'I'm a dog trainer and this is why having a puppy is harder than a baby'

A lot of people debate whether looking after a puppy or a baby is harder. And one woman who has experience of doing both has shared her view on the situation. Former dog trainer turned stay-at-home mum Des shares her puppy training tips with her 28,900 followers on Instagram, where she posts about her Labrador puppy Popcorn under her @popcornthelab account.

And in one of her latest posts, she shares 7 reasons why she thinks having a puppy is harder than having a baby. Giving her first reason, the mum-of-three says you can "burrito a baby" to get them to sleep – meaning to wrap them up in a blanket. She wrote: "If I tried to burrito my puppy, he'd eat the blanket, yell at me, and then hump whatever remained of the blanket."

Her second reason was the babies don't (usually) bite your ankles, while the third was the fact that babies use diapers.

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"You never appreciate the sheer brilliance of diapers until you're outside at 2am in the rain whispering 'go potty' with circle patches under your eyes," she wrote.

Reason number four was the fact that you don't need to "socialise your baby to leaf blowers and people in hats before 16 weeks or they'll be scared of everything forever".

While number 5 is the fact that dogs "need a 37-step plan" to teach them how to lie down.

Number 6 was the fact that it's socially acceptable to put your baby in a crib to keep them safe and support sleep. She shared this alongside a photo of her puppy in a cage, which some may be against.

While the last fact was that people usually ask how they can help when a baby cries.

"When puppies cry, people ask what you did wrong and if you're even qualified to own a dog," she wrote.

Following up in the caption, Des wrote: "I used to roll my eyes when people would call themselves dog moms. "I’ve raised 3 kids (and then some — iykyk) I’ve trained countless dogs.

"And still this puppy has me questioning every life decision I’ve ever made some days."

She added: "If you’re in the thick of it, you’re not alone. It’s not just you.

"Puppies are actually just THAT hard. Especially in the beginning."

Concluding the post, she asked her followers what they think the 'hardest part' of having a puppy is.

People seemed to resonate with the post, as it racked up more than 66,000 likes.

One person wrote: "Seriously have cried so much with our first puppy. She is wonderful, but this is hard!"

While another added: "Never had a child eat holes into the drywall before. Love our three dogs to pieces but they will test you as puppies!"

A third added: "I have had five kids and one puppy and the puppy was definitely the hardest!"

While a fourth wrote: "You can also walk with your baby and take them outside with solid confidence that it probably won’t have another kid sprint up to it and try and bite it out of no where, scarring it forever."