- One of these Nova Scotia duck tolling retrievers will be ours in May. Sure, puppies are so cute and fuzzy. But the term fur baby should be banned. (Handout/Kalmegess Kennels)
This preparing for puppy to arrive business feels a lot like we’re having a baby.
But rather than reading What to Expect When You’re Expecting, I’ve had my nose buried in Cesar Millan books.
My boyfriend and I went to a few pet stores to check out dog food, crates and leashes when I saw a photo of a smiley Labrador retriever wearing what looked like Huggies. That’s when I realized I was looking at a box of doggy diapers. Huh?
It doesn’t stop there. Since then I’ve spotted blue and pink pet strollers and doggy bassinets.
It really does seem like welcoming a puppy to the family is the closest thing to giving birth these days.
My boyfriend’s mom jokes with her friends and says she’s going to be a grandmother.
After all of the congratulations are given, she tells them her son is getting a bouncing Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever.
A friend of mine upon hearing the news congratulated us on our soon-to-arrive “fur baby.”
No phrase has made me shudder more.
I refuse to buy doggy doo-doo diapers, a stroller or a bassinet for the dog. Our dog will be just that, a dog. A dog that we’ll love to pieces and not treat like a human baby.
As Cesar Millan writes in How to Raise the Perfect Dog, “Although puppies may seem like wordless human beings to us, the truth is, puppies are dogs first.”
“By pampering our growing dogs as if they were helpless babies—carrying them like purses, indulging their every whim, allowing them the kinds of liberties we would never allow a growing child—we thwart their progress from the very start,” the Dog Whisperer writes.
We’ll just see if I can keep the baby talk and cheek pinching to a minimum when the puppy actually arrives!
Categories: General
Please don’t throw the dog out when your human baby arrives. The usual excuse, allergies, is not believed by anyone.