Bringing home a new puppy is a lot like bringing home your first baby.

We became dog or, should I say, “puppy” owners in January for the first time. I had a dog as a child and, as I recall, he was an outside pet and ignored most of the time. My husband never had a dog growing up and he would have been ok with continuing with that tradition. The problem is that we have 3 daughters who love animals and stop every dog owner they pass in public so that they can pet their dog. They have begged us for years for a dog of their own and finally I started to break down thinking of all the benefits of getting a pet. It teaches responsibility, it will give them a constant companion, etc., etc., etc. Needless to say, we spent our holidays last year researching puppies and not just any puppies because we have two family members with allergies so we needed a “hypoallergenic” puppy which as my husband says translates into an “expensive designer mutt” or in our case, a labradoodle.

My husband had one request, “It has to be a male dog since I am already outnumbered in this house.” We spent weeks learning how to determine what makes a good breeder and scared to death of making a mistake. In the end, we never even met our puppy before we purchased him. He was the last in his litter and he came from Bakersfield and, to save a little time, we met the breeder in Los Angeles and brought our puppy home.

I had already gone online and done hours of research on which dog supplies I needed and trying to understand the term “crate training”. Going to the dog store (or several) reminded me of the first time I went to Babies R Us when I was pregnant. There were about as many leash options as there were bottles and I had to decide if my puppy needed the top-of-the-line dog bed with memory foam. I, of course, ordered everything that I thought would make this transition easier – only to find one week into it that I could send almost everything back. It was a little like when your baby is born and 3 months later they no longer need half the equipment, toys and clothes you have purchased. The necessities included…

1. Bowls for food and water
2. Dog food - Puppies are fed 2-3 times a day. (No, we cannot get it at Costco – it has to be a special brand only sold at about 2 stores in Santa Barbara if we want our dog to be healthy.) And, like babies, you want to slowly introduce new flavors and brands to make sure they do not have a reaction to it. And for those of you that like to feed your animals people food, we learned dogs cannot eat grapes, raisins, chocolate and onions (large quantities of any of this can cause anemia, kidney failure, etc.) Xylitol, a product sweetener found in gum and sugar free cookies can result in seizures and liver failure.
3. Training treats (It is also not good for puppies to have rawhide.)
4. Collar and leash
   
5. Plastic bags for scooping the poop on your walks (Not fun but necessary and they clip onto the leash.)
6. Harness (This helps with training and does not pull on their neck.)
7. ID Tags (Microchips are also a good idea.)
8. Crate for training and sleeping at night (I wanted a pretty wood one that would go with our decor but I found out puppies chew through these and you are better off with the metal version.) Make sure to buy a crate your dog can grow into so you are not replacing it in a few months. Do not leave your dog in the crate all day!
9. Dog bed (There is a large variety of these and we found them to be the most reasonable at Costco and Ross)
10. Crate Pad (We spent too much money on these only to find our dog was chewing through them at night until a friend suggested I use a bath mat — this has been excellent, affordable and easy to wash.)
11. Baby gates (There are excellent ones that do not have to be nailed into your wall.)
12. Chew toys – buy a variety (I was not going to spend any money on these items until I realized it was going to cost me a lot more to have him destroy my furniture.)
13. Skunk spray – We have been told Skunk Off is the best and the one that works. We have never had to use it but the thought is that you want it on-hand in case the need arises.
14. Pooch Bells - this was a great purchase. It hangs on our back door and the dog paws at it when he needs to be let out.
15. Flea treatment – We already had to deal with lice with our children and now we have to worry about fleas? (Don’t take any chances – do this regularly. For every flea that you see on your pet, there are likely to be hundreds of eggs in your home and yard.)
16. Household Supplies – Carpet and floor deodorizers (These are at the pet store and help take away smells and stains from accidents.) Bitter Apple Spray to keep the dogs from chewing on furniture (I have also heard cayenne pepper works well.)
17. Grooming supplies (We found it easier to pay a groomer so we only bought the basics) Shampoo, conditioner, brushes and wire combs. Ask a groomer for advice because there are too many options!
18. Shock Collar (we did not get this until about 10 months when he was not responding to “come” and we have only had to use it a few times but just having the collar on has made a difference. He can go off leash for walks and responds better to commands.)

Then we had to decide on a name that five of us could agree on. And yes, just like when you have a baby, there was lots of advice from friends about what we should name him. So after a few hours of discussion and after many rounds of voting… it was decided, our new dog’s name would be Caper. No comments please.

