100 Things I Want To Teach My Daughter~
#65 Own a Dog while raising your family
Dear Fox, one of the best things we did while raising you and your brother was owning a family dog!
Harley was initially all for me, I had wanted a yellow lab my whole life. My god, I thought those labs were angels on earth. I couldn't wait to own one. My dream came true in 1998, March 7th we got the call that our litter of pups were born. Originally I wanted a girl, but in the litter there was only 2 girls and both had been spoken for long before we put our name down for one of the pups.
We were given the option for boy, I had never owned a boy dog before...how different could it be?
I remember you were just over one years old, Braden was 4 and we had a new 8 week old puppy. Thankfully I believe when we got him home things were stable. I don't think Braden ended up in the hospital so we had some time with Harley as a family and we bonded with him. The breeder sat me down and gave me these words of wisdom. Words that have stayed with me all the way until we got Ella and then it all went to shit. lol
She told me, being a young mom with a lot on our plate to always remember Harley is a dog. He is a part of our family but teach him to be independent. He needs to learn to be on his own. SO crate training began with him. That's not something we did with any other dog, even growing up my parents never crate trained.
The first two weeks were hell, we put him in a crate, in the basement far away from the family for 6 hours a night. Awful right?
In all honesty, it was the smartest thing we ever did. When I needed him to get out from under my feet let me tell you that crate was a god send. So my dearest girl, when you have your own puppy someday as hard as it may be...please crate train your dog.
I remember taking him out for his last pee every night at 12am and then dad or I would get up between 5-6am for the first month or so. We get him up take him out for a pee and most times stay up from there. If I were to do it again, we should have walked him at 12am and then again at 6am it would have tired him and then we could have probably gone back to bed for a few hours.
Eventually Harley joined dad and I in the bed, he would sleep at the bottom. I loved that, he was such a comfort.
Not only was Harley the best thing in the world for me, he was the best dog for you kids. He LOVED you kids. You could see it in the way he looked at you. He knew exactly where to sit every meal time. Right at the floor of your highchair, and he also knew who to follow around when you had a cookie or treat.
We truly believe a happy home owns a dog, I couldn't imagine not ever having a yellow lab in our lives.
The purpose of this blog space is too leave to you all the words of wisdom or life lessons that I have learned over my life. I hope to have 100 Things to teach my daughter finished and left to you so someday you can read through this and have some laughs and possibly even some tears~
To finish off this post fox, when the day comes that have your own Harley my advice would be to start and end each day with a quick walk. Before your day begins, grab the leash and take your dog out for a walk. I promise you it will make your day and his begin much brighter~
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