Bringing home puppy: 5 questions to consider before adding a dog to the family

How do you know it’s a good time to bring home a furry friend?

By Allison Percival

Whether your Instagram feed is flooded with oh-so-cute puppy photos or your kids have started begging for a furry friend of their very own, the pressure to add a dog to the family is real! Whether or not you were best pals with your family dog growing up, there’s a lot that goes into raising a properly socialized, well-trained dog in the 2020s.

Here are some questions to help guide your family’s discussions around adding a family dog to the picture:

Do we actually know what goes into raising a dog?

Before you even bring your puppy home, you’ll need to decide whether or not you want a rescue or to buy from a reputable breeder. Research each breed carefully to determine any genetic drawbacks or conditions to watch for, understand breed traits like herding, aloofness, barking, mouthiness or guardian tendencies, and join breed-specific dog groups on Facebook to learn more about breeders in and around Alberta. Never choose a dog based on aesthetics alone!

New puppies can come into the home as young as eight to ten weeks old, and from the second they enter your life, they are in constant need of attention. ‘House-training’ a puppy (ie: teaching them to go outside to do their business, not to chew furniture or other household objects, even teaching them how to go up and down stairs) is a process that takes many months of diligent work and constant, 24/7 attention. Imagine bringing home a newborn who can run, chew and bite – that’s what raising a puppy is like!

“Dogs are living, breathing creatures; they have needs just like our kids do. Meeting these needs is essential in having a wellbehaved dog,” says Amanda Garrow, Certified Professional Dog Trainer and owner of Tiarific Canine.

You should prepare to have at least one adult in the home at all times during the first two months or more of the puppy coming home. You may need to consider paying a professional dog walker or check-in service from a reputable company. It’s possible to crate train your new puppy to keep them out of trouble after that time, but you’ll still need someone to check on them every three or four hours to let them outside.

After the adorable puppy stage comes the terrible teens, usually between six months and two years old. Your formerly calm and loving puppy may start to nip, bark, whine, growl and display unwelcome behaviors which are hard to cope with. You may see signs of timidness, aggression or reactivity towards people and other dogs at this time. Many families aren’t prepared for this phase, which is why the majority of dogs surrendered to shelters are in this age group. You’ll need to make sure you have a consistent training schedule in place as soon as possible to overcome this hurdle.

“Start training the day you bring them home! Don't wait for behavior issues to start. Being proactive instead of reactive will help set your dog up for success,” says Amanda. If you need a trainer, do your research! Resources such as the Alberta Force Free Alliance or Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers can help guide you to make choices about which trainers you’d like to work with. Read reviews carefully and make sure you understand exactly what your trainer will be doing with your dog.

After two or three years of consistent, structured training and work, your dog will be a wonderful lifelong companion – but before you bring a puppy home, you (and the rest of your family) need to understand what you’re signing up for!

You may decide that a puppy isn’t for you and look at fostering or adopting an older rescue dog. This is a worthy (and important!) pursuit, but does require some special consideration. Even the youngest puppies from a shelter have unknown genetic traits or diseases and may have early life experiences which will impact their social skills and relationship with the world as they grow older.

“Sometimes rescue dogs have behavioral issues that require work to help them adjust,” says Brian Burke, owner of Back in the Pack dog daycare. “Does your family have the energy to take care of a rescue?”

You should always communicate your family’s needs and circumstances with a rescue or shelter to make sure that placements are a good fit on both sides.

Can we give our dog space and time?

Even small dogs need a lot of room to run, live and play. Besides the physical space they need to enjoy life, they also need a space of their own away from your kids; especially young kids! We’ve all seen picture-perfect families with little ones snuggled up against their loving canine companions, but unsupervised dog interactions can end in disaster in a heartbeat and many families miss the warning signs before tragedy occurs.

“I love the organization Family Paws! They have so many educational pieces and seminars you can do to help prepare your family,” says Amanda. “Teach your kids how to properly interact with the dog including petting with one hand, not hugging the dog, not encroaching on the dog’s space when they are eating, and not climbing on the dog.”

