Puppy Troubles

Here we are, a couple with a ten-month-old. Mr. Heid cooks meals, while I play with Baby J. We all eat dinner together (shout out to Solid Starts for making baby-led weaning so easy), we give the kid a bath, and wind down with storytime. Baby J has fully transitioned from breastfeeding and dropped her last bottle feed. We switch off nights putting her to bed. She goes down easy, and we have time for just the two of us. Baby J sleeps through the night. Life is the easiest it's been since giving birth. We have a groove.

And then we adopted a puppy. Guys. Why?!

We adopted Koopa when he was 7-weeks-old. We had adopted our last dog, Keiko, when she was just 8-weeks-old and trained her up to be quite an awesome dog. We had pushed on and tugged her and taught her to cease play if we got near her face in anticipation of a future life with babies and kids around, but sadly she died of a brain tumor shortly after Baby J’s birth.

Since we had a baby already, we thought it’d be smart to adopt a puppy that we could train from the very beginning so that they would learn to have that same gentleness that Keiko did. Whew. Apparently, I’d forgotten what training a puppy was like. Now that he’s received a little more training and is a few weeks older, it seems like a good time to document and share the experience so far.

IN THE BEGINNING

Lack of potty training, nipping, and super excited jumping from Koopa meant Baby J lost some freedom to move about and explore her home. These two couldn't be on the floor together. Not great for a babe learning to stand and walk on her own. She reverted to needing a bottle to sleep, and she started waking in the middle of the night again. Some of this could be attributed to a growth spurt, but some of it could also be attributed to the little furball of chaos we brought into her world.

Koopa is every bit a puppy and needs a lot of training. He gets so wound up that he's very hard to bring back down, and he expels his energy the only way he knows how — biting and barking. We don't have time to make dinner and we're exhausted by the time the baby and puppy fall asleep. When Baby J was on his level, we hovered and wouldn't let them interact too long in case he got puppy playful. Our skin is tougher and those puppy teeth and nails feel sharp on us — I can't imagine what it would be like if Baby J got caught up in puppy play.

I may have had a few breakdowns — can we do it? What if he's not trainable? What if he's not a good fit for our family? What if Baby J becomes fearful of dogs because of this experience? What if I become too stressed to train him properly? I honestly had days where I wished we could go back in time and not adopt a puppy at all. Either I had forgotten what it was like to train a puppy, this puppy is harder to train, or I’m simply more stressed about the training because we can’t risk our kid getting hurt in this ordeal. Or maybe all of the above.

Life looks cute on Instagram (because I haven’t posted the bites and scratches that cover Mr. Heid's arms), but I'm here to tell you that trying to balance a puppy and a baby was not our best move.

CURRENTLY

Two weeks after Koopa’s Gotcha Day, we met with a positive reinforcement trainer, and things are looking up! He’s learning a bit of bite inhibition, but he needs more practice. He’s learned his name and comes when he’s called unless there’s something better where he is. We’ve learned how to encourage positive behavior and redirect negative behaviors (though, we’re no pros).

He’s gotten comfortable with our home and more trusting of us. He is on a regular potty schedule, so he has less accidents in the house. Sometimes he gives great cues, so we’re trying to pick up on those better.

UP NEXT

Our next steps are putting up a temporary divider wall between Koopa’s space and Baby J’s space. We didn’t do that previously, because we were concerned that they needed to learn how to interact versus how to avoid each other. However, our trainer reassured us that just seeing and hearing each other through the gate would provide plenty of interaction (in a safer and less stressful manner) and will show each of them what behaviors to expect from each other (like barking from Koopa and toy banging from Baby J) until we were ready to do specific training sessions on their interactions.

We’ll be working even more on his recall so that he’ll stop and come back when his name is called despite what distractions there may be. We’re going to take him to more puppy classes and dog facilities so that he can better learn bite inhibition. And, we just learned techniques to teach Koopa how to “go to place.”

People keep saying, “You’re brave!” when they find out we have a puppy and a baby. What they call “brave,” we’re calling “a lapse in judgment.” Would I do it this way again? Probably not. Do I still sometimes wish that we could go back and not adopt? Absolutely. Do I still halfway joke that I’m taking his puppy butt back to the kennel? Most definitely.

But we’re surviving, and I truly think that Koopa will be well trained and mannered in the end. He and Baby J will probably grow up to be the best of friends.

If you have any positive reinforcement dog training tips for us, I’d love to hear them!

Cheers,

K