It’s been almost two years since we brought Sweet Baby L home.  It’s hard to imagine a time when she wasn’t part of our family. Just the other day, I was looking at her and thinking about how much more grown up she looks now. My baby puppy! Getting so big! 

It made me think back to those early days of new puppy ownership and how little we knew about being dog parents.  Yes, both my husband and I grew up with pets, so we figured we knew what we were doing. How hard could it be?  

LOL. 

Getting Ready

I maintained this low-key, go with the flow vibe until the week that she was due to arrive. As more and more deliveries from Amazon piled up, I started to panic wonder if everything she needed would even fit.  We live in a not huge apartment in New York, where every square-inch of space matters

And my husband set up her crate.

“Is it supposed to be that f***ing big?” I asked, momentarily stunned. It took up what felt like half of the living room.  The sheer size made it hard for us to find a good spot for it, and the remainder of that weekend was spent re-arranging furniture to try to accommodate it. She didn’t even like the crate anyway!

Worry Setting In

Picking up Sweet Baby L involved a road trip down to Virginia. The entire way, I wondered worried whether she would be happy with us.   Would she miss her dog family? Would she be scared or confused? What if she was sad?  Or lonely? Would she hate us? What if she didn’t like living in the city?  

It didn’t help that as soon as we pulled out of the driveway to begin the trip home, Sweet Baby L started crying, peering out the window towards the house and brothers and sisters that we had left behind.

“She’s fine,” my husband assured me. “She’ll settle down.” He was right, she did, but not before I nearly shed some tears myself.  

Feeling Overwhelmed is Normal, Right?

Raising a puppy is absolutely no joke. It’s a 24-hour shift, seven days a week. (I say this as someone who also has an infant). I don’t know what I was expecting, but I guess there’s a big difference between thinking about a middle of the night potty run versus actually having to drag myself out of bed in the middle of a frigid night in New York to hustle Sweet Baby L down the elevator and outside before she had an accident.  Thinking about having a dog and actually having a dog are two very different things. 

I completely underestimated  just how much attention she would need during the day. Puppies have energy. A lot of energy. In the early days, it felt like it was almost impossible to do anything other than look after Sweet Baby L. I took that week off of work, and I’m glad I did. There were many moments where I felt like I was doing everything wrong, and that perhaps thinking we could raise a puppy was overly ambitious. There were many times I almost cried. A few times, I did cry.  But we made it. 

Finding a Dog Trainer

Sweet Baby L joined our family around the same time there was a huge influx of “pandemic pups” in our neighborhood. This meant there were often long wait lists for appointments with trainers. Some stopped taking on new clients altogether, and those that were, were charging a pretty penny. 

I wish I had done more research before Sweet Baby L arrived so I didn’t have to spend time during those hectic early days frantically Googling places that could take her on.  After getting her on some wait lists, I turned to McCann dog training videos on YouTube.

Those were helpful, but we really needed one-on-one attention with someone who could keep us accountable.  We made our way through several trainers before we landed on someone we liked. Part of the reason was availability, and part of it was because we didn’t know what we really wanted in a trainer. Now, we know that positive reinforcement methods work well for us, but it can’t be all treats all the time. We were better off when we worked with someone who taught us about giving Sweet Baby L structure, and reminding her who was in charge (not her).

Socializing

Sweet Baby L’s breeder did a fantastic job of introducing her litter to 100 different people before she came home, so we already had a good foundation for socialization.  We also made a conscious effort to get her out and about as soon as we could. I know there’s an argument to be made for waiting until puppies have had all their vaccines before introducing them to other dogs, but with our vet’s blessing, we got Sweet Baby L mingling on the street fairly early on.  I think it’s helped grow calm and confident around all sorts of other dogs.

Pet Insurance

I talk about this all the time but getting pet insurance was one of the few things we did right.