I love dogs. I love them so much I call them puppies-no matter how old or big they are. Growing up I had 2 mini poodles that were amazing, Taffy still is in fact. Now Daniel & I have our lab/fox terrier mix Daisy and she is such an awesome puppy.
I love how unique each puppy is. They have their own expressions, personalities and demeanor. Daisy is a very unique one. She’s very loving, always (and I mean always) wanting to be pet. She doesn’t care much for playing, and would rather you fetch her toys for her. She doesn’t bark either; she talks. It took a long time to hear the first bark from her, and I don’t mean a couple hours. It was weeks, maybe a month or more. And when she does bark, it’s not much-just closed mouth “woof”. We discovered that Daisy will only bark when she’s very scared, which is typically evoked by large unfamiliar men.
Yesterday before heading to physical therapy I was in the backyard with Daisy. The neighbors have 3 or 4 small kids (you can never tell, there’s always a bunch of them running around) and just got a puppy a few weeks ago. The puppy went from being tiny to Daisy’s size in just 3 weeks! Now their dog is a big puppy that chews everything all the time, so it gets left in the backyard all the time. While Daisy moseyed around the back yard, the neighbors’ puppy (Zoey we think) heard someone coming out its back door. It was the dad, who promptly discovered that Zoey had chewed up the charcoal bag and made a mess of it. He got pretty angry, which can be expected. But then he started violently yelling and stomping at Zoey, yelling at her that he was going to “beat the crap” out of her. This both frightened and angered Daisy & myself. Daisy went to the fence, on point, and gave her warning “woof”. She then ran around the yard and patio frantically, visibly scared and upset. I really wanted to yell at the guy and tell him the reason Zoey acts like that is because no one pays any attention to her or works with her. But this big tattooed guy seemed intimidating enough for me, let alone the poor puppies. So I just took Daisy inside and calmed her down.
Late last night I got back from work and went out back with Daisy only to discover that Zoey was still outside in the pitch black back yard at 10:30pm. I feel so badly for this poor puppy. My new goal is to train their dog for them since the neighbors obviously can’t or won’t train Zoey.
So to all the puppy parents & potential parents:
1. Don’t get a puppy unless you’re really ready for the responsibilities that come with it. That means taking the time to crate & house train the puppy, training it not to chew up your belongings but rather its own toys, teaching it commands and providing adequate attention for meal times, play time, exercise and going out.
2. Puppies chew. It’s a fact. So rather than yelling, stomping and threatening your puppy, teach it. Your dog wants your attention. Your violent and negative reaction to its mess is attention. So chalk one up to the puppy, it wins. Instead, ignore the undesired behavior and merely hand the puppy the proper chew toy. That’s one of the issues with Zoey-she has no chew toys of her own. She steals the kids toys and other back yard items to make her own boredom busters.
3. You’ve got to spend time with the puppy. Train them early on using small training treats. Teach them sit, stay, come here, no, get in your crate, lay, up, etc. Just work with them. They’ll never teach themselves to sit and stay, you’ve got to do it. That means caring enough to take the time.
4. Put a collar on your dog. Zoey has been outside for weeks without any collar or ID info. This is bad in so many ways. I doubt the parents would really care so much if Zoey got out and lost, but what about the kids? What about the dog’s safety?
So the morale of the story is: think long and hard before you get a puppy. Maybe you should try adopting an older dog first. Or maybe you’re just not ready for that kind of commitment. They’re like your kids. Make sure you’re ready first. And if you run into issues along the way, seek help. Don’t yell and abuse your dog. That’s why Daisy is so scared. We got her from the shelter where she went after an abusive family abandoned her.
On a side note: Vote for a Whole Foods in the OKC metro area! Go to http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/company/service.php and click “Store Location Request” under “Contact Us Via E-Mail” and they’ll let you enter a zipcode to vote!
Also check out the facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=62193054055
