Reddit mentions of Wee-Wee Puppy Training Pee Pads 150-Count 22" x 23" Standard Size Pads for Dogs

No offense, but breeding her would be a terrible idea! So it's good to hear you discouraged them. A lot of people think that they want to breed their dog to "get their money's worth" - aka, earn back what they spent buying the dog. But with stud fee, vet bills, feeding puppies for 6 - 10 weeks, and so on, you're actually losing money.

If she's itchy, it could be a food allergy. Check the ingredients list on the bag of whatever you're feeding her. If it contains corn, wheat, or soy, she could potentially be allergic to one of those. Try switching her to a grain-free food (I can recommend some if you need!), and see if that helps. Grain-free foods can sometimes be slightly more expensive but it will save you money on vet bills in the long run. And switching foods is a good thing to try first; if she is allergic to a grain it will help a lot and you won't require an expensive vet appt/allergy test.

Maybe try to convince your sisters to make flyers and give away the kittens to good homes? It sounds like they have good intentions but if your family is having financial troubles, adding more mouths to feed is the last thing y'all should be doing. Also - don't shoo the mom! Especially if the kittens are still nursing.

As far as the dog barking at the kittens, look at her body language and listen to the pitch of the bark. This can tell you whether she's being playful or aggressive. In my experience there is quite a language barrier between dogs and cats, and to top that off their play behaviors are very different. Your dog probably just wants to play with the kittens, and they are probably just extremely bewildered and probably a little frightened by her.

If she doesn't like that kind of food, again, try switching brands. Simply switching to the puppy diet probably won't help. But yes, she does need puppy diet, to help keep weight on until she's a little older. TBH Royal Canin is not a very good quality brand. More on that if you're interested.

Inside, you can use wee wee pads. Put one in the spot where she normally potties (and put a new one down every time she soils it of course), and every few days move it slightly closer to the back door (or whichever door she goes out to go potty outside), until you do away with them altogether. Hopefully this will give her the idea that she needs to go to the back door to potty, and whenever someone in the house sees her at the back door they will let her out. You could also get a crate and crate train her, so she can relax in the crate unless someone is watching her closely and able to take her out to potty when she needs to. To be quite frank, 7-8 months is pretty old to be having accidents inside. She needs to be taken out every 2-3 hours, just in case, and praised heavily for pottying outside.

If you've already got a vet appointment set up, use that time to ask the vet about her itchiness. But don't listen to any food suggestions they have. Sorry, but most vets don't know crap about dog nutrition. Again, I can recommend some grain-free foods if the vet confirms she may have a food allergy.

Spaying is not always cheap, but something you can do is contact your local animal shelter or humane society branch and see if they have vouchers for low cost spay or neuter. Just ask, "Do you have any information on spay/neuter discounts?" and they should know what you're talking about.

Talk to you vet if you have not. Barring that check out peepads. They can be a godsend doesn't need to be those generics work well.

Hey, good to see another dad podcaster out there. I added a link to your podcast from the www.howtoraiseanawesomekid.com sidebar.

To contribute: When my son was born, we had a pack of these laying around (puppy pee pads) from training our dog. Basically, they're super absorbent tissues with a plastic-like backing, so they don't leak. Very handy during those first few months when sporadic peeing during diaper changes happened, and terrible diaper poop leaks. Really kept the changing table from becoming a biohazard.

Anyway, they fold up pretty compact, so we keep a couple in the diaper bag, a couple in the glove box, etc. Makes it so you can change a diaper anywhere.