By Lisa 
“Dang cute puppy in the Santa hat picture you posted”…
If they only knew.
That puppy piddled right under the tree a second after that picture was snapped. He proceeded to chew a strand of lights (not plugged in, thank the Good Lord), three wrapped presents and threw up a sausage ball on your new cashmere sweater. Good times.
I can’t say much, as always, except to learn from my many mistakes in puppy-raising. I have a 11 month old beast who was a rescue, is terrified of any male, as well as for me to ever, ever, leave her sight. She has chewed up pretty much everything that doesn’t have a throw blanket over it, and some that did. I am getting pretty danged good at slapping on wood filler, sanding and repainting, as well as repairing drywall. New career perhaps???
But I do love my big girl. It took her a couple of days to trust me, and now she leans against me and looks up with her big brown eyes and…tries to chew off my nose. She sees my little dogs sleeping on the top of the sofas and tries her best to balance her 50 pound, legs-for-days body up there as well, and usually tumbles off onto the floor when she falls asleep. She takes up most of my bed at night and has a bedtime ritual of chewing a Nylabone for about an hour. She is annoyingly adorable.
People tell me all the time that I need to get rid of her. I wouldn’t be the only person to rehome a dog, or worse send her to the local pound or simply abandon her in the woods somewhere. January, sadly, is a month where many of those cute Christmas puppies become an annoyance and get abandoned.
She has made a mess of my house, disrupted all chances of a good nights sleep, and has me reading up on canine psychology. But I love her. And to me, I have no desire for a showcase of a house where I happen to sleep. I want a home, with all the messiness, noise and laughter that other beings, including annoying dogs, provide.
So, we will figure this out together.
I looked into training, real training where she would be sent away to a sort of canine boot camp. I may still go that route, but not just yet. It is an option. My fear is she will come out trained but it will be ME who will untrain her. Definitely a possibility as she is my smoochy poochy baby (sorry).
I have plenty (and I mean plenty) of various baby gates, pet door to outside, pet barricades (they have cute paw prints carved into them) and closed doors to contain the messes as much as possible. My floor is covered with washable bed pads that I throw in the washer with bleach once a day. She isn’t making the messes by the way–having a new member of the pack gives my other little brats some angst and they sometimes let me know that. They are working it out though and after two months they all play together quite nicely. The worst one (and he knows who he is!) wears a washable belly band diaper.
I have a ginormous dog kennel smack dab in my living room, where I can put her when I leave the house and a security camera pointed at it so I can watch her. The wire kennel ain’t purdy sitting there but my house is still standing and she usually goes right to sleep.
I read that having too many toys can confuse her and make her think the whole house is one big chew toy. I hid all 5 million of them and only put out a squeaker and a chew toy. Just doing that has helped a whole lot.
I have a lot of Nylabones, the kind dogs like to chew but can’t chew up. Lifesavers. Worth every penny.
I bought some bitter green apple spray to put on places she has chewed before or any chewable place at mouth level. Works great and kind of cathartic to see her licking her mouth when she has ‘tasted’ it on something I told her not to chew. Lol.
She has a literal ton of energy so I walk her daily. That works for both of us, especially in New Years resolution month.
Your puppy may be helped by some of these. Don’t give up. Please.
Puppies do grow up. I promise. With each of my dogs who came to me young, abandoned or formerly abused, there were nights I cried myself to sleep thinking what the heck had I gotten into. I had to keep reminding myself that young or old, my home was a new and scary experience for them. And with every dog, they became the best dog I ever had. Every. Single. Time.
I had one older dog I found sick and abandoned and it was a very, very hard road to get her to trust me. She had lived outside and on her own for a long time. She wasn’t house trained, was grouchy and hated everyone and everything. But eventually she came out from under my kitchen table, let me pet her, and became the most joyful creature on God’s green Earth. She woke up every single day ecstatic with her new life. I was blessed to have her for two years before she passed and we buried her in my backyard with a UGA jersey on and the word “Blessed” written on the back. Its been almost ten years and I still miss that sweet girl.
Don’t give up on your puppy. Don’t give up on your older, problem dog. They will, with love and patience, become your best dog ever.