Time to come clean. Having a dog is horrible. They look so cute and I've always heard such great things about having a dog. But that is clearly all lies. Three and a half weeks into being a puppy mama, and I often feel like I've made the worst mistake of my life. Having a puppy is the most stressful thing I have ever done. I'm in tears at least once a day because I don't think I can handle it any more. I took the day off on Friday because my night/morning was so full of puppy stress that I just couldn't make myself get ready for work and go. All my dreams are nightmares about things going wrong with the puppy.
I feel ridiculous whenever I tell people how miserable I am. The response is always "Oh, well, puppies do that." I've never been a dog owner before, so I don't know if this is just a particularly bad dog or if I'm just particularly bad at being a dog owner or what, but I swear it can't be this hard for everyone or dogs would not be as loved by our species as they are.
Both of my arms and legs look like the picture above. He bites hard enough to draw blood several times a day. Tons of my clothes have been ruined. Housetraining accidents and over-zealous barking can be annoying, but I can deal with those okay. It's the incessant biting that I can not handle. I consider myself a very patient person in general, but I lose my cool with this creature over his biting far more than I care to admit.
And the time commitment is larger than I imagined it would be. I feel like nearly every second of my non-working, non-sleeping hours are dedicated to taking care of Winston. I come home from work, clean up whatever messes Winston made that day while I was gone, make dinner, walk Winston, and it's already bedtime. Everything outside of that suffers. I haven't gone to improv workshop since getting this dog. I'm not spending as much time with Trevor as I would like. Our sex frequency has decreased dramatically. I haven't been working out anymore.
All of this misery for what?
The cutest, sweetest little guy you ever met. Yes, my carpet looks like that most of the time from all the little pieces of leaves and god-knows-what-else Winston tears up all the time, but look at that face. When he's being calm and cuddly, he so wonderful. And he just follows me around the house and I love that. And he is really good about some things. He sleeps pretty well in his crate; he only has to get up once or twice a night now, which isn't too bad, and he goes right back to sleep after we let him out to potty. And he is very good at "sit". None of the other commands we're trying to teach him are sticking quite as well, but I'll just be proud of his "sit".
I guess it's just continuing to take this one day at a time. Things will get better, right?
8 comments:
It is hard to have a puppy, but if you train them and work hard while they are young it is worth it when they are older. Having a dog is very nice, but not while they are puppies. They are cute and that is why you work through the puppy stage. But you do have to train them, be consistent and put in the time and effort to rid them of bad habits while they are young in order for them to be awesome when they are older. Good luck, we're in the same boat...
Puppies are hard, trust me. My family has done the puppy stage a couple times. If you need any advice or tips feel free to call or text me. Just keep going, as he gets older things will get better. I promise!
Hi i have had experience with a bitty dog and i want to let you know that when ever he bites at you tell him no, firm but calm. you need to teach him that its wrong to bite. in my case we had to get rid of our dog, and we realized that if we just kept on him about not biting we mite still have him. so please work with him and i know it will get better!
hang in there! he's really cute.
Also have you increased your tough love on him? my two cents are that you own the puppy he doesnt own you. he'll adapt to whatever you let him do. Maybe try spraying him with a spray bottle when he bites or is bad, its more humane than hitting but they still dont like it. anyhow good luck, you guys are good puppy parents i'm sure you'll figure it out!
Yup, that's a puppy for you! It's a lot like having a baby actually. Just instead of the bruises you have baby body fluids all over. :-)
Drea really wants a dog and I've told her that we can get one when we live in an apartment when that's allowed. I was thinking we should get a puppy, but now maybe the fully trained route sounds a little better. That's also why I'm trying to potty train our baby before its born, but I'm not sure how successful that will be.
Anyway, if you ever want us to take care of Winston for a few hours, just let us know.
Sound alot like when we got you! Especially the "but look at that face" part and the not getting much sleep.
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