You just got a puppy - now what?

Before Molly left last night I tried to think about what I wanted to tell the family regarding puppy training. I quickly realized that there would be too much commotion, because of all the excitement and it just would be too overwhelming. Therefore, I decided to write down some of my thoughts.

First - be prepared and have all the basic needs covered. It is also necessary to allot extra time to the puppy for the first week. It is no different for your family or the puppy, everyone needs to get used to the new situation.

Second - figure out, what your expectations are. Do you want the puppy to be a companion, a therapy dog or a hunting dog? Do you want to participate in a puppy class? Do you want the puppy to be able to come along on family outings? Do you want your puppy to learn cute tricks? Are there certain areas in the house you don't want the puppy to be? ... (While pondering over this, please keep in mind that puppies get older and bigger and annoying behaviors are easier to prevent than to change after the fact.)

Once you know what your expectations are, have a family meeting and discuss the rules with your children. It is important for the whole family to send out the same message. It will be less confusing to the puppy and the puppy will be able to pick up on wanted behaviors much faster.

PS: The puppy in the picture is a Labrador Retriever puppy named Edward. He is 6 weeks old and is looking for a new home. He is listed on www.petfinder.com

Molly

Molly is our latest foster dog and is leaving us tonight to go to her new forever home. However, I just couldn't let her go without bragging about her first. She came to us about 10 days ago and the vet estimated her age at 11 weeks. Within the short time she stayed with us, she showed us that she was not only cute and adorable, but also very intelligent. Molly will go to her new home, with already knowing a good set of basic obedience commands!

She knows sit, down, wait, go potty and "night night" (going to her bed at night).

During her stay with us, she visited a lot of different places and she met a great number of people and dogs alike. Molly is one of the many great dogs I'm grateful to have met over the last years. Many of them have proved, how wonderful a dog can be, no matter where they come from or what their past was.

Molly's departure is bittersweet. I am very thrilled about her new family, they sound like the perfect fit. What else can you want as a puppy, than having a 13-year-old and a 4-year-old boy to play and romp?

Our Family

To the astonishment of my parents and my siblings my husband and I enjoy that our little family consists of two- and four-legged members. Our "babies" only rarely get the chance to just relax and curl up together. Our house sees a lot of coming and going from two- as well as four-legged visitors. Although all three of them think that they are the only ones who deserve our attention, they do accept all the fosters and visitors (however, not without grumbling :-)).

Honey, now 8 years old, came to us as a little puppy. Knowing that Weimaraner have a lot of energy and are very smart, she received obedience training, hunting dog training in Austria and last but surely not least she is a certified therapy dog. Even with her being the "eldest" of our pack, she shows no sign of slowing down. Furthermore, she honestly doesn't think that she is a dog - surely I don't belong outside with these dogs! One look from her can tell you more than a thousand words.

Luna, our 6-year-old American Shorthair, is our "special" child. She loves food more than anything else and visits all the surrounding houses in hope to find an extra snack. She is definitely the most independent member of our family. She holds her ground against visiting children as well as visiting dogs of all sizes and doesn't know the meaning of backing off. One time she stalked a visiting German Sheperd and jumped right in front of him so many times, that we had to lock the cat away - not the dog. Poor 65-lbs.-Drake was trembling.

Luca, has opened up a door to a different world for us. As far as we can tell Luca is a purebred Doberman Pinscher and is circa 5 years old. He is a rather tall boy, with quite an impressive chest. He was found wandering the streets and Carolina PAWS (Pet Adoption and Welfare Society) rescued him. After several months in three different foster homes, he ended up in our house. We had no intention whatsoever to get a second dog - especially not a big dog! Well, we felt sorry for the guy and when we met him in person, we just fell head-over-heels for him 4 years ago. After some difficulties, among them, holes chewed into our walls, Luna being terrified and Honey insanely jealous, we now could not even imagine living without him. He is a gentle giant in the truest sense and has become very popular with everyone we know. Some friends even asked us if they could be put into our will as his guardian, should something happen to us :-)

The adoption of Luca, was the start of a wonderful friendship with Deborah Pandis from Carolina PAWS. With this friendship, we learned a lot about pets in need and ever since then dog rescue has become an important cause in our life.