When you decide to bring a dog into your family, you have a choice on whether to bring home a puppy or a senior canine.
Many people prefer to bring puppies home because they are so cute and playful, but they are also a huge responsibility.
Before you decide to choose a puppy over an older dog, make sure you can answer these three questions to know if you are ready for such a big commitment.
Do You Have Time To Commit to Training?
Puppies aren’t born knowing how to act appropriately so you need to commit a significant amount of your time to train your new family member.
Not only will you need to train your pet to respond to his or her name, but you also need to spend time housebreaking the puppy and teaching him or her basic commands.
There are many training programs and tools available to help you with this process, but you still need to commit a lot of your time to following through on teaches your puppy how to act.
One of the tools you may find helpful is an ultrasonic dog trainer.
If you aren’t sure where to start training your dog, you may want to consider enrolling him or her into obedience school.
Is Your Family Ready for a Puppy?
The structure of your family plays a big role in whether or not you are ready for a puppy.
If you are single and live alone, you may not be ready to commit to caring for a puppy without any help.
If you are married and have plenty of time to dedicate to a young dog, a puppy could be the ideal choice for you.
Families with teenagers may be ready to split the responsibility of caring for a puppy, but life may be so chaotic for families with babies and toddlers that older dogs may be a better choice.
Are You Willing To Puppy-Proof Your Home?
Puppies get into everything, so if you plan on bringing one home, you need to be prepared to modify your house to minimize problems.
You may need to install a baby gate around stairs or in rooms you want your puppy to stay out of.
You also probably want to hide all of your shoes and put away valuable items so your puppy doesn’t accidentally break them.
You don’t have to make these changes forever; once your puppy is trained, you can resume your normal lifestyle.
However, if you aren’t prepared to make these changes temporarily, you probably aren’t ready for a puppy.
Because puppies are such a big responsibility, you need to make sure you are ready for the commitment before you bring a young dog home.
If you can answer “yes” to these three questions, you may be ready to bring an energetic young dog into your family.
However, if you answer any of these questions negatively, you will probably be better off choosing an older dog.
Make the choice carefully to ensure you select the right dog for your family.