Puppy Prep (Part 1)

Zachary at seven weeks old

I am getting soooo excited about the puppy. Yes, I know "things" could still happen and I might not get a puppy, but that would only happen if there was a problem at the breeder's end, and I can't control that, so I'm not going to worry about it.

Much

It helps that there are eight boy puppies. Eight! One of those happy faces has got to be a match for us, don't you think???

And so I am proceeding full steam ahead with puppy preparations, in happy anticipation of a bouncy baby golden coming home somewhere in the week of the 20th.

tick tock tick tock

Tonight I'm going to start by going through all the puppy things we have from when Zachary was a puppy, and probably throwing away/recycling 90% of them. After all, part of the fun of getting a shiny-new puppy is running to the store and blowing a wad of money on shiny-new puppy things like:

• Puppy collar
• Puppy leash
• Puppy chewies
• ... more puppy chewies
• ... even more puppy chewies
• Puppy pee cleanup
• ... more puppy pee cleanup
  
• ... even more puppy pee cleanup
• Puppy gate (see below)
• Puppy sleeping pads (yes, plural - so one can be in the wash)
• Puppy Kongs (for smearing with peanut butter, freezing, then putting in the crate during the day)
• Puppy Binder (shot record, AKC Registration, favorite photos...)

... and probably a billion other things I'm not thinking of. Things I'm pretty sure we will reuse include:

• Puppy bowl - ours is nice heavy ceramic and matches adult bowls
• "Puppy" Crate (see below)
• Puppy dog tag (phone number only)

Puppy Gate: We really liked the gate we got for Zachary. It was metal and had a door that you could open/close to aid bringing groceries into the Kitchen without killing ourselves trying to hop over the gate.

No, we didn't have it for Beau, which is why he was so afraid of the baby gate.

Picture hubby (not a small man) catching a foot on the top of the baby gate, tossing contents of arms up into the air while trying to maintain balance, failing to maintain balance while contents of arms, gate, and himself come crashing to the ground. Add expletives (lots of expletives!) Repeat frequently. Beau always gave the baby gate a WIDE berth.

Yes, it chewed up the doorway, but it was still worth it. No, we don't still have it, but that's more because of our ill-treatment than any huge flaw in it. Yes, we will be looking for another one pretty much just like it.

"Puppy" Crate:
Neither Beau nor Zachary had a special (ie: small) puppy crate. Beau did try out the metal insert that came with his crate that was supposed to make the crate smaller. And it did. And he hated it. So we took it out. He still hated it (the crate) but that's another story. We didn't even try to make the crate smaller for Zachary.

We currently own 3 large metal crates. One is a bit older, a lot harder to open, and in storage (where it will remain. Period.) The other two are identical and in our bedroom. One is Zachary's nighttime crate, which he hasn't used since he was a year old and we stopped closing the door at night. The other is Beau's nighttime crate, which is right against my side of the bed and where he slept every night by choice (door was open.)

Zachary prefers the Big Bed with us - he isn't called Snug Bug for nothin'.

Soooo... Beau's crate will remain where it is and become puppy's nighttime crate. Zachary's nighttime crate will migrate into the family room and be puppy's daytime crate.

If I'm feeling industrious, I might set up the travel crate where Zachary's nighttime crate use to sit and retain the "run into the crate for the nighttime cookie" ritual, just so he doesn't forget how to run into a crate for a cookie.

Could happen.

Maybe.