I’m exhausted. Aimi is exhausted. Puppies are exhausting.
When we got home Daito found everything new and interesting. Slowly and inquisitively padding around checking it out. It was very cute. Then he peed, and that was the pattern for a while.
We suddenly became very aware that a puppy has little to no bladder control. This meant that unless you paid rigorous attention to his body movements and when he last drank, you would end up with a puppy puddle in the house. It became a sort of cardio exercise game, crossed with divination. You knew it was coming, so you’d better be close by to spot it to scoop him up to take him outside before it happened. We literally took it in turns following and playing with him, making life fun and positive for his first days, while never being more than a short lunge out of reach.
Its exhausting
I’m probably going to get some stick for this, having never been a parent to a human baby. But I suspect that a puppy is more work at 8 weeks old than a human. Human babies just sit there, produce a range of fluids and scream. Whereas a puppy is bombing about the house nipping everything in sight with his needle sharp pointy teeth. Or going from one toy to the next ragging it about and squeaking it to death before moving on. Or tearing around the garden, climbing in and out of the flowers, rolling all over and chewing them, or mud, or sticks, or shoes… I can only imagine it’s like your grandparents returning home a 3 year old toddler after a day at the fair, full of cola and candy floss, buzzing with sugar so hard they are physically vibrating. At least with a toddler it’s taken a couple years getting to that point. You’ve had some practice and know what to do. Whereas bringing home a puppy is zero to full throttle (sometimes you contemplate that literally…) without any build up.
I thought, being a paper pusher, the days of being on my knees were over, but they aren’t, and they are raw. I’ve got a bad knee anyway which crunches like gravel in the rain every day, but that’s nothing compared to the skin on my knees. They are as red and raw as the knees of a hooker the day the navy comes home!
I’ve also managed to go thru 2 pairs of jeans. They weren’t good jeans, I’ve had them for ages, but they were comfortably worn in. Now, the knees are worn thru and holey, they smell of puppy and dog biscuits, and we are only a couple days into dog ownership!
We have realized that very quickly, that Daito (pronounced die-toe) is quite a close sounding name to Kayto. Until this day whenever we had shouted something Kayto responded, most of the time. Now he’s getting a little confused as it’s not always him we are commanding. Dogs are meant to have excellent hearing, so that name should be fine right? Well it wil have tol be, because it’s a cool name that means Long Sword. It should be helped by Kayto going deaf. That, or he is just persistently ignoring us, which is definitely a possibility. Either way, if shouting for one, brings them both back, that’s efficient dog ownership!
The first 48 hours
This little terror won’t stop. He’s 100 mph almost the whole day. It’s never ending! Like someone has come home with a toddler filled to the eyebrows with sherbet and cola, there is no off switch!
I’ve managed to get about 2 hours of work done in 2 whole days. Its just constant playing and correcting and exposing him to the house and area bit by bit. Let alone the state of tension we have been living in waiting to see if and when he will pee in the house.
Its exhausting.
I’m laying here barely awake, desperately trying to write before my eyes just close by themselves….