Remember that dogs teach their puppies, littermates and other dogs about their boundaries through growling, barking, snapping and biting – your dog may think they’re ‘educating’ your child about their boundaries through a nip, but even an unintentional bite from a large dog can cause devastating damage to a small child.

“Before you bring a puppy home, you (and the rest of your family) need to understand what you’re signing up for!”

“I would highly suggest a ‘success station.’ This is a separate area just for your dog. You can use an exercise pen or baby gates to help separate the area. Have a variety of items in the dog’s space to help keep them busy. Use this area when you are unable to directly supervise the interactions between kids and dogs,” says Amanda. Crate or kennel training is also a popular option to manage dog and child interaction when used responsibly; never allow your child access to the dog’s crate or other safe spaces. Even adult dogs need at least an hour of activity a day and direct one-on-one time with you, possibly more if you’re still working on training or have a very active breed. All dogs need adequate mental stimulation to keep them happy and out of trouble. If you feel that your child isn’t ready to share space (or time!) with a dog or if you don’t have the energy or ability to make a separate space and time for a dog, it might be best to wait for a few years.

Bringing home puppy – Continued on next page

New and exciting spaces to PLAY .ca

Bringing home puppy – Continued from previous page

Can we afford a dog?

Dogs are expensive! Sit down with a spreadsheet and thoroughly consider all possible expenses before bringing home your new furry friend. Here are some places to start: • Adoption and breeder fees • Dog boarding, dog walkers and/or daycare • Kennels, baby gates and exercise pens • Food and dietary supplements • Spaying or neutering • Pet insurance and/or a monthly emergency veterinary savings account • Toys, training and walking tools and treats • Training fees • Vaccinations, deworming and preventatives

Emergency veterinary bills can be staggering, especially if you don’t have insurance. A hospital stay of a few days with some routine tests and blood work will set you back thousands of dollars and can happen at any time (especially in the first year of life when puppies seem to get into everything or if genetic conditions become a problem)! Make sure you have some savings available before you bring your dog home, just in case.

What will we do if something big happens?

Life’s not always predictable! A lot of things can change in the ten to 13 years of a dog’s lifespan. Some specific things you may want to talk about with your family: • Are there plans to add another child to the family? • Do we expect life to get much busier in the next few years? • Will we need to move? If we rent our home, will it be difficult to find a place that will rent to us with a dog? • Are we considering a big move to another province or country? • What will happen to the dog if there’s a big change in relationship status (divorce, remarriage, etc.)? • Do we have a lot of travel plans in our future? Who will look after our dog when we travel? • What will we do if work or extracurricular expectations suddenly change and there’s nobody home to supervise the dog? Whose responsibility will the dog be – really?

A lot of parents, especially those with older kids, make the mistake of believing that their children will be fully responsible for the care and wellbeing of their new pet. Don’t set them both up for failure!

“No matter what dog you end up getting, you, as the adult, are ultimately responsible for the dog,” emphasizes Amanda. “Having the expectation that this is going to be ‘your child’s dog’ is not realistic.”

Your child may have begged and pleaded and promised that they would feed, walk and train the dog all by themselves, but the reality is that this is never the case. Children aren’t equipped emotionally or mentally to take on full ownership of another living being, especially one as complex as a dog! While they can be taught to assist with care and training tasks (especially older children), the responsibility for the day-to-day care must belong to the adults in the household.

That being said, it’s a good idea to discuss with everybody in the family what age-appropriate responsibilities you expect them to take on. Make a daily schedule of everything you think your dog will need in a day and then determine which family member will take on each item (remember that it’s ultimately the adult’s job to make sure any missed tasks get done)! Emphasize that these tasks must be completed regardless of how busy the family is, the weather, illness, mood, etc.

A few final thoughts

Having a dog can be a wonderful thing. There is truly no relationship quite like the one between dogs and humans, and a well-trained, well-loved dog can be as much a part of a family as another child would be. Dogs can teach responsibility and empathy, provide unconditional love and companionship, give years of fun and physical activity, and even be lifesaving partners in the health and well-being of their owners.

If you’ve decided now is the right moment to add a canine companion to your household whether you choose to foster, adopt, or book ahead with a reputable breeder, we wish you many happy years together with your new best friend! CCM