Tales of a New Home With A New Pandemic Puppy
What was I thinking?
We recently bought a brand new home. While it was under construction, I selected all the cabinets, sparkling granite countertops, gleaming plumbing fixtures, new carpet, antique tile floors, and site-finished hardwood floors. The builder did a great job, and before I knew it I was at the closing table being handed the keys to my new newly built pristine home.
Soon after I moved in, the Covid Pandemic hit the U.S. and I began working from home. It was glorious! No more early mornings, fighting traffic, or huge bills to fill up my gas tank each week!
I was eating out for lunch too often and spending too much money at Starbucks. Suddenly there were no more late nights or missed dinners with my family. What’s not to love?
(Crickets.)
Well working from home came with a few side effects. I wasn’t getting out of the house much or seeing actual people regularly. I sometimes went days without speaking to anyone other than through text or email. The peace and quiet started getting to me. The solution (of course) was to get a puppy!
(Oh boy.)
A new puppy in a brand new home is a recipe for disaster. While he is absolutely adorable, he is a p-u-p-p-y.
He chews on everything! My gorgeous floor-to-ceiling window sills, the hand-selected painted cabinets, my carefully selected furniture. Even my backyard isn’t safe as he digs holes everywhere. I think my puppy has even developed a personal vendetta against the stainless steel dishwasher. If he’s not licking it, he’s headbutting it for making offending noises.
(Help me.)
Luckily I’m a super easy-going person who doesn’t mind a few scrapes and dents along the way. Well, that’s not really true. I’m a little OCD about cleanliness. Because of that, I had to come up with a few sanity savers for my Pandemic Puppy’s behavior.
1. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
Hardwood floors are easy to clean! That’s why I paid the big bucks to have them installed. Keep the doors closed to all carpeted bedrooms so your puppy is limited to all the hard surface, easy to clean areas.
2. Contain the mess.
The pet food bowl is hands down the messiest place in my home. I keep my pet station in the laundry room. Find an out of the way area with tile or vinyl flooring to keep the unsightly stuff tucked away or behind closed doors.
3. Check the dirt at the door.
If you want to stop dirt and mud from making their way into your home, get a few durable doormats. Not only will they keep humans from tracking clean floors, but they will also give your puppy a routine place to stop and wipe down before coming indoors.
4. Invest in a robot. It’s a constant battle to contain dog hair! Purchase a robot vacuum and set it to automatically run every day. If you are spending three hours each week sweeping up hair, that’s 156 hours a year, and 65 days over the next ten years. Maybe it’s worth the investment?
5. Go To School.
There are plenty of great canine training courses online. However, in-person puppy classes offer great socialization opportunities for your pet! Puppy kindergarten is a great opportunity for your pet to learn good manners cues from other pets while you are potty training, learning new commands, and correcting bad behavior.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Preparation and patience are the keys to dealing with a new puppy in your new home. Be sure to repair destruction when it happens. It’s easier to fix little things along the way than a long list of damages that accumulate over time. Enjoying your new home AND creating a lifetime of memories with your new puppy should be priority one.
