When you know you want a family pet it can be very frustrating if the timing never seems to be right to get one. Household emergencies may suck up your budget, or you may fall pregnant again and worry how you would be able to keep up physically. Time can march on through decorating your home and moving house, toilet training your toddler and starting back at work. It never feels like the best time to bring someone new into the household. But nothing else is going to fill that void.
Sometimes you just have to take the plunge and find yourself the perfect puppy for you. Life will always get in the way of lots of things. As Mummies, we never prioritise what we want
anyway. If you really want a puppy, you should make the necessary arrangements and start looking for puppies for sale. Make sure the rest of the family are on board and willing to take on all the extra chores a puppy will bring to the household. Training will be an important part of the first 6 months or so of your puppy’s life with you, and you may wish to enlist the help of a professional, like this Dog Trainer in Sunderland, who will have tried and tested programs and techniques to get training right the first time.
First things first, you need to check the garden perimeter is completely secure. The last thing you want is your new puppy to be tearing up the neighbour’s flower beds! Next, install stair gates where you don’t want the puppy to venture. If you have babies or small children, make sure your new puppy cannot get upstairs at all, and keep your Moses basket in a room puppy cannot get into if you still use it.
If there is a baby in the family, consider using a sling or harness so you don’t have to put baby down anywhere if you need the loo or have to rush to answer the door. Puppies are usually harmless, but they can get overly curious and leave slobber all over poor baby. In the very least, this may make the baby scream the house down, but it can also cause illnesses and other problems.
Introducing puppy to the children is essential from day one. The kids need to know their boundaries as much as the puppy needs to know his. Teach the kids how to approach your puppy in the same way you would expect them to approach stranger dogs. Use puppy training classes to help you find the best way to discipline your dog if he shows any aggression toward the kids or oversteps his boundaries.
When it comes to placement of dog food, our houses are usually too small to be particularly fussy, but you can use a stair gate to stop the kids going for it. While it is generally harmless for children to consume a little dog food, the puppy may find this behaviour unwelcome and respond negatively. When travelling in a car with a dog, make sure he is secured in the back away from the kids so as not to distract your driving. Vet’s visits are common in puppyhood, so get him well-accustomed to car travel. Try a good boot protector and a dog mat in case of accidents. Keep the car ventilated, and never leave your dog in the car unattended.
