I understand that puppies are hard work but in what way?

[AllergicToNutters]

I know that they need time, love, obedience training, attention, socialisation, housetraining and so on. I hear that they are tiring and can be emotionally exhausting and frustrating. But how hard really is it? I am not underestimating it - but when you are looking at all these beautiful doe eyed puppies it is easy to get bowled over by their cuteness and kid yourself that it is going to be easier than it is. I need harsh facts! btw - I am on waiting lists for a Golden Retriever or Labrador pup from reputable breeders.

I think he was just that old before he could hold it, and realised he needed to go iyswim. It was very much like a toddler being potty trained. Sometimes he'd get distracted by something and then we'd get a puddle. However, he didn't poo indoors from about 15 weeks.

so you say nights are harder than days? I'm hoping not to have to do nights for too long!

Our Westie is housetrained now - was about 5 and a half months til he went out EVERY time...

We still get the odd wee "accident" - usually playing with the kids and forgets he needs to go, or a stress wee all over the girls piano teacher's shoes (omg embarrassed!), or a deliberate look you in the eye -"you are eating and paying me no attention so I will wee on the floor and you HAVE to notice me!"
(hence he spent 4 weeks shut in the kitchen whilst we ate - now he doesn't do the last one!!)

We got to 18 weeks and he went through the night 11-7, managed 11-5 from 16 weeks.. (crated) with no accidents in there since.

Allergic - I've never got up in the night to my pup. I went against advice and bought a sightly bigger crate so it could have a newspaper-covered area for her to toilet in (it was January and I just didn't fancy getting up in the middle of the night). However, from day 1 she didn't wee in there. I didn't give her access to water in the night, took her out for final wee at midnight and got up at 6. This was fine for her and now she goes from 11.30 to 6.30 (she's 16 weeks). I think she could hold on longer - when I get her up in the morning she's more interested in seeing what the cats are up to than going to do business! Perhaps I've been lucky but you never know. At almost 4 months old she still has the odd accident in the house but if we're in the kitchen (where she spends most of her time when we're home) she will go to the door when she needs to toilet. Elsewhere in the house I have to watch her like a hawk.

Sounds like you're really looking forward to pup's arrival now

yesbut - i really am - I can't wait to get going

It's interesting as I've never got up in the night and he has never had an accident in his crate- longest he has gone is 10-7:30!! That first wee of the day is massive so he can hold it.

We spent an hour playing with my friend's dog earlier- he was so excited and is now sleeping in a patch of sunlight in the kichen at my feet. I can't explain it but I seem to feel so relaxed and chilled with him just lying there. Today is a good day!!!

petitdonkey - what breed is your dog? He sounds lovely.

i've just seen the pics. Beautiful

Just to add my dog is now nearly 15 years old and much harder work than when she was a puppy, lots of accidents (full grown dog size), needs lots of attention, can't be left very long, health issues, deaf, forgets she's been fed, barks for no reason, gets agitated, needs taking out at 06:30 at the latest or these's puddle of wee to deal with etc.

It's worth remembering that if you're lucky in 10+ years you'll have an old dog to look after with very different needs.

TEAONESUGAR = what an excellent point you made. No one really dwells on the later years. In fact, I hadn't even considered it beyond working out what stage my children would be at as he gets older and the fact that they may even have left home long before he reaches middle age. Very good food for though - thank you

i am actually getting so excited now. I know it will be hard, but there are so many of you on here who i know will help guide me through. Fingers crossed for our dog to arrive with us soon :-)

TeaOneSugar excellent point, I remember my last dog got to 16 and in her last two years she was very hard work, got dementia and sometimes didn't recognise me, didn't realise she needed to go to the loo so would walk around and poo would just fall out of her in the house, went from being a massively energetic spaniel to a dog that could barely get to the top of the garden. It broke my heart and in her last week she was just so sad.

I remember thinking I expected this with a puppy but not when she was older - however small price to pay for 16 happy years.

Hmm. My dog Daisy, lab collie cross is about 14 months. While I love her dearly, in hindsight she was perhaps not the right dog for us. She has been very hard work from day one and has moved through a number of difficult phases. The nipping was tough- she would jump up and grab our clothes. Many of my tshirts, nighties and skirts and trousers had to be replaced. This made DD , 10, very scared of her and set back their relationship for a while. After the nipping came the chewing. Because we have an open plan house it has been impossible to protect much of it and she basically destroyed one couch and one armchair and many smaller items. Recently she grabbed and ran off with my work blackberry which led to quite a funny time explaining to IT! Overall our house is dirtier and the contents are sort of more destroyed looking then they were.
The chewing has begun to subside and the problem now is barking. She has a very loud and sharp bark which comes out when anyone walks down our street past our house or if the dog 2 streets away barks in his garden. Plus other outbursts of loud pointless barking for no reason...
We have spent much more than I anticipated on training her. She goes to dog day care once a week which she loves which helps her burn off energy too.
On the plus side; she is beautiful, clever, funny, completely loyal and is becoming more sort of cuddly as she gets older. The DC adore her and lie on the floor with their arms around her. I love taking her for walks. DH, who is not a dog person, is very proud of her great fielding when the kids play cricket.

saffronblue a mixed bag for you then! It seems that when people have it hard they really do have it hard! Gald that things are getting easier for you though. And she does sound very loving

Allergic - he's a minature labradoodle and really lovely. I actually like the fact that today is drizzly and grey and we are going to London this afternoon but, in a minute, I'm going out for a long walk. I never would have done this before. shamelessly gets dog to try and shift weight

awww - how gorgeous - but they are supposed to be nuts! Well done

aliciaflorrick Mine's a spaniel too (springer), she tries to do all the daft jumping up stuff that spaniels love to do (forgets she's an old lady) and has some nasty falls.

