I got a puppy!

Hello everyone!

Sorry I haven’t posted lately but as you can tell by the title of my post, I GOT A PUPPY! 😀

This was planned but it was something that happened a little quicker than I had thought it would. I am going to share my experience on getting my new little nugget and how you should prepare yourself for getting a puppy.

The first thing you should do would be to think about the lifestyle you have, and ask your self some serious questions. Do you travel a lot? If yes then maybe a dog isn’t right for you right now. Can you afford to feed him and vet bills? Food is a big cost that happens regularly, and vet bills can be quite scary expensive. Do you have the time to play and bond with them? Dogs need attention and love, they are not as independent as cats are/ can be. Are you prepared to adjust your schedule so that you can take care of the dog? If you are not ready to alter your daily routine for your new dog then you should probably wait to get the puppy. That being said your entire life shouldn’t revolve around them either. But if you get a puppy which is essentially a baby, you have to understand that they need more attention than normal.

If you decide that you are ready and able to get a puppy start doing research in to the type of dog that you best suit your lifestyle. Are you active? Do you have a yard? Do you have kids? Do you have other animals? Do you live in a house or an apartment? One of the key things to consider if you are getting a puppy is that they will grow up. All puppies are small, but it’s the grown dog that you want to get to know about as well. So many people get a puppy not realizing that the when they are full grown certain breeds are quite large and then they have to give them up.  All of these questions will help you determine the breed of dog that would best be suited to you. For me it  was like this:

• Are you active? Yes
• Do you have a yard? No, but I do have access to parks and green space
• Do you have kids? No
• Do you have other animals? No
• Do you live in a house or an apartment? Apartment, they do allow animals (check with your building super/ landlord if you are unsure)

This lead me to decide that I do not want a large dog, I live in a one bedroom apartment and it doesn’t have a yard that they can roam freely. I also know that dogs need to be able to have their own space at times. I do have green spaces where they can go to the bathroom outside when they need to and a few parks that are within walking distance. My boyfriends family also lives close by and they do have a yard that he does play in with their dog. My boyfriend and I are also quite active, we love to go on walks and to play tennis. So far we have have been able to bring him with us for both (although the walks are short since he is so small).

Other characteristics that I wanted would be that they are small-medium size dog, friendly with people/ kids and other dogs ( I live in a building with lots of families and dogs). They are not yappy by nature and they are very playful and full of personality. I grew up with dogs so there was a lot of thought and research that went in to this. I googled all kinds of breeds, looked at message boards and information pages to learn all I could to make an informed decision. I decided to get a French Bulldog, they are considered small dogs but they don’t bark, aren’t known for being aggressive and are playful, they also don’t need a lot of space.

Once I made the decision on the type of dog, I started to create a budget sheet. It listed all of the expenses that I would have in the first year along with the cost of the dog. I used the PetSmart website to create the general list of things that I would need to get for him. Obviously a lot of these things were rough approximations but it is was a good way to see what the expenses would be. The top things needed would be:

• Crate-Given to us from breeder
• Bed-PetSmart
• Toys-Petsmart 
• Food-Global Pet Foods
• Leash- PetSmart
• Collar (Harness) – PetSmart (for both)

Also depending on the type of dog and time of year you may want to think of getting a jacket to protect them from the cold (I mean I do live in Canada) and booties to protect their feet from salt and cold. Also a life jacket if you live near water or have a pool, (frenchies are recommended to always swim with a life jacket even when they are full grown). Then think of the vet bills, in the first year puppies will need to visit the vet more often to get vaccinations and check ups on to make sure they are growing up healthy. You should always keep a record of their vaccinations, when they got them and what vet clinic you went to. Once the puppy is grown enough in the first year it is also usually when they are spayed or neutered this is an expensive procedure so keep that in mind as well.

Now that you have a rough budget you can start looking into options of where to get the dog from.  I actually looked at the shelters for a couple months waiting for a dog to come in that I could adopt but unfortunately they seemed to be all big dogs, and the one time I went to the shelter all the dogs available had been adopted! Which is actually really wonderful to hear and I love that so many people are doing that. However, this meant that I went to a breeder instead. I found a breeder online and they were very open in answering my questions about the puppies and they shared lots of pictures with me. I then went to their place to meet the puppies and choose the one that seemed to mesh with me and my boyfriend the best.

This little brindle nugget walked right over to us and started licking and playing with our feet and shoes, we also thought he was the cutest thing in the world and that was it. He was the one we took home. The breeders gave us a baggie of food to last a couple weeks and a crate for him to sleep in (yes, we are crate training and if you do it right dogs love  their crate and view it as a safe space). I/we have had the dog for about 2.5 weeks and are actually getting almost 100% on the potty training. We have hardly any accidents anymore which is awesome! He is now almost 13 weeks and will be going into the vets this week for a check up and some more vaccinations.

Some things about his personality that we love; he loves to play and is quite mischievous. He also sleeps a lot and can be stubborn. He is adorable and has massive ears that i hope he never grows into. Everyone loves to stop and pet him when they first meet as he is just that cute. If you have any questions about this please don’t hesitate to ask!