There was a moment a couple of weeks ago where I realized… Ham’s not really a puppy anymore. He doesn’t have accidents in the house anymore. He graduated from his Foundations 1 dog class. He’s bigger than Teddy!
I have to say… I’m so glad the puppy phase is behind me. It’s my least favorite part about having a dog; thank goodness puppies are cute because otherwise, I couldn’t do it at all.
I get a lot of questions about why we got a second dog and for tips. Since I work from home, Teddy wasn’t that used to be left alone. When we would leave the apartment, even if it was just to get the mail downstairs, he would lose it. The very bottom line is that they both are great when we leave because they have each other. (On the other hand, I hate leaving them. Whenever I lock the door I tear up.)
But how’s it going with two dogs, really?
It’s so much harder than I ever thought it would be. I naively thought that since I had done the whole puppy thing once, that the second time would be a breeze. Nope. It was harder. Partly because there was already another dog with his own needs (which I expected), but also because I knew how great it was to have a trained dog. I’d been there and done that and couldn’t wait for Ham to catch up. It was frustrating.
Teddy is my little angel dog. I know he was hyper as a puppy, but it was always good spirited. Ham, on the other hand, has a devilish streak. He looks you right in the eyes and just goes crazy. But he’s also the cuddliest wanting to get as snuggled in as physically possible. You never know which version of him you’re going to get at any given moment.
I also underestimated the power of “puppy blues.” This is a real thing. Throwing Ham into the mix threw off my regular everyday routine. When I got Teddy, I had just quit my job, and my life felt super unstable. I wrote off a lot of my fear of having a new dog to the volatility of my life, but looking back, I think it was a lot more about the dog. I witnessed the same thing with Hamilton when I first got him. The frustration of constantly cleaning up accidents, running a dog up and down the stairs to go out every hour, not being able to leave the pup alone for that long, all that alone is a lot. And then I had to factor in all kinds of additional emotions: guilt that Teddy wouldn’t get as much individual attention, fear that I had made a big mistake, and feeling overwhelmed with this new responsibility.
Phewwwwww.
And somewhere, Ham grew up. And he’s not so much a puppy anymore. I didn’t even notice, as I said before, it dawned on me one day that I was just completely and utterly in love with this dog… and wasn’t frustrated or overwhelmed anymore. (Until he tried to drink a cup of coffee on the coffee table…. )
So there’s the puppy update! It’s not a walk in the park, but I finally feel like we have a good sense of normalcy again!! (Thank goodness for that.)
