Harold Nagini. He brings joy to my heart every single day. He’s my own personal hot water bottle and his big gorgeous eyes break my heart constantly. He’s so sweet tempered and very funny. But he also really likes to have his own way. He also doesn’t really like the rain, which is a slight problem as we live somewhere that is constantly rainy.
So here’s a more in depth look on how the first month of puppy ownership has gone. (As a side note, I grew up with two energetic mini schnauzers so I’m somewhat used to puppies)
-
- The first few nights are hell. Puppies get taken away from everything they know so it makes sense that they freak out. Harold cried pretty much all night long the first 3 nights. We are crate training Harold, so we kept him in our room at first just to help him feel more comfortable.
- It took about a week and a half for Harold to start sleeping solidly. Before that he’d wake up and cry pretty much every single hour. Sam and I were both at our wits end a week and a half in but something just clicked with Harold and he started sleeping. It was beautiful. Now he *mostly* sleeps through the night but likes to wake everyone up around 5 am.
- When Harold gets over-excited or over-tired he starts getting nippy. Most of them are gentle puppy bites, but occasionally he’d nip hard enough to draw blood. It’s normal puppy behaviour so we got used to carrying around chew toys to swap them out for us when he gets nippy and to also give him some time alone when he gets like that.
- Harold loves to play fetch. You’d think that it would be too much for a dog so small but he loves it.
- He doubled in size in the first two weeks. It was a mighty thing to behold. At 3 months old now, he’s much bigger than he was when we first met him!
- Toilet training….. We’ve tried. Actual results are fairly non-existent. Though it’s to be expected as dachshunds are supposed to be the most stubborn breed to potty train.
- Harold gets excited to meet new people and see new things. Waiting for his second puppy vaccinations to kick in was difficult for him (and for us) because we could tell that he was so excited to get out and explore the world.
- He is SO good with children.
- On that note, you might be surprised that dachshunds love walks and exercise. In fact, it’s super important for them to get enough of them both for their backs to be healthy. (They are prone to really hurting their backs so strengthening those muscles is key to trying to avoid later back problems.)
- His favourite things to chew are my slippers. I can’t even wear them in front of them at the moment. They make him feral.
- He loves attention, it’s his absolute favourite thing.
- He also loves to just sniff around the house. Dachshunds are in the hound family and when he puts his nose to the ground you can really see it!
- Harold loves to sleep on a person. Chests are his favourite thing to lie on, but he’ll settle for laps.
- He’ll eat anything and everything. He’s food crazy!
- He loved Lindsay so much. In fact, she made him so happy that every time he saw her he weed himself with excitement.
So that’s how that crazy guy Harold has been. No matter how naughty he’s been, when he looks at me with his big puppy eyes my heart just melts.
How do you feel about puppies? Or are you more of a cat person?
