Saturday, December 17, 2011

Flavour of the Day with Noora


Getting a Dog

My husband and step daughter have been wishing for a dog for the past 2 years.

Since my husband is a very smart man and is bluntly stating that he will claim no responsibility for the pet, he is leaving matters totally up to me.

I have been going back and forth with the idea for a very long time now; I have always had a soft spot in my heart for dogs. But after becoming a mama, I decided to shed the number of "things" I was responsible for. I have a one year-old baby who is a handful on his own.

However, every time I see someone walking his dog, I get all mushy and give in to the idea.

We have a spacious outdoor area where I can set up the dog house as I do not want it inside the house.

I did my research and decided on a Labrador Retriever, an amazing family dog. I also read people's comments about raising dogs, and this is what is scaring me. I'm worried that I'm underestimating the magnitutde of the responsibility.

Any dog owners who can shed some light on what it really takes to raise a dog? Is it possible to have a dog but never let him into the house?

3 comments:

Samah said...

I understand the dilemma since I have it in my home ! My kids love dogs and they are dying to get one but we live in an apartment so that has its limitations.

A few years back, I caved under my kids' wishes and we got a dog, the kids loved it but he was a handful! Everybody wanted to play with him, and feeding him was no problem for them either, but training him and cleaning him was no fun and therefor nobody wanted to do it! It ended up another chore for me and my house keeper.
That been said the biggest problem I faced was walking him and taking him places with us, you can not take dogs anywhere in Jordan, they are not even allowed in the club ! so there was no place for my kids to run around with him.
Add to that the visitors I had (especially my kids friends and my family) usually asked me to lock him up when they were in my house which drove him crazy! We finally had to give him away to another family.
I still might cave in to my kids' wishes again but not until they are old enough to take full responsibility of their pet.

Noora said...

My only problem would be walking him since I have a backyard for him to run and play in. I'm not sure if I can commit to walking him 2-3 times daily.

Anyways, thanks.

Samah said...

If u have a spacious backyard I doubt u need to walk him more than once, but that info is better researched per dog. You might need to look up all feeding, bathing, training and other info from Internet and find a good dog trainer to help.
Having a good house keeper, or Gardner that is not afraid of dogs will help in bathing and walking too.
Good luck :)