Had a severe case of puppy blues - it does get better!

Almost a month ago, me and my fiancé adopted a shelter puppy. We were talking about a getting a dog for quite some time and we felt like this was the best time to do it. His mother was some kind of a spitz-type dog, we know nothing about his father (but we now have our suspicion that he might have been a border collie or at least a mix of border collie and something).

My puppy blues started even before picking him up. My fiancé kept reassuring me that everything will be okay. It wasn’t. The first two weeks, I only felt like I was unfit to be a dog owner (even though my family have had dogs for my whole life). I felt like I was failing my puppy. Everything bad that happened, eg. him almost eating a chewing gum or a dog launching at us and scaring the shit out of him, happened when he was with me. The biting was terrible. On top of that, I didn’t know how to play with him. I felt like I didn’t love him (or even like him) enough. Everybody kept telling me how cute he is, I only found him annoying. It felt like the worst decision I have ever made. I kept begging my fiancé to bring him back. I felt like he would have been better without me.

Writing this almost three weeks later, let me tell you: it got so much better! Does he still bite the living shit out of us? Yes, sometimes he does! I do get overwhelmed. I do cry. But I have learned to celebrate the small wins.

For example, he loves to play tug-of-war with me. This way, he learned the “drop it” command. I use it when he bites my hand and it just started working! He also learned to settle in his pen and cage. I also realized that my whole day doesn’t have to revolve around him. I can leave him in the pen even if I don’t need him to sleep, so I can make myself a coffee or lunch. The best thing? He doesn’t really care! He now knows that he can entertain himself.

Yes, we are currently struggling with trimming his nails - but he let me trim two of them today without any issue! We are also still scared to leave out flat and leave him alone, but leaving him alone when we are home, not spending every minute of our day with him, still counts as progress, right?

I have to admit, I am still having a hard time dealing with the fact that he doesn’t like being touched so we can’t really pet him or cuddle with him. He likes to stay near us but that’s it. A few days ago, my friend visited and he let her pet him for quite some time and has been waggling his tail the whole time. Needless to say, that made me cry! But this morning, he just came to me and played with his toys in my lap. And that made me incredibly happy!

I know some days (maybe even tommorow!) will be very hard. But now I also know that I DO love this puppy. I see the progress he has made since we brought him home.

So believe me, it does get better!