Dilemma of the puppy kind.

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Aru

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The dilemma is to get a Puppy or not to Puppy, that is the question?

Right....basically I have been offered the chance to have the pick of the litter on a group of pups that sound like the type of dog I was planning to get out on practice....mongrels of an accidental litter(rescue dog who turned out not to have been spayed)
mom is a small labx...suspected dog is a collie... so hopefully a nice medium sized ie car friendly sized dog, who will be relatively trainable and a running partner in the future.
I have been hoping to get a dog in the near future...

At the moment I am job hunting so I have time to train pup etc....and future job(im a vet) should be plenty dog friendly regardless of where I end up working I will be bringing said pup/dog with me....but I'm torn do I wait until I have a job and am more settled? then get an older rescue that hopefully will not need the same degree of training up as a pup? or do I go for the pup now when I have the free time to settle them in get housetraining, socialisation and car training well underway before I start into work and have less time for all of the above?

But at the same time would me moving between jobs and new house etc in the next month or two(fingers crossed) be very unsettling for a young pup?

Opinions wanted...including the hard honest truth ones....
I am going to have to do a lot of thinking on this one so everything is helpful
 
I think it would be helpful if you spoke to Murphys Minder or her daughter Murphy88 who is also a vet, their circumstances might be slightly different to you but they went for a pup.

An older rescue dog is going to come with baggage unless you are very lucky and is more likely to be unsettled by moving whereas a pup would just accept it.
 
Thanks Dobiegirl I didnt think of asking some of the Murphys. Im going to go sleep on it and have a think about practicalities. May get in touch with people at a more normal hour :P

If anyone has any advise either way fire away. :)
 
Aru said:
The dilemma is to get a Puppy or not to Puppy, that is the question?

Right....basically I have been offered the chance to have the pick of the litter on a group of pups that sound like the type of dog I was planning to get out on practice....mongrels of an accidental litter(rescue dog who turned out not to have been spayed)
mom is a small labx...suspected dog is a collie... so hopefully a nice medium sized ie car friendly sized dog, who will be relatively trainable and a running partner in the future.
I have been hoping to get a dog in the near future...

At the moment I am job hunting so I have time to train pup etc....and future job(im a vet) should be plenty dog friendly regardless of where I end up working I will be bringing said pup/dog with me....but I'm torn do I wait until I have a job and am more settled? then get an older rescue that hopefully will not need the same degree of training up as a pup? or do I go for the pup now when I have the free time to settle them in get housetraining, socialisation and car training well underway before I start into work and have less time for all of the above?

But at the same time would me moving between jobs and new house etc in the next month or two(fingers crossed) be very unsettling for a young pup?

Opinions wanted...including the hard honest truth ones....
I am going to have to do a lot of thinking on this one so everything is helpful
Click to expand...

Seeing as your a vet... what advice would you give your clients???

Personally I would opt for the wait until you are settled and can adopt an older dog from rescue - they are always in need of good homes and some dogs cry out for veterinary owners who can also care for them and their specialist needs... We have a list as long as your arm when your ready ;)
 
If you have enough disposable income for the next 6 months to pay for the pup then I'd go for it. I was under the impression that any vet works crazy hours so I wouldn't think that left much time for training a puppy/dealing with any issues in a rescue.

My medium dog is a mutt and costs me about £50 a month inc. insurance and food.
 
Forget the unsettling, it is good for pups to be brought up in a changeable environment. they become adaptable, cope with change. I bought flodden in May last year as an 8 week old pup. I was in the middle of major renovation work, I had builders coming in daily, different people coming and going, Machinery, drilling, nail guns banging and flodden coped with it all, I came and went at different times of the day. In January everything changed, my ex and i split up, flodden then moved house, almost daily, I was homeless and sofa surfing. flodden coped. He just accepted that was normal life. now i have bought another house, another major renovation project. Again I am doing daily building work, Flodden is so chilled about it and so relaxed with everything. I am waiting to get another pup to keep him company, i need to be sure a dog can cope with my life, and having had a rescue dog in the past i found his seperation anxiety, and his learned behaviours made fitting in very difficult, I adored him, but my life had to fit in round him and his needs.

You now have time to have a pup, in 3 months time he will be so much older and more trained and will fit in with you. i say go for a pup, train it to fit in with your lifestyle.
 
As Dobiegirl says, a pup worked well for Murphy88. She got him in August and didn't start a full time job until the following March so had plenty of time to train him (or attempt to train him). I would suggest you need back up in the form of someone who could have the pup whilst you are off for interviews, possibly doing locum work whilst job hunting etc. I think Pickle spent more time with me than her in the first few months, and I still have him back for the odd weekend. Once she started working I don't think she would have managed with a young pup, on some occasions Pick has spent several hours in the cages at the small animal surgeries, and they have also missed a lot of training classes due to working late etc.
Also, in her case she is in a flat without a garden, which would have made house training that bit harder. Anyway I will give M88 the heads up to this thread (another thing about being a vet, you don't get much time for HHO anymore:D.
 
I did this with Pickle, however my situation was a bit different as I got him after graduation but then went travelling/locumed before starting full time work, at which time he was 9 months old, fully house trained and pretty well trained!

a few things to think about first:

- Are you going into large animal practice? Or mixed/small? I do one morning a week of small animal ops, and Pickle hates it at the small animal practice, screams blue murder every time someone goes into kennels. The other 4 days I do equine when he is either in the car with me or in the barn at the equine unit with other dogs, however I have been very lucky with my job. The majority of my friends in mixed do at least 50% small animal (even those promised majority equine at interviews!), which Pickle would hate. Most small animal vets I know chose to rescue an older dog.
- A lot of vet accommodation is in flats above the practice, which makes house-training more difficult - my friend recently took on a rescue 3 month old pup, and still has the occasional accident 3 months later because sometimes she simply can't get down the stairs and through the practice fast enough, plus the pup doesn't really have a door as such to go to to indicate it needs a wee. My contract states I can only have a dog in the flat if it is fully house trained and non-destructive, and I paid a much higher deposit for having a dog.
- Work can be long hours and very tiring. Pickle's training went to pot when I started; and although I found a training class I miss a lot through rota changes/practice meetings etc.

That said, I love having Pickle with me, I hold entire conversations with him in the car when we're on our own, and I like to think he has a pretty good life! I don't want to sound like i'm putting you off, however these are all things I probably should have though about and didn't, and luckily it worked out, but I did turn down jobs I was offered that would have upset Pickle's lifestyle, which given the difficulty in getting mixed jobs at the moment was probably very stupid of me!
 
Apologies for drawing up a dead thread but I just realised that I never replied to this one. Thanks all for giving me so much to think about.

After much deliberation I decided against getting a pup. Long term there just isn't enough stability in my life to take on a dog ,looking 3 maybe 4 years ahead and the uncertainty about jobs decided me in the end :( Perhaps in a year or so with some experience under my belt I will reconsider but for now its a pup free schedule.

Thanks again for all yer help.
 
Our practice does not allow pets in, I take mine because im night shift and its classed as security and plus not taking up space in kennels, sadly there is actually only about 3 dog owners in our whole practice and me, so 4:eek:of us out about 25 staff (the rest have cats), due to the fact everyone is full time with no pets allowed during practice hours space/safety.

Uselss info but just to add:D
 
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