Christmas Puppy – Are They A Good Gift?
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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?
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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I watched a video on utube of a family giving a puppy for chrismas .From what i could see the poor thing was in some kind of a container and I can just imagine how it felt .All this noise of kids around it ,new home ,new smells .I just thought poor thing .
I wonder how long it will be before the novelty wears off. The only thing I can hope for is that the adults have taken the responsibility of rearing the puppy and they themselves have done thier own research on what to do .
Thank you so much for speaking out, the number of puppies that end up in shelters come January when everyone is back to work or school is heartbreaking.
@Kathy, thanks for sharing. Here’s the link to Kathy’s article on A Puppy For Christmas.