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So You Want to Buy a Puppy?

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By Alane Lachowicz

CHAPTER ONE:

SO YOU WANT TO BUY A PUPPY?

You want to buy a puppy?  Are you sure? Have you thought about this?  Do you know what is really involved in getting a puppy?  A little untrained, cuddly, trouble maker.  Let's step back.  Let's walk away from that cuddly, little fluff of joy that bounces around a room and looks so cute playing.  Let's take a look at what is really involved. 

First off, you get this little puppy, usually at about eight weeks of age.  You do know it comes untrained.  This is not a package deal.  The puppy does not know to potty outside; does not know not to play in the mud; does not know to sit, stay, come when called; doesn't even know its name.  Remember, it hasn't gotten one yet.  With all this in mind and all the work that has to be done: the training, the potty training, the going outside in the cold, wet, damp days, the earlier morning hours, the late nights.  You sure you want a puppy? 

Think of all the training classes that you will have to go to (and don't think you are going to buy this puppy and it is going to be completely trained already).  I don't know of any puppy who comes complete with instruction guides on how to sit, stay, stand, come when called, down, or even to eat nicely out of its bowl, not to chew on things, not to tear things apart. 

How cute do you think your puppy would look with an electrical cord hanging out of its mouth?  Yes, this does happen.  Puppies get into things quicker than you can ever imagine.  "Oh, you are just going to go to the bathroom", you say.  How fast can that puppy destroy a table leg, a couch, a pillow, and yes, an extension cord or a plug, plugged into an outlet?  Puppies, like babies, are never to be left unattended.  You have this much patience, time, are you willing to devote the effort it takes to train this puppy? 

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