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[quote=Anonymous]We’ve had our puppy for two months now - got him when he was 10 weeks old. Our kids are 13 and 11 and we both work full time. I’ll be honest, he’s adorable and there are for sure moments where it’s wonderful and I’m like “oh this is why people have a dog” but I wouldn’t do it again if I had the choice over with no consequences.

It’s is very much like a baby in that your life absolutely revolves around the puppy’s schedule. For the first two weeks, we were up twice a night to take him out to go potty and it was exactly like having a newborn. After like five days we were absolutely a mess - sleep deprived and miserable and then working/schooling the kids all the next day.

He did start to sleep through the night within a few weeks and we feel very lucky for that. And housebreaking is going pretty well, but someone has to have eyes on him literally AT ALL TIMES unless he is sleeping or crated. And this will likely continue for at least a few more months, probably a year or more.

That’s the hard part. It’s like a newborn in that it’s constant and exhausting and you live your life in like two hour increments, trying to cram in everything you need to do before the puppy wakes up from the nap. And also the newborn pees everywhere and bites and chews and is mobile. So in that way, much harder.

It also is like a newborn in that it is EVERY SINGLE DAY even if you’re tired or sick or it’s raining or you just feel like sitting. Literally ever day here is our day:

6am - puppy wakes and whines until someone gets him
6-9am - eyes on puppy 100% of the time; take him for a walk, lots of fetch, training, breakfast, etc. oh you want to sit down and have a lazy morning? NOPE!
9-11am - puppy naps in his crate
11-2 - eyes on puppy 100% of the time: walk, lunch, fetch, training
2-3 - puppy naps in his crate
3-7pm - eyes on puppy 100% of the time (you get it at this point...)
7-8ish - puppy bedtime 
8pm and after - cram in everything you couldn’t get done during the day bc you were watching the puppy

Now do that literally every single day. We’re at a point where we’re going to get a dog walker even though we’re home. Obviously this schedule is not working with two full time working parents. Kids help daily, but not when it’s hard or they don’t feel like it. [/quote]

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