For probably the past five years my littles have begged and pleaded for a dog of their own and I have resisted. If you asked anyone who knows me they would definitely not put me in the category of being a “dog” person. Little does anyone know it’s not that I don’t like dogs….it’s that I don’t like how much I like dogs! So an opportunity came about for us to expand our family and the situation just felt right. The momma dog is a fox terrier and was abandoned and rescued by a friend of a friend. She had four little puppies and as soon as we saw a picture I knew we had to go visit. Now you guys know how the story goes from there….we saw the puppies and they were all adorable but there was this one spunky boy that bounded out of the pen and began running around all crazy and under the furniture and well…I knew he would fit into our life just perfectly!
We began operation “Bring home Bentley”…..only to find out after we named him that one of my Bigs had an issue with the name! The joys of being in between raising Bigs and Littles….sometimes we have Little problems that become Big problems. We have only had this little guy since Sunday and already he has been called Bentley, Dutch and Buddy….and Carly Jo just kept calling him Ditch. Yesterday I started calling him Dutch Buddy…and I could tell he really loved it so maybe it will stick! And really….tell me you could resist those freckles?!!!
Our first week has been quite the transition….at least for Mom. How is it that only moms have the ability to hear crying babies and whining puppies? I was very determined to crate train this little guy….about as determined as I was to have my own babies sleep in their cribs. So..yeah…I made it one night with him crying in his crate and every other night he’s been in bed with one of us!
We attended a Puppy 101 class early in the week….and I’ve spent the remainder of the week like a first time mom thinking I’m going to screw him up forever. And last night my exhaustion left me crying over my husband leaving me for a weekend fishing trip….like sitting on the floor of the closet crying in the dark! I am very thankful we all got a good nights sleep and Dutch Buddy went in his crate this morning on his own without crying when we had to leave for work. I seriously cannot wait to get back home to see him!!
Right now we are making sure to only crate him for 3 hours max at a time but that will have to increase to 4 once my kids go back to school later this month. I know there are so many varying opinions out there about the dos and don’ts of raising a sweet, well behaved little puppy and it seems like every time I turn to google for help I end up more concerned and confused! If any of you have any tips to share that worked for you I’d love to hear!
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Sweet Dutch Buddy! I just love those freckles! And, seriously, if you get in a bind, I can let him out for you during the day! I would love to get my fix of puppy breath!