Anonymous wrote:Can you put the rabbit in a cage and the cat in one of the bedrooms? Are you planning to have your animals out and about?

Op here - rabbit has a pen and goes in there at night and can be put in if things are too hectic with all the kids. It mostly sleeps under a coach during the day and doesn’t leave our family room. Our dog is very friendly and has been around all the family members many times, so is fine being out. We don’t have a crate for her, since she never needs one. Cat hides in the basement and is rarely seen.

Op here - our rabbit is house broken and uses a litter box in his pen. I promise our house is clean and orderly 😂. Yes - it will be chaotic and we have a large home to fit everyone.

I offered the pen to go on the small tile floor in the basement next to the door to go outside where they are staying. MIL is just mad because she wants to the puppy “near all the action” during the day.

Put the puppy in a puppy diaper but make sure she/one of the kids takes it out every few hours to potty. Caging the puppy all day is cruel.

Can you put the rabbit in a cage and the cat in one of the bedrooms? Are you planning to have your animals out and about?

You lost me at “free roam rabbit” 😂
Your house sounds like happy chaos already. Why even try to control her puppy? Have some wine and just let go?

Am I understanding this correctly, you’re hosting 18-23 humans in your house for a week? How many bathrooms do you have? I’m not sure the puppy is the only one you have to worry about.

Anonymous wrote:We will be hosting 18-23 for a week for Christmas (I know - insane 😂). 10 small children and we have three house pets ourselves (all very good with kids). This will be a massive undertaking for DH and I, but we are happy to have family here. MIL will have a 3 month old dachshund puppy she wants to bring to the house....We agreed, but because our house is mostly carpet, said the puppy needs to stay crated or can run around outside and not run around the house.

Mil is very upset with this and is throwing a fit. Are we being cruel here? She wants to put pee pads down and let it run around the house...

Carpet -wood-tile- is irrelevant. No pee poo in the house and the MIL is ridiculous. That 3 month old puppy can't have the run of the house - volume of people, exterior doors ( open and out the thing goes?).So you are driving distance to each other but iits an overnight range. No pee pads anywhere. No human playpen/playyard. It needs to go out consistently on a leash in a puppy sized harness that fits it size. Our dogs were house trained by 3 months- this isn't a NYC apt yorkie trained to go in the equivalent of a litter box.

Use a larger breed crate in an out of the way room like a laundry room -a 3 month dachshund is at most the weight of a small 8 week labrador. Crates have crate pans- metal or plastic. when it's not in the crate it should be leashed using the harness.

Anonymous wrote:Op here - it’s 13 kids actually. So yes - I told her this is too much. Either crate her puppy while in the house or don’t bring it. She wants to put it into a carrier and wear her (I said that’s fine), but no free running around my house. She is bringing a playpen for it too and wants it set up on the main floor since there a hallway with wood floor. With pads down for when it goes. I’m not a fan of this either, but maybe I’m being difficult here. I also feel like our shepherd is going to go nuts trying to get into the soft, collapsible sided pen….

She wants to block a hallway in the main floor of the house while there are ~30 people staying with you? Seems inadvisable.

Is there a mudroom or laundry room or unfinished basement utility room she can put the playpen in? I'd offer that, but frame it not that her puppy is a presumptive PITA, just in terms of logistics.

Can you put up the pen the week before so your German shepherd gets used to it? Otherwise, your German shepherd may be already overwhelmed with all the people and be too tired to do much.

Op here - it’s 13 kids actually. So yes - I told her this is too much. Either crate her puppy while in the house or don’t bring it. She wants to put it into a carrier and wear her (I said that’s fine), but no free running around my house. She is bringing a playpen for it too and wants it set up on the main floor since there a hallway with wood floor. With pads down for when it goes. I’m not a fan of this either, but maybe I’m being difficult here. I also feel like our shepherd is going to go nuts trying to get into the soft, collapsible sided pen….

You are hosting a million people, graciously allowing her to bring her puppy, and she is throwing a fit about your well thought out plan? That sucks. Have your DH tell her that she can stay home with her puppy, leave her puppy at home and come, or come and enjoy her Christmas with family and follow your simple rules. It’s that easy. Stand your ground.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe you could decorate the pee pads for the holiday? I'd order a bedazzler now.
Good luck with MIL.

This is a joke, right? The puppy could lick up and eat that stuff and could become quite ill. Plus it could attract young children to the pee pad.

I would see if your vet thinks it's a good idea. If not, blame it on the vet. Puppies are often nippy too and not all small children are comfortable with that. Plus, are all the kids socialized to how to be appropriate and gentle with a puppy? Do you want your carpets to smell like pee? Will MIL pay for all the damage? Has the puppy been around that big a crowd? Dachshund puppies are small. With so many people the dog could accidentally get injured.

Maybe you could decorate the pee pads for the holiday? I'd order a bedazzler now.
Good luck with MIL.

Jeez - a) stand your ground. A 3 month old puppy still has accidents. And b) this sounds horrible. All of it. Good luck!

We will be hosting 18-23 for a week for Christmas (I know - insane 😂). 10 small children and we have three house pets ourselves (all very good with kids). This will be a massive undertaking for DH and I, but we are happy to have family here. MIL will have a 3 month old dachshund puppy she wants to bring to the house. We feel obliged to say yes since she always lets us being our large, German shepherd when we travel (we used to board her when she was younger and never brought her along as a puppy for obvious reasons). We agreed, but because our house is mostly carpet, said the puppy needs to stay crated or can run around outside and not run around the house.

Mil is very upset with this and is throwing a fit. Are we being cruel here? She wants to put pee pads down and let it run around the house, but we have a dog, cat and free roam rabbit as well. I don’t see how the puppy will truly be potty trained by then, and we really don’t want pee/poop in the house. There will be so much chaos already going on, this just seems so unkind to also put on us.

I’m firmly standing my ground here right now, but need a reality check as to if this is fair or not.