I'm scheduled to pick up my puppy this Sunday (8 week old) , the plan was that I was going to work from home and be home with it 24/7 to help house train it, the 2 major concerns = (a) to get it potty trained and not make in the house (b) it doesn't take over the house
that was the plan, however recently got news that one of my sons has lymphoma and is in the hospital. My wife and I have been trading 12hour shifts staying with him in the hospital/being home with other children. With my wife doing the day shift as she's the one who has the medical background and speaks with the doctors when they do their rounds, so I do the night shift. As such, I cannot be home with the puppy 24/7 , and in particular can't be home at night. the last thing that I want is for my wife to have to deal with a puppy making / soiling her house (she'd flip) or whimpering at 2am to go make outside.
The simple solution would be to push off the pickup date - but I really want my younger ( 9 year old) son to have the puppy (actually with the medical news, and not having "mommy' around, he really needs the puppy and has SO been waiting anxiously) AND I don't how long my son will be in the hospital - it could be just one more week, but unfortunately it could easily be 2-3 weeks. (he's been here 3 weeks already due to various complications)
Let me know what ideas you suggest.
The way I see it, my options are:
(a) Tell my 9 y.o. - sorry and live with the delay.
(b) cancel the puppy, and try to find a 6mo - 1 yr golden in the NY area (though I'm willing to travel ) already house trained (hard to find, and research what breeding it had)
(c) take the puppy and let him sleep in the garage w/no crate letting it go when it wants (and I can clean up his mess when I get home) - so my question is: would this allow him to develop bad habits, so that when I get home full time, he is going to be difficult to potty train? Also will it be scary to it to sleep alone.
thx!
that was the plan, however recently got news that one of my sons has lymphoma and is in the hospital. My wife and I have been trading 12hour shifts staying with him in the hospital/being home with other children. With my wife doing the day shift as she's the one who has the medical background and speaks with the doctors when they do their rounds, so I do the night shift. As such, I cannot be home with the puppy 24/7 , and in particular can't be home at night. the last thing that I want is for my wife to have to deal with a puppy making / soiling her house (she'd flip) or whimpering at 2am to go make outside.
The simple solution would be to push off the pickup date - but I really want my younger ( 9 year old) son to have the puppy (actually with the medical news, and not having "mommy' around, he really needs the puppy and has SO been waiting anxiously) AND I don't how long my son will be in the hospital - it could be just one more week, but unfortunately it could easily be 2-3 weeks. (he's been here 3 weeks already due to various complications)
Let me know what ideas you suggest.
The way I see it, my options are:
(a) Tell my 9 y.o. - sorry and live with the delay.
(b) cancel the puppy, and try to find a 6mo - 1 yr golden in the NY area (though I'm willing to travel ) already house trained (hard to find, and research what breeding it had)
(c) take the puppy and let him sleep in the garage w/no crate letting it go when it wants (and I can clean up his mess when I get home) - so my question is: would this allow him to develop bad habits, so that when I get home full time, he is going to be difficult to potty train? Also will it be scary to it to sleep alone.
thx!