23/08/2025
N’awh! Look at “not so little” and large! 🐶💙🩷
Let’s talk about puppies ‼️
So, you’ve decided to bring a new puppy into your household?
You have everything setup, you’ve met this puppy and you cannot wait to bring him/her home… You may even have expectations or an image in your head of how things are going to plan out with your new puppy as they grow older.
Far too many times I see people adding puppies into their homes, not realising just how much commitment and patience is needed which unfortunately ends up with the puppy being returned to the breeder and rehomed, leading to another huge change in their short life.
Let’s compare Chief and Renn’s “puppy days”…
Renn is approaching her 2nd birthday and true to her breed, she is still very immature. Although, Renn also has such a high desire to work and to please! During her puppyhood, Renn was incredibly easy; sleeping all night in her crate from the first night (which was her safe space), toileting mostly outside, walking to heel, recall, etc… you name it, she did it almost spot on!
It was almost like she gave us false hope into getting another Boxer and not just a Boxer but another Boxer puppy…
Less than 16 months later, Chief entered the picture… He is now coming up to 22 weeks old, so still very much a puppy and finding out who he is and where his place is within this strange world that he has to learn to adjust within.
The first 4 nights with this little man were awful, long and rather sleepless to the point where we were running on pretty much 4-6 hours sleep in total.
Unlike Renn, Chief needed more time to settle in and adjust and we quickly realised that no two dogs are the same; whereas Renn was into anything, she would learn what was acceptable and what wasn’t with very little repetition. However, Chief on the other hand, you almost feel as though your words fall on deaf ears!
But there is light at the end of the tunnel! Although still very cheeky, he’s starting to understand the rules and is slowly becoming the dog we hope he will become and despite their differences, we wouldn’t change either of them for the world!
I guess the point of this post is to do the following:
1) RESEARCH! RESEARCH! RESEARCH! It is so important you do your research into what dog you are bringing home and to make sure that this dog is the right breed of dog for both you and your family and also the right time for you to add a new puppy into your household.
2) PAITENCE! PAITENCE! PAITENCE! You may hear this from a lot of people when out and about but it WILL get easier! Persevere, start as you mean to go on and just hang on in there… The more effort you put into your puppy, the more you get out!
3) Have these expectations but make sure they’re reasonable! After all, by the time your puppy comes home to you, they have only been on this Earth for 56 days and for the next 1.5-2 years, will be learning all about themselves and the world around.
Enjoy your new puppy because they don’t stay small for long! 🐶🐾
