What I Learned my First Week of Having a Puppy

Let me start off by saying I knew it wasn’t going to be a magical easy-breezy situation. Puppies take work! I also got my current cat as a kitten and knew about a lot of the basic issues of having an adolescent animal. For anyone who has had a puppy, you definitely know all of this already and hopefully can commiserate. And just a warning, I talk about puppy health issues!

For introductions, my puppy was adopted from a local rescue. We’ve named her Cambry (and she learned her name within a few days!) and she’s an adorable six-month-old border collie mix. My main desire to get another dog was so our current dog, Kiri, would have a friend to play with. With my new job, my partner’s schedule and mine were pretty much the same which meant there were never times where one of us had the day off to play with our dog during the week. I felt really guilty about both of us getting home and being too tired to chase our dog around like she wanted. I wanted a puppy for two reason: puppies are cute and a puppy would be less dangerous to my cat. When we moved in together, I wasn’t worried about my boyfriend’s dog because she is incredible sweet and gentle (until its big dog play time, that is). I was really afraid of adopting an older dog that would be aggressive towards my cat and that was big enough to do actual harm. So with introductions done, let’s see what she’s taught me!

I’m a worrier

If you’ve had a young animal before, you know worms are very common. A few days into having my puppy, I noticed some blood in her stool. Not good. So I took Cambry into the vet and lo and behold – just an insane amount of hookworms. We’re still taking our first round of medicine, eating normally, and have plenty of energy to run around in the yard. So what am I worried about? Her slightly bloated tummy! It’s just a little bloated looking depending on how she’s sitting, and I know it’s because of the worms and gut rebalancing, but I just can’t stop worrying! The same thing happened when our other dog had an infected dew claw. Constant worrying!

My habits need to change

Obviously part of why we got another dog is because five days a week, we found ourselves too tired to play with our current dog the amount she wanted. While I don’t recommend getting another dog for everyone, so far, it’s made a huge difference. It’s forced me to get off my computer during all my free time and to play with both of them more because they’re not quite on the same strength level yet. I have to clean more because Cambry gets into way more trouble than Kiri does. We’re going to have to up our dog training because having one dog that was barely trained was manageable; having two, especially two big strong dogs, that only know sit and lay down is not going to be the same. Having a puppy has forced me to do all these things for my other dog that I’ve been putting off because she was manageable.

I really love all our pets

One of my biggest worries was that getting a puppy that was “mine” was going to change how I felt about our other animals – our current dog especially. My partner got Kiri a year after we started dating and before we lived together. When we moved in together, I already liked her and now I love her. Definitely our dog, not his. When we got Cambry, I was the one who wanted her and I will be taking primary responsibility for her. I was so worried that having “my” dog was going to make me think Kiri is less adorable and I was going to clearly prefer Cambry. That worry has completely disappeared. I still look at Kiri and think we have the most beautiful dog. She’s also so patient with Cambry and has transitioned relatively well to playing at her level. She’s been the best big sister, which is great considering I got Cambry so Kiri could have a friend!

I’m going to be the designated mess-cleaner-upper when we have kids

I want to be clear – it has nothing to do with being a woman. It’s based almost entirely on my experience with my cat! If you’ve had a cat, this is familiar stuff. Hairballs, throwing up from eating too fast, plus my cat had worms when he was a kitten – let’s just say I spent a lot of time modifying baby diapers for him because of it. We’ve only had a few accidents with either of our dogs but when it happens, I don’t hesitate. Just gotta clean it up! Doesn’t matter which end it came out of, stop being grossed out or worrying about it and just start cleaning up.

I know I’ve still got a lot to learn about raising a puppy, but so far it’s been amazing. From the first day to the ninth day, it’s been so much fun. I’ve been very fortunate that we’ve only had 4 accidents and we love chewing on our toys most. I’m sure as we go along, I’ll learn even more lessons and it won’t be quite as many rainbows, but I look forward to it.

What are your favorite tips for a new puppy owner? Did you learn anything about yourself when you were raising your own pets? Drop your stories down below and share what you know that I don’t!