before we bought a puppy!

When growing up we had a few pets but was never really interested in getting any once I left home.  MrR on the other hand had always had at least one dog at home and was missing having them about.

We finally decided to buy a puppy in 2005 and went to look at some Labrador pups.  The mother had about 6 in the litter and as soon as we went in one came up to me and circled round my legs.  MrR decided this was the one we would take and we arranged to collect the next day.

Once collected the real work started I always knew dogs would be a lot of work but I do wish I had known that:

• tiny puppies can climb – everywhere that we put Jake he managed to climb out and when I couldn’t lift him it was hard to get him back into his safe area.
• puppies love to eat wooden furniture- Jake ate our monks bench, table chairs and anything else he could get his teeth into.
• puppies can cry a lot when you first get them – we ended up using a hot water bottle to comfort him, along with one of MrR’s t-shirts and a ticking clock.  I think they worked a little!
• toilet training a dog is harder than a child and they go to the toilet a lot more! Jake never really mastered it before he became big enough to go out to his outbuilding.
• Even now at 7 1/2 years Jake can keep us up at night by chasing birds and barking like he did when young
• Don’t waste money on plastic toys they get eaten in seconds try a Kong they are the only thing Jake couldn’t destroy
• A great treat is a bone from the butchers

7 1/2 years on Jake is very much part of our family.

This is part of a series of posts from Petplan, check out some others here

I have received gift vouchers from Petplan for writing this post – all opinions are my own