So our sweet puppy comes home and as luck would have had it, my husband was gone for the first week of his homecoming. I found out that your puppy, like your baby, needs to be socialized, but you don’t want them out around other dogs for the first 12 weeks until they have had all their shots. Our breeder gave us a puppy schedule that included everything from feedings to play time to nap time. I made up a schedule for the family so that we didn’t have any arguments on who got to spend time with the puppy and walk the puppy since I knew all the girls would want to be with him all the time. What was I thinking? The novelty of the puppy ended quickly and then it was, “I am tired, do I have to walk him?” or “He bites me all the time, this isn’t fun.” And so I found out that the puppy that everyone wants soon becomes mom’s puppy and mom’s responsibility. I also found out that all my close friends and family members with dogs that were encouraging us to do this left out many of the details of owning a pet. Hmmm… a little like when I was learning to breastfeed and nobody had shared how challenging it could be in the beginning.

Finding a Veterinarian… We found a wonderful vet recommended by friends. I did not know that we would immediately be signing him up for the $200 puppy program to cover all of his shots. The bonus was that Caper could stay there all day so those four visits also meant a break! A few months after the shots were finished, we were back for an ear infection. There are no co-pays, we pay for full office visits and then the prescription that goes with it. And the comment from the vet, “this breed is known for chronic ear infections so be prepared.” This motivated me to look into pet insurance and after reading many reviews, I learned that the coverage is not always that great. The best advice I got was to open a separate bank account and put the same amount in every month that we would if we were paying for insurance and then we would have the reserves for any major medical expenses.

Potty training… I quickly learned you do not bring a puppy home during the winter when you are dealing with non-stop rain. It hardly ever rains in Santa Barbara, yet for some reason, last January and February it did not seem to stop, which meant I was standing outside getting soaked in my pajamas every hour while I begged Caper to go to the bathroom. We even got the indoor potty pads and let me tell you, they do not work! We have a whole package for anyone who wants them. Our puppy thought it was more fun to shred them. I did learn that you do not give food or water after 7pm if you don’t want to wake up to an surprises. The crate was also a big help with potty training because dogs do not like to soil their sleeping area. It can also help to tie the leash to your body the first couple weeks so they are with you at all times and not likely to wander off and have an accident.

Dog Training… We do not have a bad puppy, just a very energetic puppy who likes to nip when he gets excited. I borrowed and purchased about 10 different “how to train your dog” books and I started watching Cesar Millan and Victoria Stilwell to make sure we were doing everything right. I think I did more research on how to raise a dog than I did when I was pregnant. I quickly realized dog training does not work if your whole family is not involved. So we signed up for a series of dog training classes and all five of us went so we could learn how to communicate with our dog. This was great socialization for our dog and he even got to go through graduation after 5 weeks. We learned…

1. how to use treats to reward with training (a little like the potty training reward system for toddlers)
2. to teach him to sit & lie down with a simple hand movement
3. to teach the come and stay on command (this was a little harder)
4. to teach him not jump on people (this is a challenging one since our puppy loves to greet new people)
5. how to socialize with other dogs and people… “100 people by 12 weeks”
6. how to teach him to walk at our side
7. that he should not have full access to the house and to introduce him to a few rooms at a time
8. that dogs need boundaries and that owners need to take charge

Grooming… I never thought I would be saying that I have showered with a dog. It is so much easier to close the shower door and where he cannot run away and use the hand sprayer to clean him. Make sure you put towels down on your bathroom floor though or you can find out the hard way like my daughter, that it gets slippery when they shake themselves off which landed her flat on her back. We are lucky because our dog does not shed so there is not any hair in our house. However, the flip side is that everything sticks to our dog and with a curly coat, he is challenging to brush. We found a great solution for the grooming – although it is more expensive, it is worth every penny every 8 weeks to have a professional groomer take care of the trimming, nails, shampooing, ear cleaning, etc.

Dog Boarding and Sitters… We found out this summer that traveling becomes very expensive when you own a pet that needs to be cared for while you are gone. There are many options including great dog boarding facilities and dog sitters that will come to your house. Unfortunately, this does not alleviate the guilt you feel leaving him behind for weeks at a time.

So to summarize our last 11 months… I now understand why people adopt older dogs and that the puppy phase is a commitment. I have also learned that as a dog owner, we have a responsibility to train our dogs so that they are not a danger to people or other animals. Adopting a puppy has been challenging, expensive and messy but we would not change a thing. Caper at a year old is now considered the equivalent of a teenager. He is no longer biting, he loves to cuddle and play. He puts a smile on everyone’s face and he has truly become part of our family. And just like I find with raising my daughters, there is never a dull moment and he is always full of surprises.

~Rachael Steidl & Family