Got a 9 week old puppy and just found out I’m pregnant

[stoder]

My husband and I just got a puppy a week and a half ago (it’s still very fresh and the puppy blues are very real lol). However we JUST found out we are also pregnant as much as I want this puppy and want it to thrive, I’m not sure how well i can do that now that I’m pregnant and may be feeling sick or super tired soon. I am currently in my off season as i am a wedding photographer but it’s going to get pretty busy in the spring. Now that a baby is on the way, i feel like i need to take on even more shoots before the baby comes to earn all the money that i can (even though my husband reminds me that he wants to take on any and all extra work which is sweet). But if i take on more, I’m not going to have a ton of time with the puppy to train her as well as do that while being pregnant.

Idk i know it’s so early in having her and i know she will only get better, but as a dog that’s going to be 70-80lbs do you think she will be ready mentally to be with a family with a baby as a 10 month old puppy?? Post pardom is going to be a lot of work and i don’t want to have to take care of basically two babies yanno? This is also coming from a pregnant lady whose puppy won’t stop randomly divebombing into my belly How soon did your big dogs mature and do you think 10 month old puppies are capable of managing on their own a lot more? I just want to enjoy this pregnancy (it’s my first) and i also want to enjoy the puppyhood but it is incredible overwhelming right now Pls send help

 

[sayge]

@stoder It can be done, but you have to put in the work. Our puppy was 7 months old when I delivered. He’s 9 months now, weighs 80 lbs (bigger dog, like yours) and our baby is 2 months old.

When I was pregnant, my husband and I did a lot of training with our dog and did a lot of classes (weekly group classes with a trainer). Almost everyday we’d spend 10-15 min with our dog training and working on skills with him. He’s pretty well trained now, but still has his puppy moments.

Crate training is key. Our dog has no issue going into his crate. So if we need to have both of our full attention on our baby, dog goes in the crate.

Having a puppy and baby will of course take commitment from both you and your husband. Only reason it works for my family is because my husband usually manages the dog while I manage the baby. In the mornings, he lets the dog out while I feed baby. Then after we’ve had our coffee, we all try to go for a walk together. When the dog has zoomies, my husband is usually the one to play with him and tire him out.

There are also some benefits that are not so obvious. Things like baby’s immune system, socialization with dogs, etc. are the things people will mention, but having the dog during pregnancy and post partum has helped me physically and mentally recover. Having to take him on walks got me out of the house (stayed mobile during pregnancy and got out of the house with baby after birth).

I won’t lie, it definitely has its challenging moments, but it’s been worth it. Wouldn’t give our puppy up. He’s brought a lot of joy to our family.

If you do decide to keep the puppy, take a look at the IG account dogmeets_baby. A lot of good guidance and recommendations in there!

 

[stoder]

@sayge This is a really good perspective! Especially your post pardom experience with your pup! Thank you so much for sharing this! We socialized our puppy with my niece today and worked on behavior around her since she’s a very small 16 month old. And she did GREAT after the first 10 minutes of excitedness and a few repeated reminders for her to calm down. She did really well. I’m definitely having higher hopes today

 

[whirlygirl]

@stoder At the end of the day, there is no right or wrong choice. You have to do what makes sense for you and your family - whether that’s keeping her or rehoming.

I will say, for the puppies sake… you need to decide as soon as possible. She has a much better advantage at life if you rehome her as a very young puppy than changing your mind several months from now.

IMO (which doesn’t really matter because I’m a random stranger on the internet ) I would vote rehome. You can always adopt another puppy later down the road once you’re more settled as a new family of three. It sounds like you have a LOT on your plate without having to add additional puppy stress on top of it. Even if your husband takes extra work, that still leaves you as the primary caregiver for the puppy AND baby AND yourself.

