Vent: am I overreacting?
My husband and I live in a small 2 bed 1.5 bath townhouse with our mother-in-law, our 6 month old son, and our chihuahua. My MIL watches the baby while we are at work. My brother-in-law is going on vacation for a week and wants my MIL to watch his dog while she watches our son and our dog. So he wants to bring his big boxer dog to stay at our house all week while he’s gone. This dog is an inside dog and I don’t want it at our house. I don’t want my MIL having to worry about two dogs while watching our baby. We don’t have a backyard we have a small patio area that the chihuahua doesn’t even like to go to the bathroom but has been learning to. Also, I’m going to be working over 2 hours away from home next week and don’t want to stress. I’ve been already. I told my husband I don’t think it’s a good idea but we keep arguing about it. I don’t want to jeopardize my son’s safety or have him being ignored because she’s taking care of a dog! Am I wrong? :(
No you’re not wrong! Your baby is 6 months and I understand that your brother in law needs someone to watch his dog but he should understand his dog is a very big breed and your baby is still pretty young to be around a dog like that, especially an inside dog, I have big dogs myself but I wouldn’t want them inside with my baby until she’s at least a year or more because you never know what can happen and the mother in law is already taking care of a dog adding another and much bigger dog is going to make it harder to care for your baby even if it’s just for a week she’s going to have to make sure the dog doesn’t try jumping up on her to see the baby or try to get the baby food or bottle or get fur or just get on the toys in general a boxer is a lot more difficult to keep away and well behaved around a baby than a chihuahua, has his dog been around babies? Does he know not to jump up or knock the baby over while doing tummy time or other activities? These are just some but not all concerns I would bring up and especially since you’ll be 2 hours away if god forbid something happens it’ll take you a long time to get back to your little one
We used to live in a one bedroom
Apartment not far from where you are now with a huge chocolate lab. He was 130lbs. The only reason it worked is because our large lab was extremely well trained. Large dogs still think they’re puppies and like to act smaller as far as being on couches and in beds and all that and you have to train them not to be like that. It sounds to me like this isn’t a well trained dog and it’s your house that she lives in. Me, I’m pretty alpha at my house and I’d say no, I do not want to come home to the mess of someone else’s animal while I have to work hours from home. I would also say I don’t want to come home to a dead dog or animal control at my house because you couldn’t control the situation. I’d tell her your concerns as to why you feel this shouldn’t be happening, see what she has to say, then give out the final ruling. A fair middle ground would be to have everyone meet(dogs, baby, humans) and get a feel to see if the situation would even work before making the decision. I love animals but have low tolerance for people with spoiled untrained dogs.
@adriannajme, baby comes first of course. If that dog is potentially dangerous don’t chance it all. You can’t turn back time if something happens with that dog. Like you said your MiL likes to smoke in that time she may forget about the dog and it could hurt the baby. Babies like to pull on tails and ears and pinch, and dog may viciously bite him
@adriannajme then BIL should have come to you first. While I don't think it would interfere with her ability to care for your child, just having a dog (boxers are not good apartment dogs, they need to be worked and exercised) in your home that's not used to being there with your dog and child isnt ideal.
Dogs aren’t that much work lol just because it’s a bigger dog doesn’t mean it’s harder to care for. I really don’t understand where people get that idea from🤦🏻♀️ I have a lot of experience with small dogs and big dogs and the big dogs are usually less work then small dogs. Just make sure your brother brings a kennel and toys for his dog. So yes I think you’re wrong and have nothing to worry about!❤️ The dog may be depressed because of not having his owner so it might just lay around and not want to do anything anyway and if it’s hyper a quick 15 minute walk twice a day will help. I’ve fostered and watched a ton of dogs. Everyone is a different personality but if there’s any issue it can stay in the kennel for a portion of the day. Also make your husband take him for a long walk every night like 30 or more minutes.
It’s the fact that our house is small and we don’t have a backyard why the big dog is a problem. I don’t think he even has a kennel for him. This dog is spoiled. Jumps on couches and beds. Always has someone at the house with it. It also lives in a very filthy environment and I just don’t think it’s a good idea. Also I don’t know how it’ll react to our small dog or our son who is very curious at this age. My MIL also smokes cigs so she goes onto the patio and leaves the baby alone. It only takes one second. Not worth it to me.
@adriannajme, I would have commented different if I knew all those details about the dog haha. Sorry it sounded like you were just worried about it being a bigger dog. If he doesn’t have a kennel for the dog then I would definitely be more against it.
No you’re not wrong! Your baby is 6 months and I understand that your brother in law needs someone to watch his dog but he should understand his dog is a very big breed and your baby is still pretty young to be around a dog like that, especially an inside dog, I have big dogs myself but I wouldn’t want them inside with my baby until she’s at least a year or more because you never know what can happen and the mother in law is already taking care of a dog adding another and much bigger dog is going to make it harder to care for your baby even if it’s just for a week she’s going to have to make sure the dog doesn’t try jumping up on her to see the baby or try to get the baby food or bottle or get fur or just get on the toys in general a boxer is a lot more difficult to keep away and well behaved around a baby than a chihuahua, has his dog been around babies? Does he know not to jump up or knock the baby over while doing tummy time or other activities? These are just some but not all concerns I would bring up and especially since you’ll be 2 hours away if god forbid something happens it’ll take you a long time to get back to your little one
@charisma.luna12, my husband claims he has nobody else to ask but I am standing my ground so hopefully he will figure something out as it’s not my responsibility.
@adriannajme, I hope everything works out you shouldn’t have to be uneasy because of something that could happen if he could find other arrangements for his dog