So I'm Getting a Puppy...

[Neuqua]

I have never had a pet in my life. Correction, I had a goldfish named "Jordan" when I was about 7-8 years old, but he died within a couple weeks so he doesn't really count. I have always wanted a small puppy, but my parents weren't obliging. As a young teenager, my father was attacked by a stray and required 15 stitches across his stomach and so understandably is frightened to death by them. Whenever my brother or I even slightly inquired about getting a dog, my father would shoot down the idea before we had even finished our sentence.

Times have changed now however. Now that I'm 22 years old, I am taking on the responsibility myself of fulfilling a little dream of mine that I have had as long as I can remember.

When telling my peers of my decision, it caught them slightly by surprise. I never particularly proclaimed to be a dog lover by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, big dogs tend to intimidate me a bit. A friend of mine adopted a Lab and while when he was young I found him adorable, just merely a few months later I tended to steer clear of it's path.

The purpose of this ongoing thread will be to showcase my triumphs and struggles as I try to first find the right puppy for me, and then raise him from the minute I bring him home. I will make mistakes (hopefully not too many) and this will undoubtedly be a learning process all throughout. I know that many here at FOFC have dogs and puppies of their own and I am hoping I can be the beneficiary of any advice you all may have for me.

In the end, what I hope to acheive is a written record of my relationship with my soon-to-be best friend so I can look back one day and remember past experiences and just how much of a pain in the ass the little guy was.

And now, I shall begin my story...

**DISCLAIMER** This story has already been in progress over the past couple weeks, and a puppy has been chosen. I'm telling everyone this so they don't accidentally feel like they may convince me to purchase a certain breed over another. **DISCLAIMER**

[wade moore]

As a bit of a dog-freak myself, I look forward to this!

[GoldenEagle]

I hope you decided to adopt and not purchase.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by GoldenEagle

I hope you decided to adopt and not purchase.

Don't make me rehash this debate....

[Neuqua]

After deciding for myself that I was going to own a puppy, my next step in the journey was to research as much as I could on all the different breeds and decide for myself which would suit me best.

Right off the bat, I knew that whatever breed I would eventually come home with, would reach a peak weight of no more than 30 lbs or so nor would he be a big dog in height. While I fell in love with Marley from Marley and Me just as much as the next reader, I knew that a dog of his stature would have his way with me right off the bat. He would sense that I could be intimidated and that would become a huge hurdle in him recognizing me as the pack leader as our relationship grew.

My initial reaction was to go to local pet stores to familiarize myself with the different breeds and interact with them to see if anything in particular would jump out at me.

Now let me preface and let everyone breath a sigh of relief when I say I had 0 intentions of buying from a pet store. I had done my fair bit of research and realized that purchasing a puppy from a pet store was not a good idea.

After my initial round of visits, I caught myself drawn mostly to little dachshunds and . In fact, my favorite puppy I saw was both a dachshun/beagle mix. If not for my knowledge of puppymills, I might have gotten the little guy right then and there! But alas, it wasn't meant to happen. I did make a couple return trips however to visit "Lucky" (the name I had come up with for the little guy) and enjoyed my 10 minute play sessions in little confined spaces. Only because of my stubborness can I say that this thread is not based on him.

However, after asking the staff more about dachshunds and beagles, I decided at that point that those would be the main breeds I would look into. Dachshunds, beagles, and actually also Shiba Inu's. I'm a huge fan, and always have been of huskies (heck, last year I was a Huskie while I attended NIU!) but know I could never handle a dog as big as one. However, a friend and I on a regular visit to Petco, asked a couple about what looked like their mini-husky and they told us that she was in fact a Shiba Inu. They explained that the dog was a rather rare breed and one that originated in Japan. I thought it was a very slick dog and something I could see myself with eventually.

Now confident that I had a decent grasp of what kind of dog I was going to look for, I decided to begin the search for the particular dog was to start. The plan; Animal rescues, shelters, and reputable breeders.

[wade moore]

Sounds like a good start to the search. Good thing you prefaced this with "don't give me breed recommendations" cause I would have ...

