Almost Puppy Time

I cannot believe it is almost time for the new puppy to get here!

Granted I have been planning on the puppy for a long while now, but it is exciting that it is so soon.

He is being flown into the Denver sometime on July 26th. I know we are not getting the red collar puppy (see puppies here) and we are probably not getting the orange collar, since the breeder mentioned someone was leaning towards that one. So that leaves the blue or the black collar. They are all so cute, so I don't really care. She also said none of the puppies are overly or under energetic, so that's good.

The preparations for the second puppy are definitely smaller than the first one, but there are still some logistics to figure out.

I just found out last week that I have a training for work Wednesday and Thursday right after we get the puppy, and Dylan has no PTO left on account of the wedding, so the first two days the puppy arrives will be a little less involved then I would like. I am off that Friday and Monday, so I will get four days straight hanging out with him (and Goosie gets back in town that weekend!).

Our main concern is Freya and the puppy. She loves dogs, but she does love getting attention. I have no doubts they will get on fine, but the first two days the puppy arrives is not exactly my preference for leaving the two of them alone together. I think we will keep new puppy in the kitchen (we have a gate from having Freya as a puppy) with a lot of puppy pads and toys and food. My cousin and his girlfriend will relatively be home, but I don't want them to be obligated to take care of the puppy and I'm also kind of selfish in wanting him to bond with us more. So Dylan will come home in the middle of the day to take him out those first two days.

I really think he will take quickly to the doggie door though. My parents second dog has never made a mess in the house (and we got her when she was 8 weeks) since she always followed the older dog around. I think after the first week we will probably just seclude both dogs to the downstairs and off the carpeted areas.

The other thing to work out is sleeping. Right now Freya sleeps on our bed. We don't want her to sleep on our bed once we get the puppy. This is in part because we don't want the puppy on the bed. Obviously we don't want a mess on the bed and also because letting a dog sleep on the bed can make them think they are equals with you. That is also why we don't want Freya on the bed. I just re-read Puppies for Dummies and the sections on adding another dog talk about allowing them to set up their own hierarchy. We should not interfere with who is the leader. Having one dog on the bed and another not on the bed would not help with that system. We had Freya sleeping on our floor, first in her kennel (which she is not a fan of) and then she just slept under the bed. We epically failed at making her sleep in the bathroom, so I don't think we will even both trying to put him in the bathroom. I feel like Freya would be just as bad as him with whining (also my concern with locking him in the kitchen, ah well). I think we will try having him sleep on the floor.

It will be a very interesting transition but I am looking forward to introducing our new addition!