Puppies and small kids.

We adopted a sweet female lab mix a few days ago. She is 6 weeks old, our daughter named her Maggie. She is very sweet and cuddly, and also very much a puppy (chewy, playful, excited) which we did expect. However, we have a 3 year old and a 1 year old which complicates things immensely. We originally wanted to wait until our youngest was older but a family friend was having a litter of pups and we know how wonderful labs can be with kids. We hesitantly (yet excitedly) jumped on board and now I'm having huge second thoughts. The puppy is wonderful but so much work! We love her dearly, and I'd hate to rehome her. I'm home all day with the kids so that's helpful.

I wish the folks that had the puppies would have kept them longer for the rough play with litter mates, but they didn't want to keep them past 6 weeks.

Any tips for having small children and a puppy together? I'm trying to divide my attention fairly but the kids need to come first. We do use a crate for night time, and I try to make it a comfortable space for the pup. She does well going potty outside and eats/drinks well. We also have cats but they're relatively unbothered by Maggie and she likes them.

 

Moderator Note: Moderators note

Sadly, in some parts of the world there is a tragic trade in tiny puppies barely able to walk. On the Labrador site we frequently get comments from people who have purchased puppies as young as 21 days old. Their owners will usually need help from a qualified veterinary professional if the puppy is to survive and thrive.

Our forum policy is to encourage people to wait until their puppy is eight weeks old before collecting it from the breeder. To make sure we are not encouraging the trade in underage puppies, nor depriving these puppies of essential veterinary attention, we have the following rule.

If a forum member’s puppy has been removed from the breeder/ mother before the age of seven weeks, that member must wait until their puppy is seven weeks old before posting about him or her on the forum

We recommend that anyone with a puppy under this age contacts their vet without delay for instructions on feeding, general care, and medical treatment. We understand that members want to help these puppies, but the forum is not the right place to be distributing specialist advice of this nature.[\mod]