Raising a Child.. I Mean Puppy

If anyone ever tells you that raising a puppy is easy they're LYING! Seriously, it's like raising a darn kid. But with a face like that... none of this really matters.

• For the first few weeks they wake up every couple hours throughout the night and are up for the day at 6am
• You have to watch them 24/7 (when they're out of the crate) because they get into every single thing they're not supposed to and have no interest in their toys
• They pee all over the house for the first couple weeks and once they're potty trained they ask to go out every hour (pain in the butt when you don't have a yard)
• They bite your hands/back of your knees and your furniture
• You can't do homework/blog/read often because they bark/whine when you're not paying attention to them
• & the list goes onnnnn...

Now don't get me wrong I love my puppy and I'm never going to give him away, but I have been blindsided these past two months. I have never had a pet, other than a Betta fish, my entire life. I had NO idea how much work/patience/time/dedication he would require. I never thought I'd spend nights crying because the training we're trying just isn't working and I don't know what else to do. I never thought I'd long so badly to sleep in until 10am again.

Also, I now realize why our breeder wasn't happy when she found out that we live in an apartment!  And please take my advice- do not get a puppy if you live in one! These are the reasons why:

• No yard to roam in
• Which means that you have to take them out on a leash every time and pick up the poo every time
• You can't "let them bark it out" because you'll have your neighbors POUNDING on the walls/floors
• Very difficult to get the correct amount of exercise (especially in the winter where it snows). No exercise = very aggressive puppy. We can't take him for walks because the sidewalks aren't shoveled and it's 5 degrees outside. We've had to resort to walking him through our apartment building up and down the stairs numerous times a day
• He has to sleep in our room at night (big no-no when they're young), because again we can't let him bark it out

I wish that we would have thought about these things before we decided to get a puppy, because it would've been a lot easier to wait until we were living in a house.

However, I also never thought I'd love something (other than a human) so much. Keeshond's are known to be extremely intelligent dogs and believe me Duke really is. He tells us when he has to go outside, he sits on command, he lays, he's starting to come, and he's getting really good at walking on a leash. He's just too smart. He knows that asking to go outside means that he can eat the snow and play. He knows that biting behind my knees means that I'll give him attention. But he's just so.damn.adorable. Seriously.

I'm so happy that we decided to get a puppy before deciding to have a child because the best thing that has come from this is that we know for sure that we are not ready and that we will definitely be sticking to our five year (or more) plan!

If anyone has any recommendations (books, websites, YouTube videos) don't be afraid to send them my way!