What do you wish you'd known before getting a puppy?

[Cardell27]

We bring home our first puppy next week, a little rescue terrier. We've done plenty of research and feel pretty prepared, but I thought I'd tap into the collective wisdom of mumsnet. What do you wish you'd known?

Mine is rather disgusting, but it is essential to know why they sled over the carpet....
And what to do about it. Second step is how to prevent it....
Sorry but it is better to know than not, because the smell is horrific. I must admit I am the kind of person that goes down to the floor to have a sniff of that dark striping left after sledding, then I knew this was not something to ignore.
I told a colleague once, her family thought their dog did this because he needed his hair cut, turns out the groomer emptied the gland.
Yup, all dogs.
My friends' too, they denied their dog did such a thing. But I was alone in the room with their dog and this one went over the sofa!
But no surprises for you anymore.
Great question though. Very prepared🤗good idea.

useful advise from guide dog puppy training:
bribg home blanket from the mother dog- it makes the pup feel safe those first few days/ weeks when he’s lost all his litter mates and mum.

find out food being feed- no fast changes of diet - you wil invite gut problems and the skids.

pups chew everything- check mouth for plastic/ anything hazardous on the floor or outside in commons..

1. be consistent on all key behavioural aspects: sitting/ eating/ toileting/esp not jumping up - from day one, think about the dog you want in 1yr-2yrs and when fully mature. Eg a puppy jumping up on furniture can be cute & playful - less so fully grown owning your favourite spot.

> figure out your house rules. where puppy sleeps / eats & poops.

2.teach & reward good behaviour - this will minimise any bad traits developing. Dogs do want to please.

3.walks/ exercise / teach self settling. A puppy needs to be taught you go away and come back. Start with 20mins.. out of sight.. and build up to 30/45 mins - 1 hours 2 hrs ..progressively over the weeks/ months. Puppy get lonely, bored, restless, sad, anxious, you would leave a baby at home by itself for hours - same with a puppy. They need to be taught and not punished if you rush this stage.. you will develop issues you don’t want.

4.feeding - Don’t confuse the rules your food as there’s. You will end up having the dog whip off with a Sunday roast chicken or licking your plate you will not always want this feature.
don’t over feed treats. Use them for behaviour training when a pup is a little hungry - very affective. ( unles a lab- who loves the treat bag and trains easily with bribes)
Pups bladders are tiny, toilet straight after food - outside for walk / wee. and especially first thing in the morning- 6am - you will know the signs or ring the puddles.

5.In summer- think about the hot footpath on walks, shade & water. A hot locked up house/ flat can heat up quickly - ventilation. Freeze kibble in water as ice blocks.. a fun cooling way to eat dinner as the ice block melts.

6 shoes - dogs enjoy shoes because they smell of you .. and help cut sharp puppy teeth. Just put them away.. avoid temptation or chance. If it’s on the floor it’s fair game.

7.car sickness/ travel. This happens- same as children. Small doses and calm the first rides.. help settle the future. Even pure breds can have this issue.

8.toys- dog safe and be prepared your clothes will get dirty muddy and dog snot on them.

9.you are there person - their world. Treat with love & kindness & have fun. It’s the best thing after you get thru the exhausting first few months.
pupps are like new born babies.

How all encompassing it is and how lonely it can make you feel. Genuinely for the first month or two of our puppy it felt like I never got a break and was effectively stuck in my own home. Constantly stressed, exhausted, worn out, I could go on! It was almost as if I had PND! She’s a year old now and I do love her, it’s been worth it but I am absolutely not having another puppy any time soon

It can be extremely hard work. I have had dogs since I was 7-years-old. Always large breeds until our two Toy Poodles now 6 and 9. Those two were pretty easy compared to the large breeds and I would think a small terrior could also be a bugger. I know what the previous poster means by “it’s like having a new born”. I find it more like having a toddler because they can move around on there own steam and you need to have eyes in your arse. They can be relentlessly demanding and mischievous for long periods, then become extra bitey and manic when they become tired and fighting sleep (a dog crate is really useful at this point for enforcing rest) 🙄

My current puppy is a 10-month-old huge, somewhat crazy Weimaraner. I still have moments of asking myself ‘why did I disrupt are peaceful lives like this’. There very little peace. She is physically and mentally challenging, but based on many years of past experience, I know we’ll get to the peaceful, lovely point and I do love her so much. In between all the frustration and bruises (when she grabs my arm or hand, or runs into me 😳), she makes me laugh with her silliness, impresses me with her intelligence and efforts to please me and gives the best doggie cuddles.

So my advise is, expect it to be tough raising a puppy and young dog, then everything else is a bonus. Crate train as PPs have said and make sure there are plenty of legitimate things for your youngster to chew instead of your body 😳

Never ever leave them unsupervised. Either be with them or put them somewhere safe. Set them up to succeed.

Be prepared for feeling love so intense it makes you want to burst inside. I love my dog more than anything in the world. The best thing we've ever done.

Unlike children, they never leave home.....

There is no 'off switch', which means you will not have any free time for a couple of months.
How quickly you fall in love with new puppy

And

How dreadful it is to lose one.

But don't worry about all that, just enjoy.

Remember that in the wild, dogs would stay with their parents and siblings until around 3 years old. It’s pretty horrible, what we do to them, in taking them away so young. So they depend on you for everything - comfort, entertainment, socialization, nourishment.

Personally I wouldn’t use a crate, especially for a young pup who has just left his family.

They pee everywhere and chew everything.

My current 10 month old pup is stuck to me like Velcro, she is nothing like my previous dog who was far more independent. But we do have a lovely relationship.

