What am I doing up?

It's 4:30am and I'm up. I didn't even get to bed until after midnight and it took a while to fall asleep because all I could think about was what I'd have to do if I got a dog/puppy today. I know I've potty trained 3 other dogs but for the life of me I can't remember how I did it. LOL It must not have been too traumatic since I am not scarred by the event. I'm concerned about weather moving in Sunday night. It's supposed to get cold and drizzly or snowy. Looks like Tuesday won't even get out of the teens. A little puppy will have a hard time going out in that. I also was just thinking about David waking up in the morning and waking up the dog. If it's a puppy it will probably need to go out right away which means I'll be up and out that time of the morning. I've never acquired a dog in the winter months before. It's more to think about. We got all of our dogs between April and August. It makes it a lot easier to potty train a puppy when it's warmer out.

I'm going to have to think long and hard about getting a puppy this time of year. Beside the cold to deal with there is the dark too. I don't want to be chasing a puppy in the dark. I'd lose sight of Harley completely when he was out when it was dark. The puppy pen would help with that. Just lots of logistical things to consider.

I'm not completely ready for a dog either. I need more Kongs and chew toys. I only have 1 Kong right now. I'll have to pick up about 3 of them today if we end up getting a puppy. We'll also need to get a collar and leash, food and water bowl. I'll be hand feeding some of the time so she can get used to me. I want her to know that everything comes from me (food, water, shelter). I do have a lot of stuff on the way though. I bought $110 worth of stuff on Amazon with the AGC's I earned through Swagbucks. My final total, that I paid out of pocket, was $3.68!! Not bad. I think things may start arriving today (the order was split into 3 orders). I also have some treats coming. I need those to put in the Kongs and toys. Mostly she'll be getting kibble for training treats and rewards. I'll set aside her daily portion and only use that much each day. I don't want to start out by overfeeding her.

This is all hypothetical of course since I don't even have a dog yet. LOL We've thought about a name too. Her formal name will be Blue Bayou. That will honor the Blue Tick Coonhound in her and the Catahoula side too. On a day to day basis though we'll call her Bayou. That will be fun.

Now watch, we'll either come home empty handed or with a male, senior dog after all this "planning" for a female puppy. LOL I have a medium sized plastic kennel ready for transport. It has a towel in it and a tiny Kong. It's a red Kong not a baby one. If we get a puppy I'll probably buy a baby one. Harley loved his baby Dong (until he was old enough to start eating it, silly boy). That's one of the difficult things, getting chew toys that don't get destroyed all the time. The Kongs and Busy Buddy stuff is pretty long lasting. It's the plastic and plush stuff that doesn't always last. Following tradition we'll be getting an AKC plush toy for the little bugger. They have to have something to sleep with now don't they?

I know the puppy years are hard work and trying but it eventually does get a whole lot better. I want to make sure she's well socialized in this next month so we'll have to somehow get people to come to the house to meet Bayou. She can't be around other puppies until she's had all her shots but she could be around older dogs. After she does have all her shots I'll be taking her everywhere with me. She'll get to meet lots of people at the PetsMart, PetCo and Lowe's. Then she'll be in puppy class which will help with socialization with people and other dogs. I can start walking her around the neighborhood to meet the neighbors and their dogs. I want her to be well socialized and learn bite inhibition from the get go.

She's going to become a chewtoyaholic. She won't need to bother with anything else because she'll have her toys to chew on. She'll also be house trained pretty quick if I am consistent with her. We're going to work really hard on bite inhibition this time around. The first time she bites we'll be yelping so she knows it's not okay. I don't want to go through what I did with Harley biting me.

I'm not sure how old she would have to be to begin training with Sit Means Sit but I don't want her becoming a monster and needing Sit Means Sit so I want to be proactive. I'm not going to just let things go and get worse by the day like I did with Harley. I'm going to work on things from the second we get her. I also want David to be more involved in the raising of the puppy too. He likes to play with the puppy but he doesn't always help with the not so fun stuff (feeding, potty breaks, training). That will be different with this dog. I already have a book with 101 tricks in it that I'm going to teach the puppy. From sit to who knows what. The trick training will give her something to look forward to. So, we'll have obedience training, trick training and pretty much from the start some agility training. I'm going to have David make some agility equipment from PVC pipe. It looks pretty simple to make so I'll be able to help him do it. I want this puppy working all day so it's tired out at night. I want to keep it's mind and body active all it's waking hours either with obedience, training, agility, playing with chew toys and playing with us.

I think I'm going to go back to bed for a few hours. I'll probably just lie there thinking about all this stuff but hopefully I'll be able to sleep a little bit. It's going to be in the mid 50's today so it will be a nice drive up to Monument (the PetsMart on Jackson Creek Parkway, 11am - 2pm). I'm hoping we'll have a really fun ride home with a puppy in the car (in a crate of course). Okay off to bed I go.