The Puppy Chronicles, Day 1 (puppy post)

So here we are in the evening of our first full day of puppy ownership. I have the tiniest inkling of what parents must go through when they bring home their first newborn, I think. At least in terms of sleep deprivation! LOL

Bedtime last night wasn’t really awful. We put Lola’s crate in our bedroom so she could see us, and enticed her into her crate by putting her toys in there and sitting around it with her for a while. She was SO TIRED she was swaying from side to side and finally we closed the door and got into bed. She whined and let out one howl but Angela corrected her and that was that.

Unfortunately I have problems sleeping under the best of conditions and even though Lola didn’t make another sound I laid awake, tense and waiting for her to start to howl or something. I need to let go of some of my worrying and anxiety.

We’d set the alarm for 7 but at 6 Lola did give a kind of shout. We figured she really needed to go to the bathroom (she hadn’t since she’d left PA at this point) so Angela got up and took her out. Of course we brought the dog home right in the middle of a cold snap. I tried to get back to sleep but couldn’t.

Eventually they came back and I got up and let Angela sleep some more.

Aside from the sleep deprivation things are going fairly well. This afternoon she finally started going to the bathroom (I’d been getting worried). We read that we shouldn’t give her the run of the house when we first brought her home. Problem is, our apartment is a big open living room/dining room area which is where the front door is, then the 2 bedrooms. We wanted her crate in our bedroom (living in an apartment means we can’t just put her in a crate and let her cry herself to sleep the first few nights…the neighbors would [rightfully] complain) so we couldn’t block her out of there, and we spend so much time in the office (bedroom #2) that blocking her from there would mean we’d never see her. So we’ve opted to only let her in certain rooms when we’re with her.

I’m not sure there’s not a dark side to that, though. So now she doesn’t have run of the house, which is good, but she’s also NEVER alone, which is bad. As soon as she finds herself alone even for a few minutes, she starts to whine. So we need to put a stop to that sooner rather than later, but I might dump it on poor Angela since she can train her to be alone (with all the whining and howling that goes with it) during the work week when there are fewer neighbors around.

I went to Petsmart and spent *another* $200 on dog stuff. Sheesh.

I did get a couple of beds. A small one that’s now sitting between our computers in the office where Lola likes to flop when we’re in here, and another big one that I put in the living room next to the TV. Tonight we had a normal dinner and we put her on this big bed and there she stayed while we ate. It doesn’t seem to occur to her to beg for food and we’re going to see that it never does [*knock on wood*]. OK what I mean is that we have a pact never to feed her from our plates.

Anyway that felt like a win. We ate at a regular pace (last night’s dinner and today’s lunch were both bolted down while we had her alone somewhere in the house) and she conked out and slept peacefully.

Here’s a new flash.. dogs are messy. I’m a bit OCD about being clean but Lola is breaking me of that pretty quickly. That’s probably not a bad thing. She’s allowed on the couch when invited, and this is her watching TV. Sort of.

I’ve spend more time outside today that I have in the last 6 months, I bet. And I’ve talked to more of my neighbors than I have in the 5 years I’ve been living here.

We got her added to the lease so now she’s “legit” and not an illegal tenant. 🙂

She’s still pretty exhausted and isn’t eating with the enthusiasm I’d expect. She eats, and drinks plenty, but she doesn’t empty her food bowl when we feed her. So we’re watching that and training her to eat when she gets fed rather than ‘grazing’ all day (easier to predict when she needs to go out to go to the bathroom that way).

So far she’s been extremely good natured and affectionate. She’s a lot of work but worth it, and hopefully if we do our job right we’ll get her (and us) into routines that’ll make things easier.

Next steps will be about finding balance. I have jobs to do and I’m falling way behind on tech news and stuff. I can’t spend all day every day playing with this sweet puppy!

4 thoughts on “The Puppy Chronicles, Day 1 (puppy post)

  1. My curent dog, the first night home as a six week pup he wined a bit when we went to sleep. My wife picked him up and put him on the bed and he curled up between us and fell to sleep. Of course he slept on our bed from that day on. I do recall the winter night a few years ago when the furnace broke down and having that fur ball between us kept us warm thru the night.

  2. Puppies tend to eat less more often. So she will likely grow out of that into eating her meals. Oh a vet once said to me, the one thing most dog owners dont do enough, or at all is take care of their dogs teeth. looking after them leads the dog to have a better and longer life. so if you have never looked into it, it would be good to talk to your vet about it.

  3. She’s going for her first vet visit on Monday, so I’ll make a point of asking about teeth. She lost her first puppy tooth yesterday, in fact, which has us researching dog teeth to make sure that was OK and not too early.

    @MrsGroovy – She still has puppy breath and that puppy smell. It’s the odors that come out of the other end that aren’t too pleasant!! LOL

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