Should he stay or should he go???

I am in an extremely uncomfortable position right now of having to make the decision to keep or not keep our new puppy. In April Emerson and I basically bullied John into getting a wimeramer puppy from my mom's neighbors. The puppy was so little, so cute and I desperately wanted something cute and cuddly to love. Now I am not as naive as that last sentence might make me appear. I had a big dog for 12 years, and she was my buddy, my companion and even the ring bearer at our wedding. And, she was like our child. We also lived in Oregon where everyone has a dog, and everyone’s dogs are welcomed everywhere. When we wanted to go out of town she had options of where to stay, when our friends went out of town, of course their dogs came over for a play date.

But, and this is a big but, we don't live in rural Easter Oregon anymore. We live in the Southern Suburbia land, with few to no real friends, two very needy children, a business, a full time teaching job, a chicken, gardens and now a very needy puppy. Unfortunately the last three weeks John has started almost every conversation with me about how much he does not want to be raising a puppy. To give him credit, he has said that since before we got the dog. For some reason I really thought he would come around, and the two have had their moments. But apparently not enough of them. John has never had a puppy, or really a newborn anything, and he is not copping well. When John is miserable all of us are.
Granted the boys love the idea of having a dog, but in reality they are afraid of him. For good reason. He is big, he bites, he jumps and he plays rough. They want to love him, but his love hurts them and thus they are afraid. How do I explain to our two adopted sons that we are now going to have to be on the other end of adoption with their dog? Ugg that conversation is going to stink!

Then there is the squabbling in our house. The boys are in a stage (I have been warned it is a long one) where they fight about everything. The constantly change their position just to be disagreeing with the other one. It literally makes me think that sticking a fork in my eye would be more fun that playing referee between the two of them. Plus, John is now constantly on my case about the dog, about the cleanliness of the house, about what the boys are eating, how much screen time they are getting and on and on and on. Add to all of this, the fact that Finn (the puppy) thinks he should get to eat our one remaining chicken. The chicken is very clear about how she feels about this. John and I must walk around separating the two of them while telling Finn, "No, that is my chicken!"
Just the other day as I was making breakfast and the chicken ran right through the kitchen (yes inside) with Finn chasing her, and then the two boys started chasing the dog that was chasing the chicken. At some point something has got to give.
I too love the idea of having a dog, but not at the expense of the tiny little bit of sanity I have left. I know this is one of those lose lose situations. If we give the dog up, the boys will be very upset and I will feel like a total failure, if we keep the dog, John will be totally upset, all personal items will need to be defended and until we teach Finn not to jump and bite, the boys will remain afraid of him.