|
Hi. I just want to encourage anyone thinking about getting a pet, especially a dog, to think long and hard about your decision. It is basically like having a baby, especially when they are young and a puppy. I have a 6 month old pug and he is just now starting to be housebroken. I crate trained him but he still has one or two accidents per week. Also, remember, you will need to get up very early in the morning (he wakes up around 6 am) to walk and it is gonna be cold out soon! Sometimes my dog gets up 2 or 3 times in the night. I haven't been able to take a real vacation since I got him because I don't want to leave him in a kennel, my friends who said they would watch him also have big dogs which makes me nervous, and my parents and a lot of my other friends are not dog people so I cannot impose him on them. Are you still in school? Do you know what your job situation is going to be in a few years? Do you plan on going to grad school at night? These are all major things to ask yourself because you CANNOT do a lot of things once you take on the responsibility of a pet. I would love for example to work p/t for extra money in addition to my f/t position, but feel it is unfair to the dog to be alone that long. Also what is your living situation? Are you able to have pets where you live? What if you plan to move? Apartments that allow pets are hard to find and you can't sneak a dog into an apartment. Yorkies are also very yappy and barky and are attention seeking dogs as well. I encourage everyone to research the breed in great detail. I am not implying this against the person who started this thread, but so often I hear "oh dogs are so cute I want to get one" and people do not realize all the work that goes into caring for a dog, and hence, end up giving the dog away. Cost of the dog was a factor. I don't recommend anyone who is not able to afford to pay for a dog to get a dog because it is expensive to care for a dog in general!!!! I took Darby to the vet for all his puppy shots, which was about 5 or 6 trips. Each trip was $50 bucks. What happens if he gets sick? That could be anywhere from $1000 and up to care for him. My friend has a charpet (spelling?) and he had a tumor on his back. It cost her I believe close to $3000 with the surgery and all the doctor visits. Luckily she had her parents to rely on cuz she was a student at the time and not working!!!! I really don't encourage anyone who is a college student to get a dog because you don't know what your life is going to be like in the next couple of years. Are you really ready to be this tied down? I don't mean this post to sound really negative but I can't stress it enough, every day I ALWAYS have to think about how I am planning my day so I can get home to take care of the dog. I can't just dash off to happy hour after work or go away for the weekend without planning this all in advance!!!!! If you have been gone all day too, it is really not fair to leave the dog alone at night, especially in a crate. If you have any other questions at all about dealing with a puppy, please don't hesitate to ask. Remember DOG=CHILD. PERIOD.
|