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Bringing a puppy into your home. It's not as easy as it sounds.
Trust me.
The arguments started almost straight away. But by arguments, I mean bickering (my fiance, Anatoly, and I, rarely argue).
We picked up Timmy on a Friday afternoon. Anatoly was fresh off an 8 hour shift and hadn't slept, and I was revved up to bring this puppy home. He was one of the last puppies to be picked up, and as we signed paperwork, the breeder asked what we had decided to name him. At this point, we hadn't even thought about it. We looked at each other and shrugged.
As I pulled out of the driveway, with Timmy curled up on Anatoly's lap, he started to cry. Now Border Collies don't have a cry of sorts, it's
a howl. And this was the saddest howl I'd ever heard in my life. We both stared shocked at each other and wondered if we had done the wrong thing taking this tiny ball of fluff away from its home. Of course, we were briefly warned this would happen, but we weren't prepared nonetheless. Our hearts ached.
He had a short nap. Our hearts ached with love.
He sat up and tilted his head at me when I asked him what he wanted his name to be. Our hearts nearly burst with love.
We had done the right thing. But we still weren't prepared for this dog.
We spent the entire two hour drive arguing about what his name should be. Eventually we just gave up, as neither of us would compromise, and somehow kept the name Timmy. We asked him what he thought, but I believe the only response he gave us was a yawn.
We spent the entire two hour drive arguing about what his name should be. Eventually we just gave up, as neither of us would compromise, and somehow kept the name Timmy.
As we arrived home, we brought him inside. First mistake.
He decided to pee right in the middle of our brand new carpet (we had just renovated our first home).
I rushed to grab some paper-towel to clean up the mess, and ended leaving the whole roll right there in the living room for many more toileting accidents to come. Like I said, we weren't prepared.
As Timmy curled up on his oversized bed, Anatoly lay down beside him. We were told not to leave him alone. Second mistake (but lets talk about that later).
I realised then, that although we had bought dog bowls and plenty of toys, we hadn't bought dog food! What were we thinking? I ran down to the shops and grabbed a bag of what the breeder said she had been feeding them, and poured the dog kibble into the bowl. I don't believe I even measured it. He didn't finish it. We left the bowl with food in it on the kitchen floor.
Now, being a first time dog owner, I hadn't even heard of crate training, puppy pens, or puppy-proofing a house. And I seriously regret not setting up a 'puppy area' for Timmy so we could keep an eye on him at all times. Instead, he had free-roam of the house, and was only allowed in the yard supervised.
Crate training is one of the most important tools you could use for your puppy.
Crate training is one of the most important tools you could use for your puppy. Shop around, get the right size. For a puppy, a large crate is not a good idea. They will tend to use the crate to go toilet in, rather than use just for bedding and safety. If you find you have a medium/large breed dog, and you want to buy a larger crate, you can invest in a divider to decrease the size of the interior while your dog is still growing. As an add-on, many puppy owners will place a play-pen around the crate, with puppy toilet pads covering the floor. This allows the puppy space to play, toilet (if you can't get them outside quick enough) and nap without wondering where you can't see them.
Puppy pads, however, are a different story. There's plenty of arguments around the use of them. Does using puppy pads make you a lazy puppy owner, when you don't want to take your dog outside? Do you use them just to keep the mess off your floor when you're not home, or for during the night when you sleep through that second alarm to wake up and let your puppy outside in the middle of Winter? Perhaps you live in an apartment? Was your house-training progress slowed?
I'm not one to judge whether you use them or not, but I'd love to hear whether you found them useful, refused to use them, or didn't even know they existed?
Luckily with Timmy, we left him in the laundry with his bedding, and he made next to no messes, apart from eventually getting bored and chewing his bedding into a snowstorm of fluff. And amazingly it only took a week or so to get his toilet training up to scratch. We learnt that he needed to be put out on the grass right after his dozens of naps a day, or when he sniffed the carpet and did one tiny little circle on his wobbly legs. Other puppy owners aren't so lucky, and it can take months to house-train their dog. I was super thankful little Timmy picked it up so quickly, and even to this day, he will come let us know he needs to go outside, then will go sit by the back door.
No really, he lets us know, he tilts his head and stares deep into your eyes. We know he's asking us to get our asses off the couch.
Another topic to touch on right here, would be doggy-doors. Those pesky, yet super expensive, pieces of plastic that sit at the bottom of your glass door. Now you're probably thinking, "judging by your tone, you don't like doggy-doors", and you'd be right. But of course I wouldn't judge anyone who has one! Everyone has different experiences, and personally, I wouldn't use one. If your puppy grows up to have 24/7 access to your house (or yard), they automatically move up in the household hierarchy. Many dog owners have reported seeing an increase of issues in their dogs behaviour, along with a serious lack of obedience. A dog door allows your dog to have run of the house, go where they please, and worst of all, toilet inside if they please.
On top of this, your dogs obedience and simply listening to your commands significantly decreases. If you tell them off, they have the freedom to escape. If they grab something they shouldn't (like your children's clothes or food from the kitchen), they have the ability to take off outside with it. Now this may not seem like a big deal, but when you own a puppy, trust me, you don't want them to have the ability to do as they please.
Alright, enough of the short lectures. I'll give you a breather. I'm not sure if you're reliving any pain of owning your first puppy, or shaking your head at how inexperienced we were, or even nodding along and taking on board any information you hadn't realised you needed.
Timmy only took a few weeks to settle in. I hope that was the same experience for all of you! I fear that he may be the only good puppy we'll have, and there will be plenty of puppies we'll own in future who can take up to a year to house-train. But by then, we'll have puppy food waiting for the puppy's arrival. We'll have appropriate bedding in a crate, and a play pen to secure the puppy to one area of the house. We'll take the puppy outside right away after a two hour car ride. We'll have puppy-proofed the house!
There are plenty of arguments surrounding dog owners, trainers and the like about how puppy's should be brought up in households. But my advice is, do what you can do. Do what works for you, and makes your life easiest. And I highly recommend crate training. It can be a lot more useful than just having a place for your puppy to sleep securely.
Owned a puppy? About to own a puppy? How prepared were you?
Let me know on the Forums page, in the comments below, or on my social media pages! Let's get the discussions rolling.
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