upsetting for her on on ongoing daily basis.

It's a sharp pain to have to give up a dog to whom you are attached, but the sharpness of that will fade. The dynamic won't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:dogs on stairs while walking down is a very common injury. not the dogs fault and based on your experience, i am, surprised you are mentioning the other issues you are having, all very normal dog behavior especially with another dog to play with.

training training training but you sound resigned to get rid of him, i hope he ends up in a better home.

OP here. It would have been one thing if I fell down the stairs and broke a bone or something, and the bone healed and that was the end of it. The injury I got however is not one that will ever resolve or heal, a real freak accident. That's the part that really upsets me, I will have to deal with this injury every minute of every day and I'm resentful. It's almost like I was rear-ended in a car accident and developed permanent neck pain or something that would never go away. In that instance I would be extremely resentful of the driver who caused the accident.

[Anonymous]

Just return to breeder. It's too bad that happened, but it is what it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:dogs on stairs while walking down is a very common injury. not the dogs fault and based on your experience, i am, surprised you are mentioning the other issues you are having, all very normal dog behavior especially with another dog to play with.

training training training but you sound resigned to get rid of him, i hope he ends up in a better home.

OP here. It would have been one thing if I fell down the stairs and broke a bone or something, and the bone healed and that was the end of it. The injury I got however is not one that will ever resolve or heal, a real freak accident. That's the part that really upsets me, I will have to deal with this injury every minute of every day and I'm resentful. It's almost like I was rear-ended in a car accident and developed permanent neck pain or something that would never go away. In that instance I would be extremely resentful of the driver who caused the accident.

How do you think your extreme and daily resentfulness of your daughter's beloved animal will affect her and the relationship the two of you have with each other?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:dogs on stairs while walking down is a very common injury. not the dogs fault and based on your experience, i am, surprised you are mentioning the other issues you are having, all very normal dog behavior especially with another dog to play with.

training training training but you sound resigned to get rid of him, i hope he ends up in a better home.

OP here. It would have been one thing if I fell down the stairs and broke a bone or something, and the bone healed and that was the end of it. The injury I got however is not one that will ever resolve or heal, a real freak accident. That's the part that really upsets me, I will have to deal with this injury every minute of every day and I'm resentful. It's almost like I was rear-ended in a car accident and developed permanent neck pain or something that would never go away. In that instance I would be extremely resentful of the driver who caused the accident.

It is irrational to blame the dog for this. Get therapy and train the puppy rather than causing further trauma in your household.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:dogs on stairs while walking down is a very common injury. not the dogs fault and based on your experience, i am, surprised you are mentioning the other issues you are having, all very normal dog behavior especially with another dog to play with.

training training training but you sound resigned to get rid of him, i hope he ends up in a better home.

OP here. It would have been one thing if I fell down the stairs and broke a bone or something, and the bone healed and that was the end of it. The injury I got however is not one that will ever resolve or heal, a real freak accident. That's the part that really upsets me, I will have to deal with this injury every minute of every day and I'm resentful. It's almost like I was rear-ended in a car accident and developed permanent neck pain or something that would never go away. In that instance I would be extremely resentful of the driver who caused the accident.

How do you think your extreme and daily resentfulness of your daughter's beloved animal will affect her and the relationship the two of you have with each other?

OP here. I don't know. I don't say anything negative about the puppy in front of my daughter. I do avoid the puppy though. My daughter plays with the puppy.

I was fine with the puppy before this freak incident happened. I think the puppy is a more challenging puppy than any other puppy we've had in our 20 years of dog ownership. And I don't like how much stress the puppy is causing our older dog. That was unexpected. We've always had two dogs, usually with a several year age difference between them, but I've never seen this kind of adversarial relationship between a puppy and older dog.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:dogs on stairs while walking down is a very common injury. not the dogs fault and based on your experience, i am, surprised you are mentioning the other issues you are having, all very normal dog behavior especially with another dog to play with.

training training training but you sound resigned to get rid of him, i hope he ends up in a better home.

OP here. It would have been one thing if I fell down the stairs and broke a bone or something, and the bone healed and that was the end of it. The injury I got however is not one that will ever resolve or heal, a real freak accident. That's the part that really upsets me, I will have to deal with this injury every minute of every day and I'm resentful. It's almost like I was rear-ended in a car accident and developed permanent neck pain or something that would never go away. In that instance I would be extremely resentful of the driver who caused the accident.

It's normal to be upset but I'm not sure it's healthy to feel "extreme resent" towards the puppy or the driver. I agree with everyone that you should rehome the puppy but I think you should also consider talking to a counselor to help you work through your emotions about the injury.