[Neuqua]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Sounds like a good start to the search. Good thing you prefaced this with "don't give me breed recommendations" cause I would have ...

I figured as much. I've actually been itching to write about this for a while now but haven't really had the time. I am glad someone out there finds it even remotely interesting at this point.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

I figured as much. I've actually been itching to write about this for a while now but haven't really had the time. I am glad someone out there finds it even remotely interesting at this point.

Definately find it interesting.

The trick for me is going to be to not get all "preachy" like I know everything about dogs. I do know quite a bit from raising my two and from reading a lot, but I'm far from the expert that I think I am, so keep that in mind as I give advice ...

[GoldenEagle]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Don't make me rehash this debate....

I am for adopting out of the shelters and any dog I ever will get will come from the shelters.

But, I can see why people would do something else. Just find a dog that you love and give it a good home, take care of it, and most important have it spayed or neutered.

[Neuqua]

After having a strong idea of what breed of dog I was going to look to adopt, I decided it was time to search the local shelters to find my future puppy.

For a stretch of about a week, I sought out ever local newspaper I could find in hopes of finding a possible match in the classifieds. There was not much luck however, since every lead I had usually ended after not feeling comfortable about the moral aspects of whom I was adopting from. I read an ad for a new litter of There seems to be a lot of shoddy characters out there who are concerned more about the dollar that they make than the precious life they are about to give away. I certainly was not going to support their puppy factories.

After some late night internet searching, I came across The Beagle Barn. The breeder seemed to have been in the "business" for over twenty years and judging by the references, they came highly recommended. After getting in contact with the family, I learned that they currently did not have any puppies for adoption however one of their lady beagles was expecting as early as next month. The lady I spoke to, Linda, seemed very nice-natured and and asked many questions about my own personal life styles. This was pleasing to hear because it showed me that their puppies were obviously of great concern to them and they wanted to make sure that they were giving them away to homes that they would live in forever. Thumbs up.

After passing through the interview phase, Linda gave me the nice gesture of putting me atop the waiting list for its next expected litter. Yay, good news. However, it still gave me atleast a month and a half to find one on my own. While happy and satisfied with my encounter with the Beagle Barn, their prices were at the upper level scale of what I was looking to pay. Actually to be honest, they were a bit more than I was looking to pay.

I'm a college student. And because I am a college student, I do not necessarily have an unlimited bankroll for expenses. Now, I am fully aware that a pet is going to be a big financial obligation no matter what, especially it it's first year and I feel I am prepared for that. However, still if there is an opportunity to save some money I will certainly explore the chance.

The idea now, was to patiently await notice from the Beagle Barn on its' new litter and when the time was ready, I would go over there (the location is a little over 30 minutes from me) and pick out my choice of the pack. In the mean time however, if another dog should happen to catch my eye, and if a better financial opportunity would come along, I could still pursue it without any obligation.

[JeffNights]

Dude...freakin' adopt would ya?

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by JeffNights

Dude...freakin' adopt would ya?

*grumble*

[Neuqua]

For any prospective pet owners out there, I have nothing but the highest regard for www.petfinder.com . It is a collection of many animals at all the shelters across the nation. From what I gather, the pet lists are very up to date and they also have the contact information of most all the shelters listed if you wanted to get into contact with them. It was recommended to me by a friend online and it certainly increased the amount of possible targets I had to adopt.

It was because of petfinder.com that I ran into a new batch of puppies, again all beagles. Apparently, a 1 year old beagle was brought into the Animal Rescue Fund(ARF) in Muncie, Indiana from another shelter. And in the very next day, Murphy Brown gave birth to a litter of 6 puppies. (You can see Murphy nursing her puppies in the link.) The puppies listed were all adorable, but one caught my eye right away. He was a lemon and white beagle named Casper. I read his profile and decided quickly that if he was available, that I would be very interested in getting him. I emailed ARF late that very night and wasn't sure if I was going to hear back from them. Obviously puppies don't tend to stay listed for very long and quite honestly, Muncie Indiana is about a 4 and a half hour drive from me so I wasn't sure if that was the best option for me either.

