I want to get a dog but I have to work, how does everyone on broadway market do it ?

Newb q:

I want to get a dog. A whippet ideally. But my wife is really hesitant. She's worried about the restrictions dog ownership will put on being able to visit non dog-friendly friends and family and on the location and duration of holidays. I'm not sure these are really that big of a deal. Can anyone relate some experience around these concerns?

Neither of us have owned dogs before although we both love them and have them in the extended family. We live in a decent sized house with lots of steep stairs. We're in a small town on the edge of marshes and woods. We have a small garden that I'm keen to discourage the local cats from shitting in and we have two kids, 2 and 5 (both of whom are mad keen for a pet).

Whippet and learn to adapt?

My Dad is allergic to my dog. And my partner's parents have a cat who started self harming every time we visited with the dog.
He used to go and stay at my Mum's, but she's now moved abroad. It has been a massive pain in the arse, particularly around times like Xmas, but even if I'd known all that beforehand, I probably still would have got him.

Maybe check with any friends and family you visit regularly first, to see if they'd be alright with you bringing a dog should you get one? And also line up potential dog-sitters for when you have to go somewhere without it.

Can't give much advice regarding non-dog family and holidays, but we got Odie relatively recently (he's nearly 7 month old now - we got him at 11 weeks) and our kids are the same age as yours. They've got sooo much from having him in the house! It's amazing to see both of them learning how to treat him (and vice versa) and I have this notion that having someone at the bottom of the pecking order kind of helps with the sibling equilibrium.

Having said that, it's been far from easy! There are a lot of logistical headaches that having a dog has introduced and then at the end of the day once we've got both kids down to bed, Odie decides he's going to be really hyper until about an hour before we head off to bed ourselves :-)
Definitely worth it, though.

F&F will probably become dog friendlier the more they meet your dog/ realise they see you too little.

Top tip, as mentioned before on here: put your dog into day care (if possible)
My pup loves it, he goes once or twice a week for a morning, 4 hours of tearing about with other dogs, living the dream.
It tires him out and gets him more social. If you can afford it, do it. (we pay £13 for half day or £19 for a full day)
Plus it's an option if Aunt Agnes is adamant the dog cannot come into her house and you really need to keep her on board for the inheritance...

It depends what kind of travel you normally do / plan to do.

• Only a subset of hotels accept pets, and a lot of them try to charge £10/night/dog.
  
• Dog hair / mud /etc in a rental car will get you charged extra cleaning fees.
  
• Forget travelling abroad by plane. You can fly out, but AFAIK it is not possible to travel back into the UK with a dog by air. Your options are car (on a ferry / Eurotunnel) or one of the two ferries that take them with foot passengers. Brexit will doubtless make this even more fun.
  
• Some countries expect or have laws that dogs travel in a crate in cars or on public transport.
  
• Most beaches (UK and other countries) don't allow dogs during summer, except maybe on the scabbier bits either end.
  
• A lot of visitor attractions also ban dogs.
  
  

Which isn't to say travelling with a dog isn't great, but expect to plan your whole trip around it.

If you overcome the obstacles...

This lurcher, a touch bigger than a Whippet is still available

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I've had dogs all my life and you have to accept that they bring compromises. For me it's totally worth it for the joy having a dog brings, but if your wife isn't sure, maybe having a dog isn't for you.

That said, many of the restrictions she's brought up can be overcome. You don't have to take your dog with you everywhere you go - they can be left at home for periods of time, you can find local friends/family to look in on them (lots of people love the opportunity to spend time with a dog when they can't have one themselves), or pay a dog walker. Some dogs are fine going into kennels for holidays and there are plenty of agencies for dog sitters (in your home or theirs). Look into crate training or a lockable room for when you have visitors to the house who don't like dogs and get a travel crate for going away.

Your location sounds perfect - a small garden is fine if you have easy access to open spaces. Stairs can be an issue for a pup, but it's easy to section off the house with stairgates (which you must have). And the obvious not leaving small kids alone with a dog.

The eternal battle between agile cat and not as agile dog (still pretty quick though)

Ignore the threadbare basil, Pizza’s have been consumed in number since lockdown

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If you get Five Star dog insurance when your dog's at the vet's you get a courtesy dog.

