Be warned, that no matter how well prepared you think you are, you won’t be prepared enough. A new pup will be different from your last dog or your friend’s dog. You must be willing to persevere especially through puppyhood and the teenage stage ( the first two to three years), so that you grow a dog that becomes a pleasure to live with.
Dogs need comfortable weatherproof shelter; warm in winter, cool in summer. They need bedding. If you wouldn’t want to spend your nights lying on a hard floor, don’t ask your dog to do that.
They need routines, security, suitable food, clean water, health care, exercise ( of brain and body), play, enrichment, companionship and fair, consistent training. They need to live inside with you and your family, or else spend a lot of quality time with you outside (like working dogs do).
Pups that spend long hours alone WILL get bored and lonely. They WILL find ways to occupy themselves (mostly doing dog things like digging, chewing, eating unmentionable things, barking or escaping) and they will hurl themselves at you when you get home.
It is not fair to punish these behaviours.
The pup stage is when the pup learns the ‘rules’ of life. Isolated pups tend to grow into dogs with less interest in people, so they become very difficult to train later. They also tend to have more serious behaviour problems (fear/ anxiety/ over reactivity/ aggression ) and more ongoing nuisance behaviours ( barking, digging, running away, mouthing).
If you are ready to devote a large chunk of your life to rearing a dog well, then you are in for a huge learning experience, some tough times and some wonderful times.
Welcome to the journey!
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