How much work is a new puppy?

[Anonymous]

We’ve only ever adopted adult dogs before, but I’ve been thinking about getting a puppy. All my friends say I’m crazy. What exactly is involved in getting say a three month old puppy vs. an adult dog?

[Anonymous]

It’s like a newborn. Sometimes worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s like a newborn. Sometimes worse.

This.

[Anonymous]

Yep—like a newborn. First several months of house training and middle-of-the-night trips outside are rough.

[Anonymous]

House breaking can take several months.

[Anonymous]

Our 10 week old medium-breed puppy needed to be taken out to pee every 4 hours day or night, and he needed training/companionship/multiple short walks during the day. At that age, when they're too young to have all their vaccines to meet other dogs or go into crowds, the socialization (no nipping on humans, no peeing in the house, no chewing on chair legs, sit, stay, down, etc) depends on the immediate caretaker. The dog will have fewer problems later on if it spends as much time as possible with its human.

This means it's rather difficult for a two-working parent household. People can, and do, buy puppies, take a few days off work, then hire a dog walker. I think that's cruel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s like a newborn. Sometimes worse.

Yep. They get up throughout the night. Only eat three times a day. Often have tummy issues and have the runs. Need to go out a lot. Cry whennthuenare alone. Tons of work.

[Anonymous]

I’ve gotten puppies at both 8 weeks and 12 weeks. 12 was significantly easier with respect to getting up at night anyway. But puppies are just hard—worth it, in my opinion, but hard.

[Anonymous]

It’s not that bad. We got our eight week old puppy in June and she is now four months old. I also have a four-year-old child and an eight-year-old child. It hasn’t been the most relaxing summer but it’s not at all impossible. I do not work outside the home, so I i’ve pretty much been at the beck and call of the puppy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not that bad. We got our eight week old puppy in June and she is now four months old. I also have a four-year-old child and an eight-year-old child. It hasn’t been the most relaxing summer but it’s not at all impossible. I do not work outside the home, so I i’ve pretty much been at the beck and call of the puppy.

Being able to stay at home is huge. That’s why it wasn’t that bad.

[Anonymous]

Depends on the puppy, but it is really hard work. For us, the following made it difficult:
-We crate trained him and had no issue doing so, except for at night - for the first 5 months we got MAYBE 3 hours of sleep a night because he would cry and bark all night. We were finally so exhausted that we gave up on nighttime crating, and from then on he slept soundly...but we were SO sleep deprived in the months prior.
-We got a breed known for being difficult to housebreak. There were near daily accidents in our (new) house up until 5ish months.
-Our pup thought that playfully biting us was great fun for a while. Puppy teeth are very sharp.

I look back at the pictures of him as a puppy and he looked so cute, but at the time it seemed like there was a little monster living with us and I constantly wished we hadn’t gotten him. Love him dearly now that he’s grown up!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on the puppy, but it is really hard work. For us, the following made it difficult:
-We crate trained him and had no issue doing so, except for at night - for the first 5 months we got MAYBE 3 hours of sleep a night because he would cry and bark all night. We were finally so exhausted that we gave up on nighttime crating, and from then on he slept soundly...but we were SO sleep deprived in the months prior.
-We got a breed known for being difficult to housebreak. There were near daily accidents in our (new) house up until 5ish months.
-Our pup thought that playfully biting us was great fun for a while. Puppy teeth are very sharp.

I look back at the pictures of him as a puppy and he looked so cute, but at the time it seemed like there was a little monster living with us and I constantly wished we hadn’t gotten him. Love him dearly now that he’s grown up!

Forgot to add that our furniture suffered quite a bit of wear and tear as we trained him on what was acceptable to chew and what was not.

[Anonymous]

Can you avoid any of this by getting a slightly older puppy, like 4 months old or more? Can you get a puppy that is already house trained from a reputable breeder?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not that bad. We got our eight week old puppy in June and she is now four months old. I also have a four-year-old child and an eight-year-old child. It hasn’t been the most relaxing summer but it’s not at all impossible. I do not work outside the home, so I i’ve pretty much been at the beck and call of the puppy.

You have pretty much an ideal situation, that’s why it’s not so hard. You are a SAHM and your kids are not babies.

[Anonymous]

It depends on the puppy. I’ve done three. Males were easier. Female peed everywhere. Even in her own bedding and on my couch! My 10 week old males could hold their urine overnight. Went out st 10 pm and 6 am. Otherwise you’re getting up at 2 for a pee break.