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We got our puppy at the end of July last year, and whilst she is absolutely wonderful and we all adore her, it has also been quite a whirlwind since we got her!
Puppies are crazy! And we knew that, obviously. But I think it’s one of those things that you can’t properly imagine until you go through it, like having a baby.
She’s totally worth it, of course, and it wasn’t a quick decision we made to get a dog – we’d wanted one for years, discussed it a lot, researched a lot, and decided now was the right time. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been hard, and as this is our first dog, we’ve had a lot to learn!
This might have been really naive of me, but I had no idea that puppies teethe and lose their baby teeth like humans do! I do feel a bit stupid writing that now, but it just isn’t something that crossed my mind.
It means they want to chew stuff constantly and can wake even more when they’re suffering with it. We’ve found that Scout loves to chew on an ice cube, and she also absolutely adores this dog toy I got from Amazon. It’s like a baby rattle, and I wasn’t sure it would be particularly great, but it is one of the few things she will sit for ages chewing on. I’ve actually just ordered a second one after months of use – she managed to bite a bit of plastic off the first one last night.
If you’ve ever had a baby, then you’ll know that the newborn days tend to be a crazy, hazy time, filled with tiring days and nights feeding, changing and getting them to sleep.
I presumed having a new puppy would be nowhere near as hard, and it wasn’t really – the early stages didn’t last as long with a puppy, and you don’t have to sit breastfeeding them for a seemingly 20 hours out of every 24 (well I hope you don’t, anyway).
However, your life will revolve around them for a little while and unlike a newborn baby, you can’t put them safely down somewhere and know they are safe and can’t cause havoc – puppies can walk straight away!! So you have to watch them all the time, you will have to put all breakable or dangerous things away – not waiting until they can walk or crawl, like with a baby – and then they’ll still find and chew on things they shouldn’t! Nowhere is safe!
I’ve had cats all of my life, and so I know that if they sit on your knee, your clothes will be covered in hairs, sofas and cushions or anywhere else will be covered in hairs, and you will need to hoover regularly to keep floors clean.
However, despite the fact that we don’t have a dog that particularly malts a lot, we now find dog hairs in such random places! This didn’t happen immediately, but now they seem to suddenly appear everywhere! On a clean plate that I’ve just got out and was clear a minute ago? Yep! In my dinner when the dog has been absolutely nowhere near any of it? Yep, so often.
It’s like they’re constantly floating around in the air, waiting for something to land on.
From the very start of our walks with our puppy, we (well, she) has got SO much attention. She was tiny at first and is still pretty small compared to most dogs even now, which attracts more people to her, to give her a stroke and lots of “aaaaahs”, and she is extremely cute.
But sometimes it’s so funny on a walk when we are constantly stopping (socially distanced, of course) because someone else has noticed her and wants to look at her and touch her and tell us how gorgeous she is (they’re correct, obviously), and getting anywhere takes so long!
On that same note, having a dog, and particularly a puppy, I suspect, means that you will chat to so many more people when you are out and about, especially those who also have a dog with them. I’ve never spoken to so many strangers or neighbours when out for a walk as I have since we got Scout. It’s really nice. Especially we’ve had a lot less human contact over the last twelve months.
You do, of course, still find there are some really grumpy people who have a dog, and when my dog goes up to see them, and you try and acknowledge them, even just with a smile, they completely blank you and won’t even look. Then I always think to myself – don’t get a dog if you don’t want to be social!!
I wanted to get a female dog for a few reasons, and although it might sound silly, I didn’t want to end up with a boy who just wanted to hump everything, including my leg! However, to my surprise, girl dogs hump things too! My girl is about to come into her first season, I think, so it must be her hormones, but over the last few weeks, she has started humping her toys (one in particular!) and our arms (actually, not mine, she must not fancy me).
It’s actually very funny when she does it, but I’m also glad that she will most likely stop once she has had her first period and then been spayed!
Is there anything you discovered about having a dog that you didn’t know before getting one?
Read about why we decided to get a puppy rather than adopting an older dog.
Welcome to Birds and Lilies! I'm Lou: mother, blogger and freelance writer. This is my lifestyle blog, where I talk about motherhood, infertility and IVF, beauty, my love for food and wine, as well as my thoughts about stuff, and our real-life and travel adventures.
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