Owning a pet is a very real ambition that many young professionals have. Not only does it provide us with a loving companion, but it’s also a stable milestone in our home living situation. It shows we’re settled, and we’re willing to take care of an animal we care for from now into the future.
But should you buy a puppy at this time in your life? Is it worth making that decision now? After all, we know that commitment is an essential part of raising a dog, and this is not the same as purchasing a hamster or a few fish for a tank you have set up. While those require maintenance, a dog is a much larger and higher maintenance animal to take care of.
But how can you come to this decision? You may feel emotionally prepared, but is that the same as actually being prepared? Additionally, how do you come to this assessment without overthinking every single thing in preparation? It’s worth asking these questions, because they may lead you to the following answers:
Cost
The maintenance cost of taking care of a puppy can be relatively important to plan for in advance. They need vaccinations and veterinarian care, and training, and good food that helps them develop properly, a bed that will allow them to grow into it comfortably, a doggy cage to begin with and to get used to the home, chew toys, and many other small implements.
Also, don’t forget to factor in the cost of dry cleaning if they have an accident on your carpet during the training stages, and until trained it’s not unusual for little puppies to scratch at sofas or misbehave in other ways.
If you haven’t the most stable financial situation, these issues can be much larger than they may have been otherwise. Make sure you can afford the puppy, and that you’re not simply going to return them to the owner or breeder after a number of months.
This may not be as expensive as having a child, but your puppy should be considered a member of the family, and ideally should want for nothing. The more you can keep those standards, the better.
Time At Home
A beautiful dog can be a fundamental and beautiful cap-off to the completion of a familial unit. While we love each other as a family, we can sometimes go through periods of conflict or small arguments that seem silly with the passing of time.
Even the most intimate families have this kind of experience now and again. Yet our dogs, as members of the family, are always willing and ready to love us. We deserve to give them that in return, and to appreciate them always.
However, running a household or small family unit can be a tricky process. Odds are, you have to work long hours and maybe even two jobs to provide.
This can be a problem if bringing a puppy home because leaving them home alone for long periods of time not only stunts their social and training development, but it also leaves them profoundly bored and in perpetual solitude. That can be a sad state of affairs, and some may even consider it cruel.
To that end, we would only recommend you bring a dog home if you can spend time with him or her. This means ensuring that they’re never regularly at home alone throughout the week.
For instance, a stay at home parent can provide the best means in which to care for the dog and take them for regular walks, and purchasing more than one dog, or introducing your new puppy to your old pets can ease their social needs somewhat. The more we’re able to care for them in this way the better, and the more involved we are, the more they’ll flourish.
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Training Potential
It’s important to spend the time training a puppy if you hope for them to develop well and respect your authority. Puppies that are lacking in training often become very hard to handle, and may even become aggressive or unable to accept boundaries.
This is no good, particularly if you one day wish to trust them to go ‘off-the-leash’ in a park where this is permitted, or to ensure they never bite the postman, or to be a trusted entity around your children.
Additionally, it’s also important to socialize them young in order to ensure they feel comfortable around other dogs. Otherwise, intense barking and aggressive behavior may become the norm when you’re simply walking in the park, and that’s never positive. But of course, training doesn’t take place in a vacuum.
You need to visit a specialist and worthwhile trainer, holding familiarity with that particular breed. Additionally, this requires your financial and time investment, sometimes attending more than one session a week in order for them to develop alongside their growth. Whether or not you can commit to this should be an important indicator regarding your suitability for a dog and particularly larger breeds at that.
Well-Sourced
Sourcing your puppy from a wonderful place can be a great stepping stone to ensure this pet is well provided for from the offset. If you cannot research breeders or sellers, and ensure that they care for said dogs, then you may be contributing to less-than-ideal standards. Lucky Labs are known for their expert treatment of dogs and the absolutely wonderful breed they have on offer, giving you a chance to more profoundly enjoy this rearing process, as you can be sure they have been treated well before ownership.
When you can start off on the best footing like this, you can avoid the need for intensive reparative work. While sheltered or previously abused rescue dogs may be a worthwhile investment for some people to take home, as a first-time-owner it’s better to be safe than sorry.
With this advice, we hope you can come to the best conclusion when considering the purchase of a puppy. They deserve that sort of deliberation.