It's great reading all your experiences with puppies.

My wife and I had the "fantasy" of having a cute, calm puppy now that I'm working from home. I visioned him asleep in my lap or on my feet at my desk while I worked through the day. HA!! Now I see the truth.

We accepted to adopt a rescue dog from Mexico (we're in Canada) sight unseen. Well, they gave us 1 pic of the terrier. It was all very last minute. We were asked if we wanted to adopt him and the next day we went to a neighboring city (Vancouver) to pick him up.

We were not prepared at all. We have a very small duplex home but we do have a yard (not fully fenced in).

So, we brought the pup back to our town. Made a stop at my mom's house so the guy can play with her 9 month old puppy. Our guy (Bentley) was like a tasmanian devil, bouncing off of all the walls, furniture and people, humping the other boy dog, search for food (even though we just fed him).

We took him home with us. We've had him going on 3 days today. My wife and I have just about had a mental breakdown. She's been in tears for 2 days. We honestly don't know what to do.

He has the energy of 10 horses. At times I think he's possessed since he's literally crawling up walls, doing back flips etc. He won't let anyone pet him since he always thinks fingers and hands are just more food. He eats like it's his last meal even though we're feeding him more than enough and at regular schedules. We take him out every 1 or 2 hours and he still comes inside and does his business everywhere inside. (even if he just went outside) If we go into another room for a second, he'll start whining and howling. We take him on walks but he just about rips our arms out of their sockets every second of the walk. There's plenty more but that's a taster of what we're experiencing so far.

A bit about us. She works an hour away reg 9 - 5. I work at home on the computer (can't be interrupted every 5 seconds). Together we have 5 side businesses we're trying to work on after our day jobs. We barely have time for dinner together, let alone training and cleaning up after a wild wolf pup of a dog.

We also don't have a lot of money for the expensive dog training classes.

If you were in our situation and didn't think things through well enough to know better, what would you do? Take him back to the SPCA?

I know all of you have said it's horribly tough but now he's the sweetest dog etc. We're mentally and physically drained after 2 full days. Not sure how we're going to last as a couple if we have to do this for the next 6 months or however long it takes for this pup to become a sane dog. We would love to have a dog as part of our family, one who we can love and who will love us back but it seems like we aren't ready. We have no time at all, very little money and it seems we don't have nearly enough energy or patience.

You might be better off starting a new thread.
Puppy blues is normal, most people cry a few days in.
Look at the FB page Dog Training Advice and Support, it's ran by proper, modern, qualified behaviourists (the industry is unregulated, so do not Google dog trainers, you'll get some dangerous outdated hack who tries the 'alpha' crap). The FB page has loads and loads of files on toilet training, puppy biting (normal and they need to do it, just channel their biting into a long toy). Is he in a high quality food? Is he being mentally stimulated and correctly socialised? A harness with a double ended lead?

Don't burden a rescue, he's your responsibilty and everything is all new to him.

My pup is 7 months old (today!) and it is only now that the light is shining brightly at the end of the tunnel! I have likened him to a baby with no nappy - I used to find the whole thing pretty horrendous, to be honest. However because dogs are THE best pets and give so much back, you end up just loving them to bits. And it sounds shallow I know, but my pup's super cute looks make me so much more forgiving! I am so glad in hindsight that I went for a low energy breed; he naps a fair bit and I don't know what I'd do if he didn't have this 'off' button! Oh, and crate training didn't work for us at all, so be openminded about it, as there's a lot of hype. Of course it works brilliantly for many though, and that's fine too. All the best with your decision!

Bentley, I feel terribly sorry for you and your wife, but why did you go for a rescue dog that was realistically going to have problems, when you have limited time and money? I have made a shedload of mistakes as a first time puppy owner, but one thing I did do right was to research our breed really thoroughly. And of course he was going to go nuts if taken to meet another pup on his first journey home from the rescue centre. Have you tried speaking to the rescue centre you got him from, as perhaps they could offer advice or the services of a behaviourist?

On hindsight, my post sounds a bit judgemental. I'm sorry. I have a 'normal' pup and even I have found things difficult. I wish you luck.

We've had our puppy for almost three weeks now. She is a very good puppy in lots of ways - goes through the night from 11.00 to 7.00 with no accidents and no crying, has learned some basic commands, is mostly toilet trained with the odd accident, is gentle, not a big biter, and good in the car. I tend to "put her down" for a nap (i.e lock her in the dining room) when she gets boisterous and this works, she will then sleep happily for an hour or more. I am lucky too in that I am home most of the time and able to enjoy being with her. I guess the worst aspect is the constant need to watch her...we have a stair gate to stop her going in the living room without us, but there is always the need to keep an eye on her, see what she's got, what she's chewing, what mischief is she up to. When she's in the garden she's a devil for chewing the plants etc. In the evenings she tends to go a bit crazy from around 6pm to 9pm, very active, very playful and a bit destructive, that's probably the worst time because I'm tired and trying to get the dinner, tidy up etc. She also barks for attention, for example if I go upstairs and leave her when she is not asleep so we need to work on that, and she is not good on the lead (lots of dancing around and jumping up). So we definitely have things to work on. All in all, it IS very much like having a toddler. But....I love her so much and she has definitely brought joy to the house. My lazy 14 year old DD has really stepped up to the plate and is great at taking care of her, it's been really good to see her being responsible. (And I love snuggling with the puppy on the sofa in the evenings....so stinky and lovely)

Puppies are why we've always adopted slightly older rescue dogs! Way too much hard work...

Out Cavalier chewed chunks out of wall corners when he was a puppy. Still a nightmare but in other ways. We love him though!