confessions of a new dog mom

we’ve learned some important lessons in the first few days of being puppy parents…

1. Puppies have no bladder control.

they have accidents. luckily, Olivia’s been pretty good.

we’ve had a few messes but we usually catch her in time and get her outside before there is a huge mess.

2. Because their bladders are the size of a midget thimble she gets up about every 2-3 hours to go potty during the night. I’m suddenly a very heavy sleeper because Diz has been getting up at the 2am/3am time to take her potty when she starts whining/crying (I honestly don’t hear her… I wake up only because he gets out of bed and I’m suddenly a lot colder when the blankets get thrown back). I get her up at the 4am or 5am potty time (depending on when I get up to run… she usually hears me and wakes up).

3. Olivia still hates her collar and is pretty much dumbfounded by her leash.

she constantly scratches at her neck trying to remove her collar.

and she basically freaks out with the leash, tries to pull away from it and ends up choking herself.

she needs to get used to it because she will be running with me at some point!

4. Olivia is a mellow, loving, snoodly-doodly puppy when it’s just us.

when she goes to my Mom’s house for “doggy day care” with Paisley she turns into an agressive beast.

OMG-they are little hooligans together. They fight, growl, chew on each other’s ears, pull at each other’s collars, etc. Then she comes home and is sweet, loving Olivia.

(Let me introduce you to Dr. Jekyl & Ms. Hyde)

5. Being a dog mom is exhausting.

thank goodness she’s a cuddler because…

this has been happening a lot lately.

(monday night…)

(tuesday night… yes, I’m wearing the same jammies… don’t hate)

(and don’t look at my acne… or stretch marks on my love handles)

but, we’ve really been having a blast trying to figure this whole dog parenting thing.

she’s getting better at going to her kennel at night and last night she really did sleep from midnight to 4am.

We’re working on figuring out our schedule, work, gym, play time with her, etc.

Like I mentioned earlier, she’s been going to doggy day care at my Mom’s during the day, I drop her off in the morn and then one of us picks her up after work. She’s usually SO excited to see us. It’s adorable. 🙂

After our chat with the landlords (which was super anxiety inducing… OMG) we decided that as long as their son doesn’t react to Olivia (he’s allergic to cats) then we’ll continue to live here and lay a concrete pad in the spring and put a gated kennel outside for her.

Because of Diz’s allergies we’ll be bathing Olivia weekly and vacuuming VERY frequently. We’re also looking into getting an air purifier for him. (silly kid and his asthma…). I’ll be brushing her pretty frequently too, getting rid of the extra fur before she sheds everywhere.

speaking of Diz, he was feeling left out so we had to take a picture just for the blog.

… and I quote “it’s not fair, you’re blogging about her and I don’t have any pictures with her!”

and I’m not even exaggerating.

oooooh, by the way… does anyone have an extra dog crate? a large or extra large size? I need an extra crate to store at my Mom’s house for her, so when the weather is yucky, the pups can stay in their crates in the garage. We bought one on a killer black friday deal at PetSmart and I really don’t want to pay full price for a second one. Let me know!

time for bed! Olivia is yawning like crazy! 🙂