You WILL argue with your OH over your dog. It's unavoidable.

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If you get a puppy...

- The first few weeks with a puppy are like having a newborn at night and a toddler during the day... run that scenario through your head for a moment...can you picture yourself coping with that on top of all the other stuff you like school runs, going to work, housework, shopping etc?

- If you have children, they WILL get nipped and bitten and scratched because this is what puppies do...and it is YOUR job to teach the children and the puppy how to behave around one another to stop the biting and nipping and scratching...trust me, this is not an easy job.

- Your house will become a puppy toilet for a while. It is YOUR job to teach the puppy how to be clean in the house. This is not an easy job either. My pup recently weed all over the remote control for the TV, because it had been left on the floor. Nuff said.

- A puppy then grows in to a dog that requires regular exercise, lots of love, care attention and stimulation for oooh, about fifteen years or so. Most marriages don't last that long these days!!

All of the above is just for starters, I have had my pup just three weeks. (Love him to bits though - sorry, but just had to say it!)

All of my dogs have been perfect apart from. My whippet that ran under a low branch chasing a squirrel and took the skin off the top of his head exposing his skull. My GSD that ate the rear head rests through the dog guard. My first Dobe that chewed through the mains water pipe in the kitchen during the night and we came down in the morning to a flooded ground floor. My second Dobe who one sunny Sunday afternoon at a busy nature reserve when aged about four months jumped up at me while I was sat down and managed to get one of his cannines up the inside of my nose and rip it open. We had to walk back to the car with my face and white tee shirt covered in blood and every body pointing at the vicious dog.

This was a major problem for us in the beginning too. Imagine telling your 3 yr old to 'calm down' as you know if he shrieks, the dog will get more excited and then the situation worsens...but then calming down isn't really a solution is it when your 3 rd old is upset cos of this tiny bite on his finger or when he finds the joy of running around for the dog to chase after him.......

I once went hysterical and put the dog away in his pen and sat my kids on different spots in the room and screamed 'ALL OF YOU JUST STOP AND DO NOT MOVE OR MAKE ANY NOISE FOR JUST 5 MINUTES PLEASE BEFORE I GO INSANE!!!!!!!!!'

I think I was already not very sane then. And of course the dog moaned and the kids moved after just 2 secs.

Also the puppy is just naturally attracted to kids (same mental age i am guessing the attraction being) and they would never stop bothering each other. you have to discipline and control/train the kids and the pup ALL THE TIME they are in the same room. I did not get to sit down at all whenever they were together for about a whole month.

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Oh my gosh! I completely forgot but my pup did that to me too, we had a friend round for dinner at the time as well

The warm squidgy feeling between your toes you get when you come down in the night for a drink and you suddenly realise you haven't quite cracked the house training

Nice....

I guess at least it was a warm one

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best advice I can offer is PLEASE research the breed you like the look of and then do some more, if possible meet as many dogs and breeders as you can and listen to their advice. Some dogs are just not suitable for first time owners.
I love Storm to bits but he can be very stubborn, wilfull and is VERY intelligent, he really does seem to be able to read your mind and you have to be one step ahead of him
there is no way I could of handled a malamute without having owned other large dogs before, they do not react at all well to agressive or negative training, you have to use positive and calm methods and reward good behaviour rather than highlighting bad behaviour.
oh and Ive still got the coat blowing to look forward too

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1 Alaskan Malamute Storm 1 rabbit Snuffy

OK, I REALLY dislike the tone of this topic. Can you please stop assuming everybody who doesn't own a dog is an uneducated, unresearched idiot? You are not putting me off from getting a dog with posts like this, but you are sure putting me off from superior-sounding other dog owners.

This is NOT the way to educate potential new dog owners. This is only the way to sounding like a holier-than-thou preacher who assumes everybody is an adulterer.

We're not trying to put anyone off - at least I'm not.

But this is the bad that comes with the good if you don't like it then you don't have to read it.

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