Oh sh*t, we're getting a puppy

I'm currently enjoying the last two days of quiet. My kids are in school. My work is done. I don't have any clients today, and I'm doing some administrative housekeeping (for the biz AND the house, of course). This weekend, all that will change. We're getting a puppy. Ok I hear all of you snickering saying, "What's the big deal? You're a dog trainer!" Oh I'll tell you what the big deal is. Being a dog trainer doesn't mean I won't have a tiny little animal with razor sharp teeth running around and causing havoc in my mostly un-puppy-proofed, messy but at-least-there's-usually-no-poop-on-the-floor home. Being a dog trainer doesn't mean my kids aren't going to do all the wrong things, because human nature suggests that you jump up and run and scream when a puppy is relentlessly chewing on you. Being a dog trainer doesn't mean we're not adopting a new baby who will likely keep us up all night, which is ironic since our toddler has finally given us some peace and quiet so we can get some much needed sleep.

Well, I AM a dog trainer, I know all of the terror that we are in for, and yet we're doing it anyway. Why? Because dogs are the best, and every family should have one. Despite all of their flaws (especially in puppy-hood), they're cute, they're silly, and they're fun.

I should back up. My name is Samantha. I live in the suburbs with my family, a wonderful husband and two little girls, 3 and 5.5. I've been a dog trainer for a short number of years, after the world of fundraising held little interest anymore and I wanted to spend more time raising my kids. I've only had one dog in my life, Buster Blue. He was a sharpei-pointer mutt, adorable, sweet to his family, and our first baby. He was also paralyzed by anxiety and stress every day, all the time. It became apparent after moving to the 'burbs that he was suffering so much in our home, reacting violently to every sound and movement outside of the house. About 2.5 years ago, we moved Buster to a farm, away from all the stress that was killing him. It was probably the hardest thing we ever had to do, but my husband and I knew that he was suffering too much with us.

Our kids were extra little at the time, so we knew that taking on a puppy would be more than we could handle. But hey, now they're just a *little* bigger, so let's do this. How do you prepare for such a thing? I'm what you would call type A. I'm a bit of a control freak. I have lists and plans and equipment all over the house to get ready for the scheduling and management a new puppy needs. I have tried to prepare my girls about what a puppy will mean for our family - the good AND the bad. My husband suggested that starting a blog about the new puppy's antics and my own mis-steps might be therapeutic as we move through the day-to-day. I am medicated. So what's left???

Not much! Let's do this. Oliver, here we come!