Many blogs and articles will give you good reasons why you should get a dog for the family. However, many of those blogs and articles fail to recognise the real issues and problems that can come from having a dog, so this article is designed to set the record straight. Here’s 6 reasons you shouldn’t get a dog if you have kids, or plan on having kids:
Reason 1: You Have to Have Sufficient Time for The Dog
A dog needs lots of love, care, and attention in order for it’s needs to be fulfilled. As a dog owner, it will be your responsibility to keep them happy and healthy with treats and treatments from places like www.perfectpetskin.co.uk, but it’s easy to take your attention away from the dog if you have kids or plan on having them. The moment you have a baby you’ll have much less time for the dog, and it isn’t fair to make them go without.
Reason 2: You’ll Always Need to Find a Dog Sitter if You Want to Go Out
If you want to go out, not only will you have to find somebody to look after the children, you’ll have to find somebody to take care of your dog. This might not be necessary with a one night outing, but if you’re staying over somewhere for the weekend or going on holiday it can be impossible to think of a solution. You could always put your dog in kennels, but that will cost a lot of money.
Reason 3: A Dog is For Life
A dog should be kept in the same household with the same family for all of it’s life, unless that family was neglectant of course. If you all of a sudden get sick of the dog because he’s under your feet along with your children, or you just can’t cope because you don’t have the time now you’ve had your baby, you might end up giving away your dog. This isn’t fair on the dog!
Reason 4: The Novelty Could Wear Off
When Christmas comes round, a birthday, or another special event, it’s easy to get excited and think of all of the wonderful things that a dog could bring to the household. However, the novelty could soon wear off when you realise you need to put time, effort, and money into taking care of the dog.
Reason 5: Dogs Need to Be Supervised Around Young Children
If you have young children, it’s important that they are always supervised around any dog. If your child doesn’t know any better, it could pull the dog’s tail/fur, or do other things to aggravate and irritate it. This could lead to a nasty accident where the dog loses control and you have to have it put down!
Reason 6: You Need Lots of Patience
Your patience will likely be wearing thin with your children/pregnancy, so you might not have the patience to train your dog properly. They need to be taught to go outside to the toilet, and should know straight off the bat that you are there master by using proven training techniques. If you don’t have the patience for this, you’ll both suffer.
Having a dog is a huge responsibility, and the moment you are a dog owner you’ll have responsibilities to care for that dog and make sure it’s happy, healthy, and well looked after. If you don’t think you can handle the pressure as well as the pressure of kids, don’t get a dog!