Haha. Thanks for the replies all. I've always wanted a dog but I'm not going to force the issue with my wife. She's worried that my view of our life has become skewed by lockdown and that when we eventually emerge from a year's hibernation i'll realise that dog ownership is more of a hinderance than I bargained for. I'll keep reading and talking and thinking.

Saw the beautiful lurcher looking for a home. Would love to step up. But steady as she goes with the family conversation I think.

You can borrow mine any time you like - he tends to be "kill or cure"...

Seriously, I see so many new dog walkers with pups less than eight months old at the moment, either the local doggy day care or Battersea are going to be busy next year.

I'd imagine you'd need to be careful about getting dogs older than a few months when you have young kids (as much as I'd snap up the lovely lurcher above in a heartbeat if I was able to!). We were lucky to have Odie pretty much fall in our laps at 10 weeks, so he's growing up with kids around. It's probably a bit more of a lottery with an older dog in terms of how well socialised they've been and how tolerant they're able to be with kids.

I don't think we'd have considered a German shepherd or similar breed if he'd have been much older. Although as a breed they've got a fairly high tolerance to stress, which comes in handy with our bonkers 2yo.

Other forumists might be more experienced with kids/older dogs and have alternative views, though!

Picked up pup from a morning in day care, and was greeted with, "oh, he got into the bigger dogs pen and has been there all morning. Spent half an hour in the puppy and small dog area, but squeezed passed when the door was opened. He seemed happy so left him in with them"

Our dog weighs about 5kg and is 6m old, I feel sorry for the older/ bigger dogs, being terrierised all morning by that bundle of energy!

My girlfriend and I registered with Underdog International a few weeks ago. heard back about a dog that they thought would suit our circumstances at the beginning of last week, met her and her foster parent on Thursday and have a video call on Saturday to check that our home is suitable for her. It's all going very quickly, could be picking her up next week if all goes to plan!
Their communication has been excellent throughout, would recommend.

Edit: one of the reasons we chose Underdog International is because they tend to say whether or not the dog has been tested with cats. As much of a twat our cat can be, we wanted to make sure that we got a dog he'd get along with.

You don’t have to do everything with your dog.

Ours go into home boarding when we want a weekend away or holiday. They love it and it does them good.

Obviously there’s a not inconsiderable cost but we don’t have kids so we suck it up.

Edit: but we have started having more holidays in this country.

Our lad loves this (the little tosser). Drops it, waits until you bend down to pick it up, whips it away and runs off a few yards. Ignoring him and walking off works. Poodles are cheeky f-ckers sometimes.

Ah thanks that looks promising.

You still looking for a place in/around Sydenham? Many good parks for dogs

Battersea are going to be busy next year

was talking with my mum about getting a dog on the weekend and she remembers seeing the long queue of people lined up on Boxing day each year with their unwanted gifts.

We've taken Maurice to lots of different countries (cars/trains) and all round the UK. It did force us to stop flying, but my partner was fine with that (hates planes).

We also take him when visiting friends/family unless they're not ok with it. The backup is leaving him with friends, or doggie daycare... the latter is actually preferred as they do such a good job.

A low point was when Marice broke a friend's ankle when she went for a run with him... not ideal.

We're in Penge! Literally a 2 minute walk from Crystal Palace Park and with a quiet, secure front garden so ideal for dog purposes.
We had an interview/home check today which went really well, the person we spoke to was a volunteer for the organisation and had some really solid, practical advice. It helped us spot some potential issues that we hadn't thought of with solutions on how to deal with them. All being well we're hoping to pick this little one up next week some time!

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Ah Crumpet! She's gorgeous, fingers crossed for you.

Underdog have been very quick to get back to us and have already suggested Aria as a potential match. Being pretty rough round the edges I'm quite drawn to her but I'm a little concerned she may be a handful for my partner.

Thanks! We found that they were really helpful with finding us the right dog for our circumstances. I get the impression that they're really keen on making sure the right dog goes to the right home.

Submitted all our paperwork to become a fosterer for the Edward Foundation. Just need to pass the home visit and then hopefully we’ll be approved for long and short term fostering.

Benny is thrilled at the prospect..

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Benny looks absolutely buzzing.
Fees paid and paperwork signed to adopt Crumpet! (Not our name but we can't think of anything better and don't want to add one more disruption so we're sticking with it). Hopefully we'll be picking her up soon.

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Crumpet is a great name but quite hard to shorten. Single syllables are handy for names you're going to be shouting A LOT