The next day, I recieved this email from ARF:

Do you live in a house or an apt.? Are pets allowed if you are renting? If you would like to email your number I can call you on thursday and we can further discuss adoption. These guys will go quickly, Chloe is already on hold and possibly Casper.

~~~nikki

Bummer!

I sent a reply giving her the information she requested and also made a mention that if anything happened to the other inquiring owner, I would be more than interested in bringing home Casper. I figured at this point that I would probably not hear from them nor would I adopt a puppy from ARF. Not that there was anything wrong with the other puppies, they were all good looking puppies in their own way, but Casper was the only one giving me an inclination to want to drive the long drive just to pick him up.

[Neuqua]

The next morning, I receive a call from a number my phone number doesn't recognize. I wake up to it and it is Nikki from ARF. She introduces herself and gives me some background information on ARF and its' history up until this point. I, still half asleep, tell her I appreciate the call but that the puppy I was interested in seemed to have already been adopted according to her email the previous day. She tells me that Casper is in fact, NOT adopted and that she had confused names with another puppy. Casper was mine for the taking!

The phone conversation lasted for about 15-20 minutes. She told me that since I was so far away, they would not be able to make a home visit and so they would try to make up for it by asking as many questions as possible about my lifestyle to determine if I was a good home. Makes sense. She ended the phone conversation in what I percieved a positive tone and she told me she would email me the adoption papers and then call me after that for the next step. I woke myself up, printed out the adoption papers that she emailed me and filled it out. I faxed them back to her and from that point on, I played the waiting game.

A day passed and I figured that something must have gone wrong, or atleast a better candidate came along. Can't help that much, their main priority should obviously be to place the dog in the best possible situation. To my surprise though, Nikki did end up calling me late in the afternoon and told me the good news of my adoption papers meeting approval and that if I were interested in Casper, I could have him!

So now I guess I had come to a fork in the road. I had option A) which was to wait about a month or so for the new litter to be born at the Beagle Barn and pay around $650 for a new puppy. Or I could go with option B) which was to drive a few hours and pick up Casper from ARF, who were only going to charge me $80 with the first two rounds of vaccinations included along with a doggy crate.

[Neuqua]

Truthfully, no matter which way I looked at it. The decision was simple.

Meet Riley, FOFC'S Newest Pup

I knew that adopting Riley (formerly Casper, not a fan of the name) was the right choice for me. He was from a breed I was interested in acquiring, and came from a shelter that seemed to really want to take care of their animals. It was a match.

I gave Nikki my confirmation of my intentions of adopting Riley and things took care of themselves rather quickly from there. She explained to me a bit of his personality compared to his litter mates and basically gave me an idea of what exactly I should be looking forward to getting in Riley.

I am however, not able to pick him up from the shelter until June 20th. The reason being, that is when his next round of vaccinations (2nd set) are scheduled and they said I was better off getting them done since they were already considered into the adoption fee. So I have spent the past two weeks trying acquire as much knowledge as possible so that once June 20th comes around, there won't be much that I am ill prepared for. I've spent some of my evenings at Barnes and Nobles reading as many of the training books I can find to soak in all the information.

I see myself as being well prepared now. As prepared as I am ever going to be atleast.

[st.cronin]

I think I'm spending too much time on FOFC. This thread title keeps looking like "So I'm Getting a Pumpy..."

[JeffNights]

Yeah! Way to go dude.

[ibnsgirl]

I'll be following along!

My family has had a bunch of dogs, mostly larger breeds (Norwegian Elkhound, German Shepherds, Black Lab, etc.), but my husband really likes beagles. I'm really interested to hear about your experiences!

Best wishes to you and Riley!

[RPI-Fan]

The adoption girl's name is Nikki? pix pls k thx

[Neuqua]

Tomorrow I make my 4.5 hour drive to Muncie to pick little Riley up.

In the mean time, I received a couple updated pictures of him in an email over the weekend.