Bringing A New Puppy Home To Young Kids

It seems that several of my friends, myself included, are in the stage of life where our first two big-post-college-purchases are dying – our washing machines and our loyal dogs we got when we were first out on our own. While it would be easy to justify not adding, yet another infant to our family of five, my husband and I are such “dog” people and know that the amount joy they bring to our lives is immeasurable and worth the work.

Blake and I both grew up with dogs and know that is what we want for our three children; the responsibility, the unwavering friendship and companionship is a non-negotiable part of our family experience we want to give them. Fast forward a month into our new life with our young four-legged family member and I am here to tell you, we underestimated BOTH the amount of “work” and extreme happiness our new puppy has brought into our lives.

Don’t get me wrong, with all this “happiness” comes with several comments a week about, “What were we thinking when we did this right now… why didn’t we wait?” Especially, at 6AM when we are trying to both coordinate our daily work schedules around who can stop by the house every 3-4 hours to allow the puppy to go to the bathroom. Then we have the conversations about who will take care of the puppy when we travel this summer or make appointments for the puppy’s shots at the vet; it really is like another infant with regular trips to the pediatrician. In addition, there are the two times we have returned home to find that she had “escaped” from the crate and left little presents for us as well as chewed up shoes. Then the worst of it all, the POTTY TRAINING. I don’t think I have to articulate the pain and frustration of what it feels like to think she is never going to master it and we are forever going to have to be on the lookout for puddles around the house.

You would die laughing at a typical morning scenario in our house where I am balancing my 11 month old, a cup of hot coffee and dragging the puppy on a leash behind me so that she won’t wander off and leave me a surprise “puddle,” as I try to get ready for work. At the same time, you would be shocked at how much love my husband and I have for our “fourth” child and how we fight over who gets to cuddle with it first in bed at night. Yes, you read correctly, this Type A momma, that didn’t allow any of her three babies sleep a wink in her own bed, completely thrown the “sleep in the crate” idea out the window after the fourth night we got her and has absolutely no regrets! (That is for now… while the inside puppy is only eight pounds and it has been a frigid, thirty degrees outside most nights.) I knew my children would be obsessed with her but I really didn’t think that I would have the time nor the desire to really bond with a new puppy. I expected the puppy to fill my children’s heart with love yet I doubted I would have the space in my heart to really love a new dog, especially after being a busy wife and mom of three kids. Wow… was I wrong in thinking that! My husband and I are totally enamored with our little “Tiger” and already can’t remember life without her.

In case you or someone you know is contemplating a new dog, I am going to share with you how we had fun getting prepared for the BIG arrival of the puppy.

On my personal blog, I wrote about the months it took to make the decision to add a “fur-baby” to our family, how we decided on the breed and how we found the litter of puppies. My advice is to take your time on all three of these big decisions and follow your gut, like we did. After we had the puppy picked out and were about two weeks from bringing her home, these are some of the things we did to ensure a successful transition:

1. Make a paper chain for the kids, counting down the days until you bring the new puppy home.

This was a highlight for Carter and Addie. Each day, we had a something different to talk about with the children and to set the correct expectations of what a new puppy would need. I read several articles similar to this, and wrote down 19 days worth of topics such as….

• Let’s talk about potty training and how we can never leave a new puppy alone inside the house wandering around.
• Puppies are like little babies and get tired and need to sleep a lot. You must leave them alone to rest.
• Let’s brainstorm names for our new family member.
• Let’s walk around the fence line of our backyard and make sure there are no holes for the puppy to escape.
• Let’s decide where we are going to put the food, water, toys, crate and leash for the puppy.
• What words are we going to use to train our puppy? It is important to all use the exact same words such as “COME, SIT, OFF, DOWN, SHAKE, GO POTTY.”
• Let’s talk about the crate and why we put the puppy in it at night and during the day. She may whine at first but we can help her love it.

2. Collect items necessary for your puppy’s arrival.

• If you are crate training, then you need a crate. Since our puppy was only 8 pounds and growing to 60 pounds we opted for a smaller crate for the first few months.  Check Craigslist and other on-line resale pages for great deals on lightly used crates. We set the crate up a few days before the puppy’s arrival and talked about it.
• Lots of chew toys such as rope toy, kong, or stuffed animals. Honestly, we turned over a great deal of our 11 month old’s unused toys to the puppy and I also found lists of high quality puppy items, toys, treats, water and food bowls, on sale at the TJMAXX or Homegoods
• I purchased a good floor/carpet cleaner for the inevitable “accidents.”
• Shampoo.
• Puppy Gates – This is another place for Craigslist to save you some money. (We never used baby gates with our kids, but they had diapers on so with puppy training, we decided to make the investment.)
• Collar and leash.
• Small and soft “training treats” to use to quickly reward your new puppy.
• Lot’s of old towels for the crate.
• Find out the brand of dog food the breeder has transitioned the puppy to after they were weaned from their momma’s milk. Although you don’t have to continue to use the same brand of food,  I would recommend using it at first and SLOWLY transitioning over a week or two’s time to the new brand of food.

3. First Night and Weekend

• We purposely chose to pick up puppy on a Friday afternoon so that we would have all weekend to get the puppy adjusted before having to leave it in the crate during the day, for periods of time.
• The breeder said the puppies were fully weaned from their momma at 6 weeks and ready to go so we opted to pick her up at 6.5 weeks. In hindsight, it was okay, but she was tiny (including her bladder).  I think waiting one more week would have been better.
• The first thing you do when you get her home is take her outside to where you want to start potty training her.  With the limited amount of time before the kids were going to bed, we spent it gently playing with her and introducing her to her crate. They say your should never force a new puppy into it so we fed her dinner in it, gave her treats to lure her in and it was a success!
• SET LOW EXPECTATIONS for that first night; expect lots of crying and whining in the crate, it will get better each night, but the first night, we were up every ninety minutes taking her out and wide-awake at 3:30AM, giving her a full bath after she pooped everywhere and must have rolled around in it. Five weeks later we have never had a night like that again and are certain she had a little stomach issue.
• Feed the new puppy 3-4 small meals a day. After our first night’s experience, my vet shared this will prevent any additional issues.
• Think about puppy school or if you are dedicated enough, YOUTUBE has great videos for you to start training your new family member.
• Teach the kids about taking the new puppy out every single hour and reward the puppy every time she goes.