Let me give you a back story before going into much detail about what to expect when buying a puppy. I have grown up around animals. I personally have had 2 puppies just as a child. I also had outdoor cats as a child. Side note, I will never, or at least more than likely never, have cats again. Anyway, I love animals and have helped train both of them. Key word there is help train.

 Okay, now let’s fast forward to where we were about one year ago today. We had just bought our first home, my husband and I. We already had one child and were expecting another any day. After finally closing on the house, we started talking about getting a puppy for our oldest. I said let's have our baby first and see how things are going and then we can start looking for a puppy once things settle down.  

 Well, things did not need to settle at all to our surprise. I was out walking a half-mile just 3 days after having our precious baby boy and our oldest was adjusting well to his new brother. So, I said let’s start looking for a puppy.  

 We found one and she is great and a few months later I must have lost my mind but I found a small dog because the big dog helped our oldest start talking so fast that I thought her having a companion would help her out, which it did.  

 Both dogs are great do not get me wrong. However, I wish I would have gotten the first one completely trained before deciding to buy another dog. Having two puppies and two kids under the age of 3 years old is more than enough for me currently.  

 Let me explain. These dogs are my two year old’s best friends. They have taught him how to talk and he is making great progress with talking because he loves these dogs so much. In fact, he loves them so much they look at him as the alpha. Yes, you have it right my 2-year-old can tell the dogs what to do better than I can because he is the alpha. It is a sad fact.  

 Having these two puppies is great I love them but they have basically destroyed everything nice we have bought. We bought a nice canopy with a net around it to keep out the bugs they destroyed the net. We bought nice patio furniture they chewed up the table. We have a nice dining room set they chewed up the bench. The list goes on but I think you get my drift.  

 The digging, I have had dogs my entire life but I have never seen dogs dig as much as these two. So, be prepared for land mines in your yard. I think these dogs could dig to China if they worked together.  

 Potty training is not as easy as it sounds. In fact, it was easier to train my two-year-old than it has been to train these dogs. Now they do pretty good but keep in mind they are about ready to turn one and they both are fixed. I will have to say the male still likes to spray after being fixed. He hikes his leg and pees on the back of my couch.  

 Begging is another thing you will have to deal with especially if you have kids. See, it is hard to teach my 10-month old that he cannot feed the dog his food. It is hard to train my 2-year-old not to feed the dog his food so why should my 10-month-old be any different?  

 If you do not like barking dogs then I highly suggest buying a bark collar for the dog. A bark collar does work. It works great! At least most of the time. Anyway, my opinion on that is dogs are going to bark it is part of their nature but you can how much they bark.  

 So, is buying a puppy worth it? I love my dogs I do. If I did not love them they would be out of here in a heartbeat. However, if I had it to do over again I would not have gotten the bigger dog. I would have just stuck with the small dog which is what I wanted to do in the beginning but my husband wanted the bigger dog.  

 My suggestion is for your first dog get one that is already trained, get an older dog maybe a year or two old. This way they are pretty much out of the puppy stage and is trained and you do not have to put much work or money into the dog.  

 My next suggestion is if you have an older dog already and you know they are not long for this world, go ahead and get yourself a puppy. The puppy will learn from the older dog and you will have yourself a great dog.  

 Good luck in your search for a dog. Do not let this scare you off from getting a puppy but just go into it knowing they are like a child they will destroy things before they grow out of being a puppy. It will take time to train them just as it takes time for a child to grow. You need the patience to raise a puppy.  

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