Sign-up for our email Newsletter

There's More...

There's more to this site! Scroll down and click "View Web Version" to see the whole site. Go to bottom of the page for a list of posts or look in sidebar >> Please excuse the ads that keep this site free !

Find More Lessons and Articles

To see all the dog training posts (Over 260 pages)
Scroll down the page for the most popular titles and look in the right sidebar for links to all the posts .

SEARCH Family Disaster Dogs 260+ pages

Friday, September 27, 2019

Things To Consider Before Bringing A Dog Into Your Home

If you are your family have been thinking about bringing a dog into your home, you need to have gone through everything on this list first. All of these considerations need to be taken into account before you can bring a four legged little friend into your home. If you don’t do this, you are going to end up with issues that you can’t fix, and then you are going to have to say goodbye to your dog. You aren’t going to want this to happen, and as such, you need to consider all of these things before you go and search for a puppy.


Is Your Home Ready?


The first thing that we are going to look at is whether or not your home is ready to accommodate a dog. There needs to be enough space for it to walk around, with somewhere for it to sleep if you aren’t going to allow it to sleep on the bed. As well as this, your dog is going to need to be able to play whether it is inside the house or outside so there needs to be enough room for them to get a bit silly.

You’ve got to have enough room for them to play with their favorite toys, or else they are not going to be happy in the home. Yes, you need to take your dog on a walk, but that doesn’t mean that they are just going to head to sleep for the entire rest of the day.

Do You Have Young Children?

A lot of dogs are fine with young children, but some seem to take a disliking to them. We are not saying that if you have a young child, then you shouldn’t get a dog because this is absolutely not the case, but it does mean that you should think about it before you commit. You should also think about the size of the dog if you do decide to get one. Larger dogs tend to be more protective, but it is going to be easier for them to knock your small one over by accident. This is not 100% going to happen, and there are plenty of families with large dogs and young children, it is just something to think about.

Buy Or Rescue?

Source Location - CC0 Licence
You are then going to need to think about whether you want to buy or rescue the dog that you are getting. If you are looking for puppies for sale, then you could take a look at Chocolatelabradorretriever.ca's site.Go through these, find the one that looks like it could be the perfect addition to your new family, and then head to the location to meet it. A lot of the time, these are still going to be puppies, so make sure you remember this when they are jumping at you and full of enthusiasm.

Do You Have A Garden or Fenced Yard?

Above, we said that your dog is going to need somewhere inside to play, and while this is true, they are also going to need an outside area to play in. You cannot just count on that one hour walk that you go on every day to be enough exercise. They are going to need to run around, chase after balls and so on to make sure that they are staying fit. For this reason, you need to think about whether or not you have a garden, and if not, is the puppy going to get to run free often enough?

Who Is Going To Walk It?

As well as this, you need to know who is going to walk it every day. Having a puppy is a big responsibility, and you need to be able to take the best care of it possible. Part of this is making sure that there is always someone around to walk the dog, once in the morning and then once again before it is time to go to bed. This will tire them out so that they have a good night of sleep, and then they will be fully rested for a new day of mischief tomorrow.

If you don’t think that there is going to be anyone who is able to look after your dog, then we do not recommend getting one. The simple reason for this is that without their daily walk, your dog's muscles can start to seize up, and then they are going to cause them pain. Seeing your dog in pain is going to be the last thing that you want, so ensure that you are taking every possible measure to get them at least one walk per day.

Can You Afford It?

Location of Link - CC0 Licence 
The big question is, are you going to be able to afford a puppy? Now, the reason that we are asking this is that it is not as simple as to pay a one off payment to the owner, become the owner and that’s that, no more money on the dog. Your dog is going to need food, and depending on what brand you get, this can be expensive. You then need to think about getting pet insurance in case they hurt themselves at any point. You don’t want to be standing there with a 900 bill that you can’t pay because the dog is not insured.

Further than this, you have all of the nappy sacks that you are going to need to pick up their poo. You are also going to need to think about whether or not you are going to be able to pay all of the other bills that come with having a dog. This is going to include taking them to the vet to have their immunizations done, buying them food, buying them toys and treats, and so on. There is so much stuff that you are going to have to buy and pay our for, so you need to be sure that you can afford this before you commit.

Is There Someone To Look After It?

Finally, is there going to be someone around to look after the dog all the time? Obviously, is you are going to leave the dog alone for one hour every now, and then this won’t be a huge problem, but if you are planning on going out for like three or four hours per day and not taking the dog with you, then you are going to have a big problem. Your dog will then start acting out for attention by causing havoc across your home and destroying things. To combat this, you just need to make sure that there is someone at home to look after your friend when you go out.

This doesn’t need to be someone with tonnes of experience either. If your kids are old enough, then they are going to be able to do this while they are not at school, and someone else can take over when they are. Like we said, it doesn’t necessarily matter who you leave at home, as long as the dog knows that they have not been abandoned and they are not on their own. This is going to be especially important if you have a rescue.

We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now know what some of the things to consider are before you bring a dog into your home. Good luck, and we hope that your new friend is everything  you hoped and more.



Featured Lesson

Tips and How to Evacuate with Your Dogs Help

 How to Evacuate with Your Dog's Help click above to see my book! If you live in an area that is prone to natural disasters, such as hur...

Author Amber Higgins

Author Amber Higgins
Click Pic to Visit my author page

Advertising Disclosure

Disclosure: Some of the links on this site are affiliate links that I have reviewed and approved. Additionally links to products such as at Amazon are products I have personally used. Affiliate links means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. The proceeds earned are not much and used to keep this Family Disaster Dogs website free to the public. Thank you for your support.

Welcome UK and Worldwide Visitors

Welcome UK and worldwide visitors and friends to Family Disaster Dogs online! Although I'm an American author and dog professional the worldwide web has given me the opportunity to connect with some wonderful folks who have contributed pictures for my books. The "Start Mantrailing" book features RRI K9 North Scotland trained Search and Rescue Dog "Amber" on the cover and her teammates training in the book, plus American dogs using my training methods. A portion of sales of the Start Mantrailing book or copies were donated to RRI North Scotland. The children's picture book "My Puppy Can Find Me" has my daughter and bloodhound as illustrations by UK cartoonist Scotty King. You can find the books on Amazon UK or use the contact page to order from me. When you click the links will take you to your own county pages of this site.

Popular Posts

Past Posts and Lessons

To see all the lessons and dog care articles on this site:

Look at the dates listed in the sidebar to the right and below, click one date to bring up all the articles and lessons published at this site in one page for each date.

There are well over 250 pages that have been published here at Family Disaster Dogs since 2011.

New lessons or dog care articles continue to be posted weekly.

The list is the easiest way to find all the information here.

Enjoy the search and follow that dog!

Help Keep Free Books Free for everyone-Donate Today!

Read and Review my books on Goodreads

Family Disaster Dogs

Purchases from affiliate links help Keep Family Disaster Dogs Site Free!

Check this deal out and support us! These products on amazon sell fast!

https://amzn.to/3U4siv6