We seriously dislike puppies. Puppies are awful, tyrannical beasts. They try to control every aspect of your life, demand attention 24/7, and try to maim you with their teeth.
After a couple weeks of getting up in the middle of the night to parade around outside in your jammies, going through an entire bottle of peroxide, doing innumerable loads of laundry, and mourning your favorite pair of shoes, you may wonder, “What was I thinking?”
And then you glance over to where the little dictator is napping on his back, having little puppy dreams with twitching, huge paws, and your heart melts just a little more.
Puppies are awful (ly) cute
We are actually blessed (we think) by having terrible recollection for bad stuff. It’s a mixed blessing. Because when we get ourselves back into a frustrating and exhausting situation, like raising a puppy, it comes rushing back after we’re already in the midst of it.
And then we remember “Oh, yeah. That’s why we don’t like puppies!”
Let’s face it. If puppies weren’t so incredibly adorable, there’d be no excuse for them.
Like grandparenting
One of the great joys we have in the shop is outfitting new puppies – getting to meet them when their people bring them in. We get all the good parts, petting, cuddling, nuzzling adorableness. And then we get to hand them back to their people. Having a supply shop is like being a grandparent. You get the fun, play parts of being with the puppy. And then they go home and someone else does their laundry.
Love dogs
On the other hand, we love dogs. Dogs are sweet, cuddly, fun roommates that never tell your secrets, never judge, and always willing to lend an ear. The best way we’ve found to wind up with an amazingly wonderful dog is to raise them up from puppyhood.
We understand that there are countless wonderful adult dogs to adopt. For various reasons (other dogs in the home, dog sports training, etc.) we’ve always started with puppies.
Not that we can prove it. There never seem to be enough puppy pictures. That’s probably because instead of taking pictures, you’re too busy chasing the puppy to grab something out of its mouth. Or peeling it off the other dog’s ear. Or stopping it grabbing the laundry and running off, shredding the rugs, gnawing on the furniture, peeing on the floor, etc. Exchanging your sock for the toy you bought especially for the little darling.
The only time you can count on getting a good picture is when the puppy is sleeping. And how many sleeping puppy pictures does anybody need?
Remember to stop and enjoy
Puppies are awful, but puppyhood is a fleeting instant in the dog’s life. The misery is really acute during the teething period, starting at about four months. But we keep telling ourselves that the more “work” we put in when they’re little, the less we have to do later. And after all – we sort of wrote the book on “Puppy Basics.”
