I feel so terrible that I even have to write this. A week ago we adopted a 5 month old female shih tzu puppy who is the sweetest thing in the world. She's not yet well trained and is a full time job 24/7. I'm completely exhausted and have a complete meltdown at least once a day and I don't have the time to take care of myself. But the issue isn't the training, letting her outside, or the 24/7 supervision. These things are all really hard but it's not what is fueling my anxiety/depression.
We already have an 11 year old male shih tzu, and two cats (one of which is blind). I hate to say it but our older dog just doesn't like the puppy one bit. He tries to ignore her as much as possible and has no interest in playing with her. When she tries to play with him he will growl or snap at her (they did play together when they first met, but not at all since we brought her home). When he does this she keeps trying to play with him and doesn't seem to get the message, so I wouldn't say they are "working it out." (of course, I do intervene when it gets like this). I get the feeling that he's getting jealous even though we do our best to give him the same attention as the puppy. I can tell the older dog is already getting depressed and is sometimes aggressive toward the other cats which he never was before. I feel like he really wants to be an "only-dog" and I don't want him to live out his final years just trying to get away from the puppy and being sad. It breaks my heart to see our older dog act like this.
In terms of the cats, the puppy won't stop chasing them. We are trying to train her not to and the cats do have their own space to escape, but they definitely do not have the same comfort to roam the house as they used to. The blind cat is also is kidney failure and probably only has about a year left. I hate the fact that he will have to live the rest of his life walking around the house with caution and running away from the puppy. The other cat just jumps from counter to table and can't go in the kitchen area (which the puppy is restricted to) without being chased. Again, we are very consistent about telling her "No" and praising her when she doesn't chase them, but it is clear the cats are not happy.
We do keep the puppy in her pen when we can't supervise her with the other pets and at night, but I spend 95% of my day making sure they're getting along. I feel like we introduced them properly, I just don't know if this puppy is the right fit for the family. I'm so anxious all the time I feel like I can't even properly bond with her. I feel like a horrible person but I just feel so guilty for the pets we already have and I feel like they should be the priority. I used to think people who gave back their pets were the worst people, but here I am considering it. I know I should probably wait it out, but it hurts me so much to see the other pets in discomfort and I don't want the puppy to get too attached if we do end up giving her back.
Maybe we could just foster her until another family can adopt her? The shelter mentioned there were 200 other adoption applications for the puppy, so I have no doubt she would be adopted by another family.
[link] [comments]
from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/qu23sc/should_i_return_my_puppy_to_the_shelterfoster/
No comments:
Post a Comment