Hello bloggers,
Today marks 2 weeks since I brought my puppy Archie home. It’s amazing how quickly we’ve all bonded with him and already it feels like we’ve always had him! It’s a lot to adapt to and getting your first dog really does change your life. Suddenly you have to consider them in every decision you make, your house gets messier and you fall behind on everything else in your life because you have a big new responsibility (plus dogs are very good timewasters!). I thought I’d share some of my experiences so far and give my advice to people who are about to get a puppy, or thinking about it.
1) Buy a trustworthy, informative book. Read it before you get your puppy and keep it on hand to answer any queries you have whilst looking after your puppy. My family bought ‘The Happy Puppy Handbook’ by Pippa Mattinson & ‘The Complete Owner’s Manual To Cavachon Dogs’ by Elliott Lang, and we all refer back to it when we’re faced with questions such as ‘What’s the best thing to do to stop my puppy jumping up?’. If it’s your first dog, there’s so much you need to get clued up on to do the best job you can, so doing your research and having a book like this to refer to is so useful. It’s also useful to have friends/family to give you advice. If you know people that have dogs, don’t be afraid to ask them advice on things you’re unsure about. They’ve been through the same experience so they’re the best people to ask.
2) Dog-proof your house and garden! Before the arrival of your puppy, you really have to think about any possible dangers to them that you currently have in your house and garden. If you have plants in your garden, find out if there’s any that can be poisonous to dogs and get rid of them, because you don’t want to risk any harm coming to your puppy. Because if yours is anything like mine, they seem to eat everything in sight! Make sure there are no gaps in your fences etc. so there is no way of your dog escaping. My family did a lot of puppy-proofing to prepare for Archie’s arrival, but you can never be aware of everything that you need to change for them. For example, we discovered once Archie came home that he could fit into the gap behind the sofa, and could even climb into the recliner part! As a result, we’ve had to block off these gaps with cushions. Always be aware of what your puppy is doing, because especially when they first come to your house, they will be doing a lot of exploring of their new home.
3) Set a routine ASAP. To help your puppy settle as quickly as possible, keep a routine up so they quickly get used to their new home and what they can expect. Set your meal times and stick to them. We feed Archie around 7am, 11am, 3pm, and 6pm (or when we have our dinner). The same with bedtime. We decided to keep Archie sleeping in my parents room for the first few nights, just while he was settling in, to reduce his levels of discomfort and stress. Then we put him into the spare room where we had decided he was going to sleep. He seems to be well settled in there, as long as we stick to his bedtime so he’s tired enough to want to sleep. We put him to bed when we all go to bed so that he isn’t disturbed and can settle down to sleep without distractions.
4) Prepare for the change and lack of sleep! Getting a dog is a massive change, as I said above. It takes time to adapt to it but it’s so worth it to have your new loving companion. The biggest struggle for us so far has been the lack of sleep. Archie has to be taken outside several times during the night to do his toilet business (toilet training hasn’t been too bad for us so far, but we’ve still had our accidents in the house!). He also has a tendency to wake up about 5:15am so someone needs to get up with him then. We’ve got it fairly sorted in our family though- we all take it in turns to do our bit and to have our sleep.
Some of this may seem obvious to you, but I just wanted to speak from my experiences about what I think every new/potential dog owner should know. It’s very hard work, but so rewarding and I’m in love with Archie!
Han Speaks 