Thinking of Buying a Puppy this Christmas - Read this before making up your mind

Here we go again. Puppy shopping! So you might have seen on my instagram Tuula and I have bought a puppy. A French bulldog whom we've named Chips. But we didn't just buy Chips on a whim. It wasn't just a surprise gift I got for Tuula. It was roughly six months from when we first started talking about the idea of bringing another fur ball into the family, to actually pulling the trigger and buying a puppy. 

Here is some advice I'd like to pass on, to anyone who is thinking of getting a puppy as a gift this Christmas. 

Buying for yourself

I've often thought about buying a puppy for my parents as a gift, knowing how much they like spending time with Charlie when they look after him whilst I'm away. But it's a huge to bestow on someone else, without their knowing or consent. I would actually urge you not to buy a puppy for someone else, if you're not living in the same household and cannot commit to sharing some of the responsibility. 

If you're buying a puppy for your family. Maybe your children or your partner, you'll naturally have the discussion about how everybody needs to chip in and walk the dog, feed the dog, take the dog to the park and run the dog. That will last for maybe a week, tops. In fact, if you're buying a very young puppy you won't be able to take them out to socialise with other dogs for 12 weeks whilst they complete their jabs. So your walks will be very much contained to the driveway or the garden. Puppies are typically vaccinated at 8 and ten weeks, but speak to your vet about the best timings. Here is a guide on puppy shots. 

Your dog

After the dog is allowed out to socialise, your kids will probably chip in with a few walks here and there. But despite all their promises, they will give up on walking the dog after a few weeks. A month if you're lucky. Do not see this as a family dog. This is your dog, and the family just so happens to be living with it. You are the owner, and you will be walking this dog every cold morning, every rainy lunchtime and every windy night. 

But that's ok, so long as you know. And the exercise and the fresh air will only do you good. Maybe you can download Audible and listen to a few autobiographies. Whatever you're into you'll find someone talking about themselves at length. 

Pee Pads

Your carpet will be a right off after about 4-5 weeks. You'll hear wonderful stories from other dog owners on how their dogs managed to get the whole peeing outside thing down after only a couple of weeks. Whilst your little demon in fur is still curling one out on your laptop adapter. (WHY ALWAYS THE LAPTOP ADAPTER). 

You will need an abundance of pee pads, not that your dog will know what to do with them, but you might get lucky that they know what to do with them. I personally don't have carpets, so I just have a couple of rag towels and old sweat socks on rotation for clean-up. 

Clear the decks

Before I talk insurance I should let you know, that I've heard some horror stories when it comes to puppies eating batteries, socks, chewing through lego sets etc. My advice is to make sure everything that looks like a decent chewable artifice, is stored in its correct place. Not at puppy height. A friend of mine left his camera bag on the floor. His puppy went rummaging through said camera bag, popped the housing open on his dictaphone and his puppy chewed through an AA battery like it was candy. 

The puppy was consequently rushed to the vet, charcoal pumped through his body to line his throat and he was put on a drip overnight. He survived and it was an expensive experience for everyone to learn, but had it been a lithium battery instead of an AA battery, that dog was a goner. A lithium battery, typically those circular batteries you find in watches, will rip through the innards of any animal. 

So no bags on the floor, no remote controls on the sofas, and believe it or not, no socks neither. Dogs are not that bright when they're young. I was speaking to a dog owner who had to take his dog to the vet for an emergency after he swallowed a sock. Crazy right? Ok so let me talk about Vets and insurance. 

Should I insure my dog? 

Absolutely yes! There is no question about this, and above all else, you need to factor in whether you can afford to have a dog and pay for the monthly insurance on top of worming tablets (20 pounds a month, dry food (30 pounds a month), wet food (about the same). So you get the idea. It's expensive. But your dog will have a lot of visits to the vet over the course of his life. And you'll be blindsided with ailments and injuries you have never heard of in your life. One common one is a grass seed infection. 

A grass seed can get into an open pore, (in a paw for example) it can get in a dog's ear, even their eye. It then does what grass does, tunnel and dig and then grow. It sounds like something from a Hannibal Lecter movie, but it's actually quite common. If it's in the ear then your dog won't let you touch his face. If it's in the paw, they will be limping badly. A friend had this with his dog, after numerous X-Ray's they found the grass seed had worked its way up the leg and was now nested just above the knee. TIP - Don't just get the vet to X-Ray the paw. Have them X-Ray the whole leg. Grass seeds tunnel their way up. 

OK - you get the idea, dogs get injured, dogs get ran over, they will need insurance. You need to factor that cost in. 

Other Tips

Ok I think I may gotten enough down on paper here to get you thinking. Dogs are expensive. If you don't have family or friends around, then dog-sitters are also a tax. But overall, if you can afford it, and you're committed to loving the dog as much as you think you can, then absolutely get yourself a little fur ball.