Life With A New Puppy

 harper headband  |  bed  |  bedding  |  white blanket  |  pillows  |  art

If you’ve been around here for the last little bit, you’ve probably noticed we have added a 8th member to our family. No not another baby, promise we are done with that. A new puppy! We are all so in love with her and can’t get enough, but it hasn’t been all rainbows and butterflies! Haha! I’ve been getting a lot of questions on how life with a new puppy is going, and any advice I have,  so I thought I’d share a little bit with you today.

hayden outfit  |  marley scarf  |  harper outfit + headband

Now I know a lot of you are probably thinking we are insane to add a puppy to our plate right now. Isn’t 5 kids schedules enough crazy? And we kind of are. BUT, our little people had been asking for years, and we all went into it knowing it was going to be their dog, which means their responsibility. Before we even told them they could get one, we sat them down and talked about the nitty gritty. We literally took out all the fun stuff and told them every hard thing they were going to deal with to make sure they were on board. The cleaning up poop….potty breaks…taking her for a walk even if you were tired, everything. I think knowing what they were getting into really helped a lot and they have done so so good.

I think when people see a new cute little puppy, that is exactly all they think of. Oh my gosh! How cute?! I have to have one! And they go into it completely blind. A puppy is a baby dog, and just like how you usually think about and prepare to have a baby, I HIGHLY recommend doing the same for a puppy.

So a little before Christmas last year we decided we were ready to surprise the little people with a puppy. She was the sweetest little thing and we named her Harley. Around a month after we got her, she passed away in a freak accident in our soon to be backyard. We were all so heart broken because we had instantly fallen in love. It is crazy how quickly you can bond and make a connection with a little animal. After we took a break to think about it, we were contacted by the breeder about taking home Harley’s little sister. The little people thought it was so perfect to be able to feel like we still had a piece of cute Harley in our home. They chose to name her Marley 🙂

Now that you know a little bit of our story and how we prepared…I thought I’d share a few puppy tips!

• Consider the time of year you get your puppy.  We got Marley in the beginning of the summer and it was perfect. The weather here in Utah was nice so it was easy to potty train her outside and not have to deal with her not wanting to go potty in the rain or cold. My little people were all home too, so they could take on the responsibility from the get go. They were also constantly outside playing, so the puppy could be too.
• Get A Potty Bell! If you don’t know what this method is, you’ve got to look it up. It is a game changer when it comes to potty training your puppy, and I’m so glad so many of your recommended it! You basically teach the puppy to ring a little bell by the door when she needs to go potty. I swear that bell has saved us from a million little accidents throughout the house.
• Stick to your guns. If you are like us and getting the puppy for your little people, hold them to their responsibility. You probably already have enough on your plate so let/make them take on those daily duties too.

I know it sounds crazy, but Marley has truly become a little furry member of our family. We love her and don’t know what we’d do without her! As much as I love her, I think what I have loved the most is being able to teach my little people hard work and what its like to have a job and be responsible. They have already grown so much and you can see they have a little sense of pride in her.

So I wanna know…do you have a puppy? What are some of your biggest tips for training or living with a new puppy?