I haven't mentioned it on my blog, mainly because I haven't blogged, but I got a puppy in July last year!! As you can see, he is a gorgeous French Bulldog called Freddie and since getting him my life has changed quite a lot, for obvious reasons. I wanted to write a post just highlighting some of the ways having a dog/puppy had really changed our lives and habits. It's worth just pointing out that this is just my experience and there are so many factors to consider such as breed, age of dog, house environment etc!
For as long as me and Chris have been together we have always talked about French bulldogs, we absolutely love them but we also done a lot of research before getting them to understand the numerous health problems Frenchies could have. Originally we did want to adopt a rescue dog but we had concerns because we didn't have a garden (we live in a coach house) and we would have to adapt ourselves to the dogs needs which could have been quite difficult, so we decided that getting a puppy would be a better option because we could influence the dog's schedule in a better way to suit our lifestyles. Frenchies are known for being dogs that like apartment living, the require less exercise so a garden isn't essential and they like company (Chris works from home) so this breed seemed to tick a lot of boxes for us. I have grown up with dogs so knew a lot about them but it's very different when you get your own and I think it was a bit of a shock to the system for me but I wouldn't have it any other way!
Moving onto the main things that I noticed starting with...
You can no longer be spontaneous - This seems like an obvious one but I found it quite hard when we first got Freddie because all of a sudden we had this nugget to think about when we wanted to go out by ourselves. It has gotten a lot easier now he is 10 month old but when he was a tiny puppy they can't be left alone for very long at all. Now we understand his routines and know that he sleeps from pretty much 6pm onwards we know we could go out for dinner in the evening and he would be completely fine for a couple of hours. This is something I bring up a lot when people say "oh I want to get a dog" I let people know it does change your life and you have to have enough time for them otherwise it isn't fair.
They bring you unconditional love - My god, this dog loves a cuddle and a snuggle! He loves a little snoozy cuddle in the morning after he has had his first morning walk and he will literally grumble until you sit down so he can sit on you! The way he runs down the stairs when you come in, sniffing all my clothes and bags to see where I have been. Sometimes Chris will go out and it'll just be me and Fred and it's really lovely because it isn't lonely at all, especially when you have him snoring next to you on the sofa!
You worry about them all the time - This is a major one for me that I am trying to get over but honestly, I worry about what he eats, how much he exercises, whether he is getting too hot, whether he needs to pee, whether he is warm enough, have I played with him enough, how long he has been in his crate for? I didn't realise how much my thoughts would be consumed by Freddie but it's all a learning curve. You start to realise that dogs needs are actually quite basic and they are very resilient animals, I would even go as far to say as this pooch is spoiled.
Training takes time - Toilet training and teething are by far the hardest things to deal with when you have a puppy. We have been quite lucky in the sense that Freddie picked up on toilet training quite quickly but there were SO many accidents, sometimes they were our fault because we didn't notice him giving us the signs to go out and other times it was him being a little sod and doing it for attention. Now he lets us know if he wants to go out by walking down the stairs and sitting by the front door or by trying to get our attention to leading us to the front door, he is quite a clever little thing.
Teething is another thing which I personally find very hard, don't get me wrong I have seen the damage other puppies have done and Freddie is nowhere near as bad as that but he has ruined a few things, more specifically our bed. We have a wooden IKEA bed which I loved, it was brand new when we moved in and Freddie for some reason took a liking to crawling underneath it and chewing the inside bed legs! This really, really drove me insane, I do like nice things and I am fussy so when I see something I love being destroyed it almost pains me (dramatic much?) We tried a lot of different things to get him to stop but it almost became a habit to get attention, so fortunately we found a bitter apple spray and it stopped him immediately. People assume that a puppy should be fully trained at 7 months and it's just unrealistic, it takes a lot of time and there will be numerous little slip ups, they are animals after all.
Crate training was the best decision for us - This is a slightly controversial one as many people still have mixed views on crate training but honestly it was the best decision for us. We decided to get a crate when he was small but we decided we would only use it at night, as I never wanted a dog on my bed not only for comfort reasons but I can have a slight reaction to dog fur on my skin, and then when we were not in the house. We never used it as a punishment tool and only wanted it to be a comfort for him when we weren't around. I know people who crate train and then get rid of the crate when the puppy is old enough but we are still using it. We really struggled to work out how to move from the crate to the dog bed and most people say after the crate they just let the dog sleep on the bed which isn't something I am willing to do, so we have found ourselves keeping the crate as he seems perfectly happy to go in there at night!
Having puppies is so frickin' hard but they are so worth it, the more time you invest in them the more you get from them!
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