A dog is for life, not just for Christmas
There is a much bigger picture associated to pet ownership. It certainly has its ups and downs.
Buying a dog as a Christmas or birthday gift is never a good idea, unless you can wholeheartedly commit to offering the animal a forever home, where it will be loved, cherished and all of its needs attended to.
There is a much bigger picture associated to pet ownership. It certainly has its ups and downs. Puppies may be cute but they are hard work. They need to be potty trained and there will be lots of ‘oopsies’ in the house before your four-legged friend learns where it can and cannot go to the toilet.
Remember that there will always be poop, A LOT of poop. Your garden will need to be cleaned and if your dog does an ‘oopsie’ in a public place, you better have poop bags at the ready to clean it up.
There will undoubtedly be chewing – lots of it. Puppies are inquisitive and figure out a lot of things by having a nibble. Also, as their teeth grow, they go through phases of chewing, just like a child that is teething. You will need to have lots of toys and chews available for your dog to experiment with – otherwise it will be your shoes, furniture, socks and panties!
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Your dogs need to be injected annually with a common vaccine, called a ‘5-in-1’ against ailments such as distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis, parvovirus and parainfluenza.
Canine parvovirus is a highly contagious viral disease that can produce a life-threatening illness with common symptoms such as lethargy, severe vomiting, loss of appetite and foul-smelling diarrhoea.
The puppy must have its first vaccination at 5-6 weeks old and then two further injections at 3-4 week intervals thereafter. An annual ‘booster’ is also required to protect your dog from the above mentioned illnesses. Further to this, your dog will need to be regularly de-wormed and given protection against ticks and fleas.
Your responsibility does not stop there, it is highly advisable to get your dog neutered or spayed. Female dogs that aren’t spayed go into season or into heat approximately every six months. This can be a real annoyance to pet owners and to all other pets in the household.
The heat cycle for a female dog lasts about three weeks. While she is in heat your dog will be constantly releasing pheromones which will attract all the male dogs in your neighbourhood. Male dogs that have not been neutered will become aggressive and have been known to dig and jump fences to mate.
Read: Tango talks Tzaneen: It’s time to neuter your pets folks!
Your dogs need daily exercise and socialising them with other dogs is a great way for them to burn some energy and learn some doggy etiquette.
Remember that once you own a dog, your life will change. Overnight trips to a friend’s house are no longer as simple and certainly vacations aren’t – you will need to consider your dog and make a plan to put them in a boarding kennels or organise a reliable pet sitter. Leaving them in your yard and expecting someone to check on them once a day is not an option.
A dog needs to become part of the family and considered as such.
Dog ownership is an enormous responsibility and all of the above needs to be considered before you buy or adopt a dog. There is financial, emotional, and time commitment associated with owning any pet.
The joys of owning a dog are countless. There are few things in life that bring as much partnership and companionship – your dog will love you, no matter what. They are not known as man’s best friend for nothing, they just simply seem to ‘get it’ and seem to know us better than we know ourselves.
If you haven’ experienced the utter joy of dog ownership then you are missing out – it is wonderful and refreshing to wake every single day to a creature that is so enthusiastic about starting the day, an animal that doesn’t think about tomorrow, the should have’s, the would have’s or the could have’s.
We can learn a lot from about life from our four-legged friends.