Every breed/dog is different as far as maturing. Typically, larger breeds do take longer to mature. Although one might even argue breeds like labradors never fully mature (as I type as a proud lab owner ). But I will say maturing is not a dupe for daily, consistent training. 9 months from now, your puppy will be considered a teenager (which is when staying consistent with training is critical because they’ll naturally act out, regress a bit in training and test their boundries). I’ve read most dogs are surrendered to shelters around 7 months to 2 years old for this reason. Especially being a large breed, proper training could be a life saver for her. Large breeds are often more scrutinized when it comes to manners/training… if a 15 pound dog jumps on you it might not hurt, but a 80 pound dog could be a liability.

It sounds like you’ll be the primary caregiver of the puppy so I’d have a serious conversation with your husband on your concerns. If you got your puppy from a breeder or rescue, I’m sure if you explained your situation they’d be able to take the puppy back.

Edit: also is this your first puppy? if so, (I’m sorry but this may sound harsh) but I’d very strongly consider rehoming. Being a first time dog mom AND human mom sounds like a recipe for major emotional and physical burn out. Is it possible to do both? Yes. But you only have so much you can give and constantly caring and looking after everyone else will leave you no time to take care of yourself. And you 100% deserve better than that.

 

[blognhadep2017]

@stoder Yikes that’s a rough situation to be in all at once.

It really depends on the dog. My puppy is a year old and he’s great with elderly/disabled people/animals, and loves kids, so although he’s never been around an infant (other than walking past them in stores and stuff where he ignores them) I think he would probably be really good with them. That being said, you can never guarantee that with any dog, and imo I wouldn’t want to risk leaving even the best behaved dogs with a baby alone (I know that’s not necessarily what you’re asking but I just want to make it clear. I wouldn’t even want to risk having a puppy that large in the same room as the baby for more than a few brief minutes at a time). Even a small, well intentioned dog could wind up hurting a baby if they try and play with them. So it would be very easy for a large puppy to do so.

On top of that, puppies are a LOT of work- probably more than a baby because of their ability to walk, run, eat things, and bite. I don’t think anybody realizes how hard they are until they have one for themselves.

Personally, if I was in your position, I would choose between either the baby or the puppy. I love my puppy but I can’t imagine caring for him while also being pregnant and then eventually, a new mom. If you still want a dog, maybe you could go to a shelter and find an older, smaller dog.

I’m sorry you’re stuck in this position and I hope you wind up finding a solution that works for you

 

[frangipani]

@stoder Currently just under 28 weeks with a pup who will be 8 months in a few days. Every pregnancy and pup is obviously different but, for me, the worst thing has been the tiredness, especially since I'm the main earner with a hectic job while my husband is mainly at home working a similar field to you (although primarily recording events and promotions rather than weddings).

We found out the week before we picked our boy up from the breeder when he was 11 weeks and I had a similar dilemma or whether or not we should go through with it. My husband assured me we could manage so we picked him up as planned at 12 weeks. We've honestly never regretted the decision. Yes, some days he tries our patience (my favourite threat being I'm going to turn him into a rug), especially through this teenage phase. But seeing snippets of the pup he's going to turn into puts me at ease.

I'd say it's actually been great because it means we've been able to prepare him better for the future from being young. Making sure he's properly socialised with kids of all ages and correcting him where it's needed so he learns what's okay/not okay, and making us more active with things popping up that will be problematic either while I'm in the third trimester or after such as getting more help with leash training when he suddenly started pulling more this last month.

What I would say is take every day as it comes, if there's a behaviour he starts showing that you don't want further down the line, work on it straight away instead of putting it off until later down the line. Adolescence isn't a ball but by that point we were bonded to our terror which has really helped me to not totally lose my rag at him when he's willfully ignoring me and I'm not exactly emotionally stable with hormones right now. Yet at the same time, when I am feeling emotional or stressing over something pregnancy related he's always there to act as the perfect distraction, and we're grateful for him every day.

Hope you manage to come to a decision, as I say every pregnancy and pup is different, we've had it relatively easy with both so far touch wood even if his adolescence phase is testing us hard right now. All I want to say is it is possible but no one will judge if it's too much for you. Puppies and babies are both big life changes at the end of the day.