So You Think You Want a Puppy

Maybe your parents had a dog when you grew up. Maybe you’ve always wanted a cute little thing to follow you around adoringly. Whatever the reason, you’re starting to think you want a puppy.

But no matter how well the mall stores package their puppies as toys, you need to first realize that owning a dog, as well as a puppy, is a huge commitment and responsibility.

A dog cannot amuse itself regardless of whether you are home or not. A dog cannot train itself to pee and poop in the right place, and needs to socialize and spend time with you. A dog is not a stuffed toy that can be put in the closet when you’re busy and taken out again when you want to play.

A dog is a living creature that depends on you to give him what he needs, and if you aren’t capable of meeting that responsibility, do yourself and the dog a favor, and don’t get a dog. Additionally, if you’ve only read this far and already feel too busy to read it all, consider getting an iguana instead.

Maybe I sound harsh, but all it takes is a quick look around your local shelter to see the number of unwanted pets. Puppies are cute, but they grow up. Many pets are given up because owners made an impulse buy and ended up with the wrong breed for their lifestyle, or with more work than they anticipated. In a limited shelter study by the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy (NCPPSP), it was found that over 50% of the dogs left in shelters were euthanized.

Reasons for abandonment? The dog wasn’t behaviorally trained or housetrained, because the owner didn’t have time to do it correctly. The dog didn’t fit into the owner’s lifestyle. The owner got tired of trying to deal with the dog. The owner wanted a puppy instead of Old Faithful. The dog got sick, and the owner wanted to get rid of him rather than pay a huge vet bill.

So before you bring a dog into your home, think carefully about the changes this will cause to your life.

Time Commitment
All dogs require your time, which seems fairly obvious. After all, why are you getting a dog if not for companionship and love? Dogs are social pack animals, and when you take them into your home, you become the leader of the pack. Dogs need to be around their pack to feel secure, and to learn what it is you want them to do.

Puppies require even more care, just like babies. At night, someone has to get up to take the puppy outside, because a puppy can’t hold his pee longer than 3-4 hours. During the day, someone has to get home to take the puppy out every 3-4 hours, or you have to hire someone or ask a neighbor to help you. Once you’re home, you’ve got to keep a constant eye on the puppy. Like a toddler, the puppy is insatiably curious. He’ll eat anything and everything on the floor, will chew furniture and shoes if he’s teething, and will pee and poop whenever he feels like it. To get him housetrained, you have to watch him all the time and be vigilant and consistent with whatever method of housetraining you decide to do.

A badly-behaved adult dog that isn’t housebroken, jumps up on furniture or people when you don’t want him too, and barks endlessly is not a bad dog. He is a badly-trained dog, and you can take the blame for that.

The puppy years are the most crucial to a dog’s development. During this time, you have to teach the puppy where to pee and poop, show him what constitutes good and undesired behavior, introduce him to new people and animals, and also start working on things that will help YOU, the owner, later on.

For example, all dogs need their nails trimmed regularly–just like humans. This can be impossible to do by yourself if you haven’t already started getting your puppy used to having his feet handled. You need to play with his feet and get him used to being held and handled so that when it does come time to bring him to the vet, your dog can be more easily examined, and without the need for sedation.

The mouth also needs to be handled. Dogs need regular dental cleanings (which require that they be placed under anesthesia), and you can increase the time between the cleanings by taking some time NOW, when the puppy is easily handled, to introduce your puppy to a toothbrush and pet toothpaste. Brushing his teeth every day or every other day will help reduce the tartar that can lead to teeth falling out, gum disease, and infections that could shorten your pet’s life. Most puppies adapt easily to the taste of pet toothpaste, particularly the poultry-flavored ones (human toothpaste can’t be used–it foams in the dog’s mouth). The more difficult problem is getting the toothpaste into the dog’s mouth, when the dog hasn’t been socialized to have his mouth looked at, opened, and touched.

Enrolling you and your pup in puppy kindergarten, often offered by Petco and Petsmart and other pet supply shops, is also a useful idea. You’ll learn the basics of communicating with your dog, and more important, your puppy will start getting used to seeing other dogs. You don’t want to be the owner slapped with a lawsuit when your dog, now grown to a 100-pound Labrador, bites someone or another dog that’s merely walking past him. Behavior that is cute and cuddly from a pup will be intolerable when he’s fully-grown, and if you don’t communicate clearly to your pup what is acceptable, you’ll end up with an adult you can’t live with.

Lifestyle Commitment
Let’s face it, when you have a dog, vacations become much more difficult.

A dog can’t be left alone while you jet off to Mexico for the weekend. A dog needs to be boarded or a dogsitter needs to be found. Even a fully grown adult dog shouldn’t be forced to hold his urine for longer than 8 hours, so working overtime regularly isn’t recommended. Once you get home, the dog will want your attention. If you have an active social life right now and go out when you’re not at work, a dog isn’t going to fit into your life well.

Dogs are happiest when you’re with them, and although you can still certainly go out for a movie once in a while, take a look at your life now and try to imagine what kind of dog would be happiest beside you as you go about your day. A dog that loves to run and needs a few hours of exercise a day? A lap dog that just wants to sit with you? A small dog, big dog, female dog, male dog, adult dog, puppy?

All puppies are hyperactive. Chew on things while they’re
teething. Very needy. Not housebroken. In need of multiple forms of
attention and training. Need to be watched at all times when you’re
home, and in a puppy-safe area while you are not. That’s as much
personality as they have, initially. It isn’t until later that you find
out whether you’ve got one who is content lying at your feet with hardly
any attention, or one who is jumpy and needs exercise all the time.

This is where breed temperament comes in — it’s not just the
individual dog’s personality that matters, but what breed it is. Terriors run, need to chase, require far more exercise in a tiny body than other dogs. Labs are great with kids, laid-back, and
generally willing to tolerate attention from kids yanking at them or
whatever. Chihuahuas? Well…chihuahuas want to sleep on you all the time.

Age also matters. Adult dogs still have lots of personality and life left in them, and you can better
evaluate an adult dog’s temperament to see if he likes kids, is laid-back, whatever. All dogs take a few days to understand what you want and where they’re supposed to poop, but an adult dog that was
already housetrained will be much faster at understanding what you want, within a few days of being put on your schedule, as long as you’re consistent. And they don’t need to be taken out every 2-4 hours for potty breaks, like puppies.

Financial Commitment
Nail trims. Dental Cleanings. Vet visits. Food, toys, medical emergencies, doggie daycare, fences. Just because you had enough money to buy the pup doesn’t mean your financial concerns are over. When you bring a dog into your family, you’re agreeing to provide a certain basic level of care for him. Food, water, necessary medical care and shelter are the minimums required by law, but any good pet owner will spend far more beyond these necessities. Vet visits alone can add up to thousands of dollars, especially if you don’t go to the vet regularly enough to catch problems before they become more difficult – and expensive – to treat. Don’t even bother to get a dog now if you’re just going to junk him like a broken bicycle and go out and buy another one when he becomes too expensive to treat. Dogs are faithful, loyal companions who ask nothing from you, and the least you can do is provide what you can to make his life good.

Owning a dog requires a lot from someone, and owning a puppy requires even more. A baby takes up a lot of time, but a baby can grow up and become independent. And if you’re a really bad parent, a baby can grow up and get into therapy.

A dog doesn’t have that choice. It depends on you for everything it needs, and it will always depend on you for as long as it lives. The joys you get from your dog will more than outweigh the bad — if you’re prepared to put up with the bad.