Every year I hear stories about the couple who bought a puppy for the kids/themselves for Christmas… What a mess!
Training a pup takes patience and time outdoors. A pup, regardless of your training method must be 6 months old before you can be assured of 100% error proof bowel and bladder training- it is a matter of growth and development.
Wait until early/late spring when it’s nice to be outdoors and you don’t have to wear all that extra clothing and keep towels by the door to wipe off four wet paws.
What can you do instead?
Buy a dog crate for Christmas and put a big red bow on it. It will be a great reminder to talk with your kids about how to take care of a dog when the right time comes.
Buy a couple of dog training books and wrap them up for Christmas, give one to each kid, read from them each night instead of bed time stories. One on crate training and one on dog training - the one by the monks was helpful.
Wrap up a leash and harness, too and then hang them by the door and talk about putting the leash and harness on the dog when you are going in the car and out for walks. Be sure you find out about the leash laws in your county, town or city.
Put local ads for puppy training schools in the kids stockings. (The best behaved dogs in my neighborhood went to obedience school with the whole family.)
Wrap up a note book, then let the whole family cut out and glue in pictures of the kind of dog they’d like to have. Write in names, too.
Make it a family project, enjoy Christmas, and look forward to getting the best dog in the whole world - in the spring.
Oh, I’m gonna keep using these #%@&* codes 'til I get 'em right.
What a lovely idea! Most people who do the dog for Christmas thing usually get the dog, and only the dog, with none of the necessary accoutrements. The planning aspect is wonderful, and will let the whole family know what they’re getting into when the time comes. I especially like the notebook part, so you can plan what dog you actually want. Too many times, people want a dog that looks a certain way, not one that fits their particular lifestyle.
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful idea!!!
May I copy? Our local pounds/shelters would love to see it too.
Ooops, sorry about that last, long link… I think it’s personalized. But it has been so long since I’ve been there that I doubt it’s personalized anymore.
Last year my sister gave me a 5 week old puppy for Christmas, half black lab/half Australian Shepherd. I had been begging for a Pomeranian. Big difference This has definitely been a learning experience for all of us, but we’re coming along
Potty training wasn’t all that bad after all. It’s been a good 5 or 6 months since his last accident. Now we have barking and disobedience (and impatient daddy) issues, but we start obedience training next month. He’s a smart doggy, but we’re dumb parents (not as dumb as cornflakes, though, thank God–that thread actually made me feel better about how we’ve gotten along with our doggy).
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
This has definitely been a learning experience for all of us, but we’re coming along 