Life after getting your first dog

[20-somethings of DoodleKisses]

Hey everybody! I don't have my own doodle yet but I'm hoping to get one soon. I have a few questions about life after getting your dog... so I thought I'd start a discussion!

I'm very curious about how much your daily lives have changed since getting your dog. How much has your schedule changed? Are you limited to do things/go places now? How easy was it for your family to integrate a new dog into your lives and how long did it take for things to settle or go back to normal?

I would really appreciate anyone's personal opinions or stories! I've been told that getting a dog is like having kids... You are never truly ready but once it happens you can't remember what it was like before. :)

[MBKANE]

I got Kensi and life def changed some! The biggest change is that I now have to plan ahead when going out for the day and/or night. No more staying out at friends places after a long night out. Also spur of the moment weekends away require some thought. I am not married so it is just me to take care of Kensi. When I know I will be super busy at work all day long and not able to get home mid-day to let her out I try to take her to Doggie DayCare.

Financially it changes some too. Dogs are expensive and I prob do less frivilous shopping now due to that. All that said, it was the best decision ever to get her! Infact, I will be adding another soon to my family :)

[Oliver]

Hi Nancy...I know we've talked before about this but I'll give you my 2 cents as well. If you get a puppy, they will most definitely require you to change your schedule significantly if you plan on potty training them to go outside (they will need to go outside every 30 minutes, or sometimes even more frequently if they're having issues), hence I think someone should be with them almost all of the day and crated for an hour max when they're young. I highly suggest crate training puppies- Oliver loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees his crate and gets really excited when we bring it with us on vacations (we just got back from one)- when we set it up for him in our hotel or wherever we're staying, it's like it's Christmas for him!

Anyway, to answer your question- puppies require LOTS of time and effort, which was why we decided to get one while I could stay home with him. We got him when he was 2 months old, he was potty trained very well in a week, and COMPLETELY potty trained (no accidents during playing when he'd forget to tell us, etc) by 4 months old- but would still need to go outside every 3-4hrs, but he never once pottied in his crate. He's now 7 months old and I think he can go a good 7-8 hrs+ without pottying...which is great since I'll be starting to have a busier schedule. So while they're a lot of work when they're young, they're pretty easy when they're older!

[Kelli, Fenway, & Dustin Pedroia]

Oh how your life changes! I want to start by saying that we thought long and hard before we got Fenway and we researched A LOT (just as it seems like you have). We knew we wanted her before we got her so we were pretty prepared for the changes, however we weren't nearly as prepared as we thought! It is a whole new life. We got Fenway when I was home for the summer (I'm a speech langauge pathologist in the schools and we still get summers off sort of). I don't think I went to lay out at the pool or went "out" with friends for the next couple of months. I was pretty much tied to a doodle both figuratively and literally. If my eyes weren't on her she was in her crate and we couldn't leave her in there for long because she had to go out to potty so often. I don't think there is any way that you can truly prepare for the change, especially if you're going to be a dedicated doodle owner (which I feel sure you will be since you're already an avid doodlekisses fan). We did go on a vacation after we got her, but we took her with us. Again very different from other vacations when we could go do anything we wanted for any length of time we wanted. Even though Fenway is almost 11 months old now, we still don't go out a whole lot. We find ourselves choosing to stay home with her and spend time with her. We also have to really plan out our weeks so that she's not home by herself for too long (even though she can hold her potty for 8+ hours, we don't like for her to have to do that plus a bored doodle is usually not a good doodle).

This being said, we wouldn't trade her for the world. She is the light in my and my husband's lives. When she goes to visit her grandparents and cousin doodle, we almost don't know what to do and the house seems empty. She is the funniest little clown dog and the best snuggle buddy in the world. We love trying to find places to go that she can go with us and we do take her everywhere. We're looking forward to going out to eat with her now that it's getting warm again and she's old enough to come along. Although she's a ton of work, she brings so much joy to our lives that the good far outweighs the bad. We actually are so happy with her that we're adding number two next week so she will have a brother! We love her to death and can't imagine our lives without her now.

Hope this answers your questions. Just know that it's wonderful and tough all at the same time, but worth every nip, scratch, chewed up valuables, etc. As long as you truly want one and are responsible it will be one of the best decisions you will ever make because they are the greatest dogs!

[Krista, Angel, and Toby]

Merideth, did you find that your dog adjusted well when you had to go back to work? I'm in the same position. I will be getting a puppy June 10th, the first day of my break (I teach), so I will have 2 months to work with the puppy, but I'm concerned about how big of a change it'll be for the little guy (or gal) when I have to go back to work.

[Kelly & Cole]

Hey Nancy,
Sorry we have been super busy this weekend, but anyways I am just now getting around to responding!

Life since Marley has changed some, but I am probably a bad person to go by... Cole works from home and really never leaves the house. So Marley didnt change much for us as far as scheduling. Also his parents and mine both have dogs, so we always have someone to keep him if needed. We dont really travel much right now as we are working our butts off, but when the day comes that we actually have to leave him for a week or so, I dont know what we will do. We are sooooo attached to him. Actually this coming weekend we will be gone, and its the first time we are leaving him! So I am kind of in a panic haha.

He is a little expensive. I wanted to be sure he had top of the line food and the best vet we could find, both of which are costly! He eats a LOT, but that will hopefully subside as he finishes growing. So budgeting has changed somewhat, but not a ton. The vet tends to run about 100 per visit. In the beginning he had to go every 3 weeks until his puppy shots were complete, then again at 6 months, 1 year and from then on its only once a year. So in the beginning its definitely more expensive, but gets better as he gets older.

We have started running with Marley to get him some exercise so that we dont have to leave him home while we are gone, and it helps settle him down at night :-) We are only taking him about half a mile, he is only 5 months, but he LOVES it and I practically have to drag him in the house to drop him off while we finish!

Leaving him home is hard, we enjoy him so much! So we have made some changes to our weekend plans or anything during the week to include activities Marley can participate in. We go to belle isle, cary town and started going to stony point a lot more. The winter made this a little difficult, but GRAD helped a lot! In the summer we live at the lake and river and plan on bringing Marley along. We are keeping our fingers crossed he will enjoy the water & the boat!

We are extremely lucky in that both of our families love pets and are obsessed with Marley. Neither of them have fenced in properties so of course leaving him with them will be a little nerve wracking, but its very nice to have them available if needed. Beamer, Daisy, Cabot and Granby (our families dogs) love having Marley around!

I had no idea how attached we would become! I cant imagine what its like to have kids and how all these feelings would be multiplied. When we were in the accident, I was terrified that something had happened to Marley and couldnt imagine how it would make me feel if we had a child in the back seat... Although Marley is as important to us as a child :-)

Anyways I know how bad you want one, and I say go for it! Marley was the best addition to our family! We are SOOOO happy, even Cole!

[Kendra K. Rhoton]

I definitely agree with your last statement. I was so worried that we just weren't ready for the responsibility... but once we got him there was nothing we wouldn't do for him. Life has changed and I would have to agree that it is good practice for children. We are homebodies so it hasn't really limited our social life. If we do go and visit families then he comes with us. And if we were gone for a long period we have friends who would take him in a heartbeat! The big test will be when we go on our honeymoon in October and are gone for like a full week! I hate the fact we have to leave him that long... Hope this helps and happy puppy hunting!