Pupdate 4: Q&A about our puppy
You asked, we answered! Here’s some commonly asked questions about Pancake and how we brought her home!
Where did you get Pancake? How did you figure out where to get a dog?
We spent months researching dog breeders. And by months I mean nearly a year. We knew we wanted a pug puppy so that helped refine the search. We focused on local breeders and farms, as we didn’t fully trust a mainstream pet store. We were very cautious about puppy mills. We did look at adoption centers, but there wasn’t a pug puppy and it was our dream to have one.
After narrowing our search to 2-3 local breeders, we scheduled calls with them. This helped us answer our questions and get a feel for the breeders and if they were trustworthy. We finally decided on an Illinois-based breeder, Dreamcatcher Hill. We had a feeling we could trust them and I’m so thankful we did.
What was the process like?
It was the longest waiting game! When we finally picked a breeder, we had to pay a deposit to join the waitlist. This essentially locked us into this breeder so no matter how long the wait, we knew we had to stick it out or lose out on that money.
We were number 9 on the list and on average 2-4 puppies would be born at a time (this is a good indicator that they are not a puppy mill!). They only have litters every season so we thought it would be about a year until we got our puppy. I was pretty sad about this but knew it was for the best.
Turns out, the July litter (we joined the list in May) was four puppies. We called nearly daily to check in but assumed there was no way they would get to us and still have puppies. For reasons I cannot explain, all 8 families ahead of us passed on Pancake. She was the only one left by the time they called us and we said YES within the hour. We were so excited!
How did you prepare to bring her home?
Once we found out we were getting her, we went a bit puppy crazy! We actually had six weeks until we could bring her home, but the weekend after we found out we went and bought almost everything we needed.
As the weeks passed, I started getting really nervous as I had never had a puppy before! I did a ton of research and reading on how to train a puppy, what to get them, what the first week would be like.
The one piece of advice I found most helpful was remembering that while it was exciting for us to have her in our house, it was a terrifying experience for her. She just spent 8 weeks in a different home with her puppy mom and siblings. We were taking her away from that so she wouldn’t be as excited as we were. That helped me be more understanding with her when she didn’t want to play with her new toys. Overtime she started feeling more at home and started warming up to us! I know this is a hard thing to sallow when you’re so excited for a dog but I think it was so important for establishing our family bond. The more we understood how Pancake may be feeling, the more she trusted us.
How did you know what to buy for her?
I did tons of reading to figure out what I needed. Here’s my puppy checklist: https://camilikeatanktop.com/home/2020/9/7/pupdate-3-our-puppy-supply-checklist
How did you pick her name?
I wish I remembered exactly how this happened but for as long as I can remember Jake and I wanted to a have a pug and wanted to name it Pancake. We decided that very early into our relationship so it’s been the leading name for over five years. I like we liked the alliteration and we love breakfast so it fit!
Is she going to puppy school?
We initially planned on sending her to puppy training, but with COVID and us being home, we focused our attention on training her as much as we could on our own. We’re extremely lucky (sometimes) that Pancake is super smart for a pug and picked up really quickly. She was potty trained fully within the first week and a half. To date, she’s only had five accidents in the home over the past four months and two of those she was sick from a shot the vet gave her. She’s learned how to leash walk (the absolute hardest to thing we had to train her on), how to jump, and how to sleep in her kennel at night. She also knows the following words/commands: sit, go home (when on walks), wait, treat, get your toy, and a few others I’m forgetting. The only one she doesn’t know yet is come.
Other pieces of advice no one asked for:
Get ready to not sleep. I heard this before but didn’t think it would be that bad. The first few nights were awful as she adjusted to the new home and we didn’t have a crate (read next point). Once we got a crate, that helped but she still only slept at most five hours at a time. Puppies can’t hold their bladder for that long so we had a lot of bathroom trips. It was rough for the first few weeks but now four months in Pancake can sleep about 8-9 hours a night!
Crate train a puppy. I was really hesitant about this because I felt like we were putting her in a cage at night. I hated it. I tried a playpen for a bit, but the first 3 nights she was up all night screaming. She broke down the playpen, too. Sleep deprived, I ran to Petco and purchased a crate. She slept the whole night the next day (well a whole night for puppies, which was 5 hours), and kept increasing her time over the next week. We were finally sleeping a decent chunk. I know it may be hard, but it truly was the best decision to get a crate. She now loves just going in there to hang out during the day. It’s her little haven.
Lots of walks. I knew we would need to walk her a ton, but I wasn’t mentally prepared for walks every hour. Again, puppies have small bladders so anytime they wake up, right after rough play, or eating, they need to go out. Actually do this because the one time I tried to extend the time she had an accident. Also pay attention to your puppy’s cues. While we had her on a walking schedule, we did start to pick up on her cues. She would run around and jump on things when she needed to go out or just run to the door. This helped us extend her time as we started going off her cues instead of taking her out every hour. After the first month or two she could go about 4-5 hours without a walk.
Cheese is your friend. If your puppy doesn’t like taking medicine (like Pancake), there are several methods but the easiest I found was cheese. I got a few small pieces of cheese and wrapped a few pieces around the pill. When giving it to her, I started with a plain piece of cheese or two, then gave the cheese covered pill, then followed it with plain piece of cheese or two. She never had any idea!
Get the dog. Yes, they are expensive. Yes, it is work. Yes, it is inconvenient at times. But she is the best thing to happen to us. Get the dog. But only if you promise to take care of them and treat them like family.
