Christmas Puppy

6 Dog Blog Links You Should Not Miss

Welcome to this weeks Puppy In Training weekly roundup. As we mentioned before we are doing our best to roundup our favorite dog blog posts from the past week across our favorite doggy blogs. Our goal is to try and help you by sifting through the best of the best blog posts (well at least the best posts in our mind) and getting you a short, concise list of our favorite 5-10 posts for the week.

We also like to post an adorable puppy picture for the week and here’s this weeks pic:

Dublin A Yellow Lab Puppy In Training

6 Blog Links You Should Not Miss!

10 Interesting Facts About Dogs – One that I found very interesting was nose printing your dog…a dogs nose is like your fingerprints. Another one that might be interesting to our Puppy In Training readers is that puppies have difficulty holding it during potty training until they are about 4 months old. Check out the article for all 10 interesting facts about dogs.
Pet Obesity Chart – This infographic was actually brought to us by Pet 365, but I found it through my Blog Paws feed. Since I have Labrador Retrievers I always keep an eye on their weight (Labs have a tendency to be obese due to their love of food). Stetson was getting a bit chubby about a year ago so I cut back on his feeding and now he’s looking quite svelte. Take a look at the chart to see a few stats on dog and cat obesity.
Should You Let Your Dog Sleep In Bed With You? – We let Stetson and Linus sleep in bed with us. All of our Guide Dog Puppies In Training have to sleep in their crates. However, are we allowing our dogs to many liberties by letting them sleep in our bed? This article may answer that question for you.
Merry Christmas, Kids. I Poisoned The Dogs – Don’t worry this one has a happy ending. This article just goes to show you that we all make mistakes with our dogs. In fact my guide dog puppy, Dublin got into a box of chocolate cookies last year. We ran to the emergency vet and ended up inducing vomiting. Lucky for us no permanent damage. No matter how close you watch your pups you never know what may happen.
A Puppy For Christmas! Things To Consider – This is a must read article if your considering purchasing a puppy as a Christmas gift. If you ask us then our answer would be “No, do not get a puppy as a Christmas Gift!” unless you know the amount of time and responsibility a puppy requires (and the person receiving the puppy knows this too) the holidays are a difficult time to take on a new pet. We wrote a very similar article on Christmas Puppy As A Gift a few years ago. Go with the alternative and buy a picture of a puppy, a collar, or a leash and after everyone agrees go out and adopt a puppy at your nearby rescue or shelter.
21 Things You Can’t Do With A Puppy In The House – This one is a good reminder that puppies are a large responsibility and even thought they are cute and adorable they will take up a large chunk of your day. The one I always fear the most when getting a new puppy is #7 “Sleep More Than 3 Hours In A Row”. I’ve been lucky my last two pups have slept most of the night, but if I have another Stetson (he only slept 2 hours in a row for the first 4 weeks) I might not make it.

That’s this weeks list of my favorite blog articles for the week. I notice a Christmas theme in this past weeks readings. I’m sure that trend will continue for the next couple weeks and perhaps a few new years articles? Enjoy the articles and if you have an awe inspiring article you’d like me to read and possibly link back to in our roundup then leave us a comment with a link in our comment section below.

Christmas Puppy – Are They A Good Gift?

You’ve seen it before maybe in a commercial or in a clever magazine advertisement with the image of a Christmas puppy in the stocking. It’s irresistible! How can anyone pass up the chance to purchase a Christmas Puppy for their loved one on the twenty-fifth of December? The holidays just wouldn’t be right without your rollie pollie little Christmas puppy playing with empty gift wrappings and ribbons…[fade from dream sequence back into reality]

Christmas Puppy?

Christmas Puppy

Photo by Fauxen

While all sounds wonderful in the thoughts and images of a new puppy for Christmas I have to put my foot down and say “DON’T DO IT!”

I’m not going to look up the statistics right now, but I’m willing to wager that a number of these so-called Christmas Puppies end up in animal shelters anywhere from a few weeks to a few months later.

Why Not?

Let me start off by saying a puppy is a lot of a work…A LOT OF WORK…

I get tons of emails at this site saying

I just got a new puppy:

How do I get him to stop crying/barking/howling?
How do I get him to stop peeing/pooping in the house?
How do I get him to stop biting/mouthing?
How do I get him crate trained?
How do I get him to stop chewing my valuables?
How do I…

The list goes on and on. I admit that puppies are very cute. They seem like they would make a great Christmas gift, but just say NO!

Puppy As A Gift

Here’s how I’d go about getting a puppy as a gift.

I like surprises so I’d just plan a day with my girlfriend and behind the scenes I’d set up an appointment(s) with a puppy rescue(s). You can find local puppy rescues by searching through the Petfinder.com website. We volunteer with a great puppy rescue called Cuddly Canines if you live in the Orange County, California area.
Purchase a great puppy training book like the Puppies For Dummies book and wrap it. On the way to your first puppy rescue you can give your girlfriend the book and explain what your going to be doing for the day.
If your girlfriend is uninterested in a new puppy as a gift then you can just spend a nice day together looking at puppies (who can resist puppy watching?). If she is interested then you can start the discussion of the responsibility of caring for a puppy as well as seeing some prospects during your day.

You may need to adapt this for Christmas as I’m sure puppy rescues would not be showing their puppies on Christmas day.

A few more pointers:

If indeed you decide that a puppy is in your future please avoid purchasing your puppy from the pet store. The majority of these puppies come from puppy mills which are horrible places. Read more about puppy mills here.
Again if you do decide that a puppy is in your future then please consider adopting your puppy from a local animal rescue or shelter. If you’re like us and you’re interested in becoming a more green eco-friendly family then one of the greenest things you can do is adopt your puppy from the shelter or animal rescue.
Make sure you’re informed and know exactly what your getting into. I’d suggest reading the entire Puppies For Dummies book before making any decisions on purchasing a puppy. There are some great tips in the book on how to choose a puppy: puppy temperament tests, breed selection, and many more.

One final thought. If you plan on getting a Christmas puppy then make sure your significant other is ready to take on the responsibility of a new puppy. A puppy as a Christmas gift is usually a bad idea because people just simply aren’t ready for that kind of responsibility.

I think that pretty much sums it up. If your truly bent on getting your loved one a puppy for Christmas then please try following my “Puppy As A Gift” idea rather than taking the full plunge without the consent of your girlfriend or boyfriend.

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