What do you wish you knew before getting a puppy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Puppies are babies and you have to get up to let them potty at night.

We got ours at 12 weeks and she slept all night. We cut off water one hour before bedtime and took her out a few times before bed.

[Anonymous]

The first year is a lot of work. Ours just turned 1 and has calmed down a bit. I'd only get a puppy if there was an adult to stay at home with it most of the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The puppy blues are real. Caring for and training a puppy is exhausting.

I love my dog more than anything in the world but my husband, and she has literally saved me. But ... when she was a puppy, training and taking care of her had me so dead tired that one day I had just had it and I announced to my DH that I was getting a room at the Ritz for two nights and he was on his own with the puppy. I needed a break.

Puppies are really hard. My advice would be to get an older dog.

But yeah, just be prepared for how much work it is. Puppies are beautiful balls of terror and need. Don't neglect your puppy's emotional, physical, or social needs. Learn who they are as an individual, and make sure you are helping them thrive in every way you can.

[Anonymous]

It had been 13 years since we last had a puppy and we didn't have kids then. So it's been challenging to manage potty breaks when we are out for 4+ hours (soccer games for three kids), so we've had to arrange for some backup on certain days.

[Anonymous]

We got our pup at about 12 weeks old. She was fine overnight. She liked her crate.

She peed and pooped in the house for months. We finally used the umbilical method. https://www.martindaleanimalclinic.com/userfiles/Umbilical-Cord-Housebreaking-Method.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Puppies are babies and you have to get up to let them potty at night.

We got ours at 12 weeks and she slept all night. We cut off water one hour before bedtime and took her out a few times before bed.

We got our puppy at 8 wks. He literally only went out at night after he swallowed a plastic fork and had the shits, when he was about 4 months old. No other time.

[Anonymous]

The puppy phase is 10x worse than having a newborn baby. It’s exhausting. I realized I don’t love being a pet owner. We have a very sweet dog who gets treated very well…and yet…I always wish we didn’t have to deal with various things like dog dander and fur and slobber and the sounds they make.

[Anonymous]

The all night whinnying and how little sleep we would all get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I sort of wish I'd known my goldendoodle would go from loving every new dog he met to snarling at them when he turned 5. It was an unwelcome surprise and very difficult.

Similar story here. Dog personalities change and they can be very impacted by things we don’t notice or realize.

[Anonymous]

We have a six-year-old very sweet, loving, and joyful goldendoodle. We absolutely adore him.

My biggest suggestion is NOT allow your puppy to roam your entire home until the puppy is trained.
Several accidents and chewing on the trim of our newly renovated kitchen were stressful and
could have been avoided had we kept him in our family room with a baby gate. He was crate
trained for the first year and preferred to be outdoors and/or playing when awake.

Dogs are absolutely amazing and they return your love when you create a loving, safe, supportive, and nurturing environment.

[Anonymous]

- Get Ian Dunbar's book now "Before and After getting Your Puppy" or download his free pdfs of his books:

https://www.amazon.com/Before-After-Getting-Your-Puppy/dp/1577314557/ref=sr_1_1?crid=NKVU72X9EAIO&keywords=ian+dunbar+before+and+after+getting+your+puppy&qid=1694984868&sprefix=ian+dunbar%2Caps%2C177&sr=8-1

https://www.dunbaracademy.com/pages/2-free-puppy-training-books-download-links

- Find a dog trainer with The CCPDT credentials. Start training right away, we always started before 3 months old. Our trainer welcomed the whole family including young children so everyone understands, really you're also training yourselves. Class training is a great way to start socializing puppies with other dogs and people. Ian Dunbar says puppies should meet 100 different people and pets in the first months.

- Puppy time is the best time to introduce all sorts of unusual noises and situations so they don't develop anxiety about new things.

- Make frozen kongs with kibble and nofat plain yogurt, peanut butter etc. to keep puppy busy, not getting into things.

- Crate train at night and for potty training. Big dog breeds can hold their bladder overnight pretty quickly. Use an xpen or baby gates to keep track of puppy.

[Anonymous]

I really wish I had known how important the early window of socialization is. I got my pup in early covid and was also overly scared of parvo. I took him out and stuff but he was definitely not exposed to as many places and people as he would otherwise. He’s definitely scared of a lot of stuff and has no trauma history. It may just be his temperament but it’s not ideal. Also, comb/brush the puppy from day 1. Lots of doodle owners don’t at first, and end up with a matted pup who gets a close crop.

[Anonymous]

It's like another kid at first.

[Anonymous]

Too much work!

[Anonymous]

The dirt. The scratched floors. Ruined carpets. It's hard to have a nice grown up house when you have a big energetic dog.