Anonymous wrote:
She lets you bring a whole big German Shepherd to her house and you can't handle a little dachshund in your house? Not even in the spirit of reciprocation?

I'd be really unhappy about this and it would change my opinion of you and our relationship forever, knowing now that you're such a self centered person.

Anonymous wrote:
She lets you bring a whole big German Shepherd to her house and you can't handle a little dachshund in your house? Not even in the spirit of reciprocation?

I'd be really unhappy about this and it would change my opinion of you and our relationship forever, knowing now that you're such a self centered person.

Anonymous wrote: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?

Anonymous wrote: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.

Anonymous wrote:You mentioned that your MIL has had dogs before, but has she ever had a puppy? How long ago?

Has she talked to her vet or trainer about this idea?

Free roaming the basement sounds like a really bad idea FOR THE PUPPY, let alone for the house and other (human and non-human) occupants.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many questions…how do you have a cat and a free roam rabbit? Your German Shepard doesn’t care if 20 people including 13 children stay in his house for a week? Do you drug your animals?

How long has it been since your mom raised a puppy? Why does she think it’s a good idea to get a puppy right before she has to travel for the holidays. She should get the puppy after the trip and stay home with it until it’s older.

Dachshunds are small, often aggressive toward other animals and very nippy. At 3 months, she really can’t board it and as it will need to be taken to potty every 3 hours, including at night a pet sitter is a challenge. At 3 months, it won’t have all its shots. It’s generally recommended to not walk or travel until they have had the 16 month parvovirus shot. No one lets a 3 month old puppy have full access at home let alone somewhere else. You start with an X pen, do supervised play time in a gated puppy proof room, or secured backyard area always being near them. Don’t ever leave a small breed puppy in an outdoor exercise pen as hawks, owls or other predators might get them.

Puppies need a lot of sleep. Socialization is best done by gradually stepping up not throwing the puppy into chaos.

Also rabbits can be very territorial. If the puppies instinct to go after the rabbit kicks in then unless you have a very tiny dwarf rabbit your bunny could seriously or fatally injure the puppy. Rabbits are serious fighters when threatened. I’d avoid remembering this holiday as the time bunny dismembered puppy, MIL stomped on bunny, and German Shepard attacked MIL to protect bunny.

Anonymous wrote:Mmmm as someone who recently trained a puppy. I would say that at three months old puppy is too little to free roam. She will either need to have him leashed by her side so she can see his bathroom cues or he will have to be in a pen, but that’s not ideal. Leashed is better. It’s also for the puppy safety as well. With that amount of kids running around, he can easily be trampled or hurt.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 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.

So she allowed you to do it with your dog but now you're bringing down the hammer on her? Do you know how much you save on boarding?

You are entitled to do whatever you want. But you're kind of being a dick about it. I'd tell MIL to use a crate but when the dog is in the house, she's responsible for any messes. Plus, it's a small dog, not a great dane. How big of an issue can it be? Plus, not all puppies pee everywhere. I have a puppy now and she doesn't.

But if you stick with your plan, I'd be prepared not to bring my dog to her next time.

There's a huge difference between bringing a housebroken and a non-housebroken dog to someone else's home. OP is not telling her to board the dog, just that the dog cannot roam freely until it is housebroken. This seems eminently fair.

No there isn't, with the compromise the MIL proposed. Fencing in an area with puppy pads.
Also, OP is already having THIRTEEN children in her house. And she's worried about the dog in a fenced in area? LOL. Ok . .. the issue isn't the dog. It's her refusing her MIL.

Anonymous wrote:OP, you sound like someone who, in life, is very good at rolling with the flow. Let her bring the soft-sides playpen for wherever she sleeps and I would personally order and have ready one of the hard-sides ones for public areas. It might be better with your big dogs.