"I want a puppy for.... {fill in the blank}

So, this is Sprocket. He's a puppy. In fact he's an English Setter. I don't know how common they are but he was new to me when we first met the breeder and this cool breed at a club gathering.

These are beautiful dogs - full of personality, energy, and intelligence! Occassionally, Sprocket allows us to see the loving side too - that is when he's not all puppy jumps and testing everything with his mouth. Those puppy teeth are sharp! So, Joy is working with him to learn the word 'gentle' and other such things as a way to improve his family behavior but of course from time-to-time, the puppy brain jumps the track and it's "bitey bug" for everything! Lol

Thus, this got me thinking about the lament of every kid who has ever lived (for the most part) and that is the whine of "I want a puppy!". Usually it is followed by the word 'for' and then insert most any occassion that you can think of that is traditional for the taking on of a puppy; however misguided that might be. The thing is, a puppy is a living being and it's a committment. Most of us don't always realize just how VERY BIG a committment it is but if you want your puppy to turn into an adult dog with the good behaviors you seek in a companion, then puppy training is a must. Most people think that involves teaching the puppy to sit on command and to learn the word 'NO' as it is holdered over and over repeatedly in a futile attempt to teach the dog a human word that probably has about the same relevance to the dog as if you said "furbish" to him.

You see, I've been on the beneficial end of watching a very smart dog trainer (namely my daughter) grapple with this most adorable and wiggly of canines and I can tell you this - a puppy is a lot of work!

Note to those considering puppy wrangling, puppies sleep a lot - like my friend Sprocket here. But, they don't sleep all the time! When they are awake, you can pretty-well expect some non-stop action and if you don't find productive ways to engage that puppy brain, well let's just say the puppy will find some ways to occupy itself and probably a fair number of them will not make your list of things a puppy should be doing in your house!

So, if you are are subject to aversion to that four-letter word "work" when it comes to dealing with your puppy, then, consider a hamster or something else you can keep in a cage when the mood doesn't hit you to work with the beast because raising a good citizen doggy is real work - i.e. non-stop work from sun-rise to sunset and occassionally in the middle of the night for when a puppy is bored, has a tinier bladder than you, and really just wants a constitutional in the back yard to smell all the really cool night smells. So, my hope is that while I share my admiration for my daughter and how very consistently she teachers her new love good behavior, I can share some thoughts on what you are getting into when you say "I want a puppy for...".

My suggestion for filling in the words after "for" would be something along the line of "training, exercising, and of course, loving and being loved". But before you can get to that last most highly prized state of being loved by your dog, you have to raise a good puppy into a good adult dog and that takes consistency in training, patience galour, and an understanding of the canine mind that you would do well to learn about from people like my Joy. The only reason I have half of a proper understanding of how dogs think is because of Joy teaching me - and she's a great teacher! Many times when I'm not "doing it right" it's because I don't understand how the dog thinks about what I'm doing. Joy will explain this to me and I will go "oh, I never thought of that". To her it's not rocket science but to the rest of us, it surely is sometimes. Dogs are amazing creatures and a real blessing in our lives but just like people they come with some complex behaviors. Having watched Joy successfully teach her puppy some amazing things (and yes he is REALLY smart), it inplants in my mind that not everyone is cut out to do this well. It takes some real determination and committment to do it right folks! I mean people take their dogs to what they think is "puppy obedience" and "good manners" classes but what a lot of it comes down to is training the owners! Then the owners have to exercise the patience and sure determination to repeat succesfully the training they have learned about 500-600 times so the poor pooch gets the idea "oh yeah, they REALLY want me to do this".

So, here is hoping that more would-be pet owners look into what it really takes to first find a reputable and good breeder who breeds dogs for good genetics, health and longevity and then what it takes to raise up a dog that will become a lifelong companion (at least for his/her life span) and doesn't end up in a rescue organization's coffers at some point. They don't want that and neither does the poor pooch. So, if you have the puppy urge - just remember - they are a LOT of work. If you do it right, you gotta work at it. But hey, isn't that how most things worth doing in life work? If you want to do it well, you gotta work at it. I'm pretty sure the best artists, musicians and amazingly talented folks in the world didn't get there in one lesson.

kind regards and hang in there! - JR

P.S. Our wonderful doggie Chasey wishes for me to inform you that all his training paid off splendidly when he was younger and that it was all worth the effort to have him turn out to be 'da best dog ever!'