They are harder than newborn babies in some ways and you will be like a zombie through sleep deprivation, unless you’re very lucky.

And enjoy each day, savour each moment, and love them hard because their lives are way too short.

That they don’t cry for 2/3 nights when you bring them home.

Ours cried for a good 3 weeks. I have never been so sleep deprived

Silence is golden, except in a puppy. So if you can't see them and they've gone quiet, they're probably either pooing or chewing. (Or both 🤔)

As previously said, routine is the key.

Train in short bursts every day, don't let them get brain-ache because they'll get bored or fall asleep.

Correct unwanted behaviour before it happens if you can - e.g. if you can see that they're gearing up to jump up on you, guide them in to a sit, quickly, and praise enthusiastically.

Get them used to you opening their mouth, handling their paws and looking in their ears.

Tell them how amazing they are, every single day 😍

I wish I'd known how addictive they are. We got our second puppy 8 months after the first, and another one under a year after that! We now have 6 dogs but they're mostly rescues who came to us as adults - I love puppies though and I always really enjoyed the puppy stages.

Some do, some don’t. It’s luck of the draw!

Our girl’s only saving grace was that she slept through the night. We had maybe 15 minutes of crying in her crate on the first night and that was it. Every night after that she slept for a solid 6 hours between 11pm and 5am. All depends on the puppy themselves. Our breeder had gotten the pups used to sleeping through the night in their crates, this definitely helped!

As it's a terrier get lots of chew toys, stuffed ones as well as chewy ones.

Don't use puppy pads, you're just teaching your dog to toilet in the house.

Don't have them up on the furniture, they can come up once you've taught them they have to ask.

Crate train them, ours still use a crate and I now never shut the door, it's their own safe space.

Put them in the crate after a walk to decompress. Puppies need a lot of sleep but won't necessarily go to sleep

They are prone to eating their own shit and vomiting that shit mix all over your carpets.
Luckily Ddog belonged to XP so he took her when he left. Unfortunately he bailed from the friends house he'd been staying at. His belongings went to the tip after 6 months no contact. I have no idea what happened to lovely puppy. As far as know, the guy either rehomed her or kept her.

This, definitely

And being woken in the early hours...

Good morning Daisy...

That I should have taken more photos/videos of when she was tiny.
To buya bissel carpet cleaner alongside everything else and not wait until she had wrecked 4 rugs.
That although it is sweet having her upstairs on my bed I'll regret it as I will never get her off and she will make my room smell of dog.Wish I'd kept the stair gate and never invited her up.

How hard it is.

I would have lots of toys for chewing. Crate train. Good quality dog food. Plenty of socialisation. Start training fairly promptly.

That what was a safe place to put things out of the puppy's reach one day will quickly become not safe.

My first puppy was a climber and somehow managed to get onto a chair and then on to the kitchen table when he was remarkably small (and he was a lakeland terrier, so never got very big).

I read Gwen Bailey's "The Perfect Puppy" before I got him though, so was well-prepared. I highly recommend it.

That very tricky stage between 5 and 9 months! But ride it out I can’t believe how bad my dog was at that stage now she’s just like part of the furniture!

Take your dog for short trips in the car. That way it's no big deal and they don't associate the car with the vets. First year is tough but stick with it.

We have a three month old puppy who’s been with us for almost a month.

Crates aren’t for everyone. We’ve not bothered. This pup happily snuggles up in his bed in the sitting room at night. Our breeder gave us a blanket from his home and I think that definitely comforted him at first. We had one night of crying followed by 2 of sporadic whimpering but nothing after that.

Toilet training is a doddle if you take them out very frequently in the first week and then watch for the signs after that. Our puppy is already barking at the patio doors when he needs to go out and lasts about 9 hours over night.

They thrive on benign neglect. I don’t mean leaving them on their own, but they don’t need constant attention all day. Play time, but also lots of sleep time. 8 week old puppies need about 20 hours per day.

Puppy blues are real and you will probably cry at some point and wish you’d never got the puppy. It will pass and the puppy will turn into a dog that fits into your life and you adore, but my god the initial stage is hard!

You will feel like a prisoner in your own home who can’t sit or do anything without keeping constant watch that pup isn’t needing to poo or pee.

You will spend a lot of time in the garden saying ‘poo poo’ and ‘pee pee’ only for them to sniff around for 15 minutes and then promptly pee when they get back inside.

My dog was sort of sprung on me. OH just decided to get one and I was heavily persuaded to go ahead.

I found it difficult as I never knew what to expect and was surprised it was like raising a child!

I know someone who totally covered her carpet with plastic and it worked well during toilet training. That was the hard bit.

Everything will get chewed. Keep anything you like well away.

Train well on lead/recall. My dog breed is well known for pulling and we've never managed to train it out of him. Only happens for the first minute or so as he is excited about going out, but it's embarrassing.

Flea prevention is really important. If your dog does get them don't mess around with the crap in the shops. Go to the vet to get the strong flea treatment and go to town with Indorex spray. Everything else is crap.

Reward for every bit of engagement (when he looks at you) - not necessarily with a treat but praise. This builds a bond - you can't train a dog who isn't paying attention to you. Vital for training loose lead walking.
Don't mistime praise and therefore reward excitedness.instead of calmness. Calmness is so important, again, for a well trained dog.
Be aware when he's tired and give him a calm space with a command to go and chill.
Learn canine body language. It's vital for his safety as he grows.
Enjoy every minute.

If your husband suggests letting the puppy sleep on the bed "just this first night" you will never be able to sleep alone again 🙃
Also it's hard bloody work. Really hard but worth it.