A New Addition To The Family

We Are Adding A New Baby To The Family
By Jaymie Pierce

When a child announces that they want a puppy there are several emotions that run through a parent. First, you immediately think this is not going to happen. Then later as you mill it through your mind you think of the puppy and the child and the sweet moments that will make your heart melt. You know that the middle of the night crying and getting up with a new puppy to take it outside is not forefront in your heart warm moments you push the truth and facts behind the sweetness of watching your child interact with their very own baby. Now, you have convinced yourself this is a great idea and you begin to consider a new addition to the family.

With the warm and fuzzies circulating throughout your head you begin to consider a breed. Of course a young boy would probably want a rough and tumble, stick-fetching dog to play with outdoors. The great clips of “Lassie” and “Homeward Bound” play in your mind. A daughter of course wants a frilly foo foo dog to dress in cute clothing and brush its silky hair to put bows in and paint it’s tiny toenails. Being that our daughter is the one that has wrapped her parents around her finger we started searching for information on small dog breeds. At first she said she wanted a Chihuahua and we both had childhood memories of one sort or the other, my husbands being a nice nip on the lip by the cute darling. We then started looking at the breed and realized that the aggression of Chihuahua might not fit our family. We already have three loving warm-hearted dachshunds and didn’t want to have a war on our hands. We decided to move towards a more laid-back breed that would blend in with our brood and be more of a sofa princess along with our adorable phoebe. So, we decided on the Yorkshire terrier.

This breed is small and petite and adventurous. This breed seems to be just what we want in our family to play with our dachshunds. They can be very good dogs in a pack family with the adults being the leaders. We believe that you should integrate the right breeds into a family to suit your lifestyle. We take the dogs out quite often our male dachshunds avid ball chasers and love to get exercise. Our female very laidback and much more suited to lounge in the sun. Doing my research to make sure we are making the right choice I find that the Yorkshire terrier has a lot of energy but is well suited for apartment living, not that we live in an apartment but that tells me that we don’t need a farm for the dog to run. Now we have to decide on the sex of the dog. We are still working on that and deciding whether a male or female would better suit our family. We have one female and two males now. I’m on the side of another female would probably even out the balance in the dog world. Being that dachshunds were originally bred to hunt badgers in small holes and the Yorkshire terrier was bred to hunt out rats that infested the badger and foxholes, these two breeds seem to mix well together.

The first step is to find a puppy that is healthy and well adjusted. That is our process now, looking to find the right puppy. A healthy well rounded puppy will be playful have clear shiny eyes and a wet nose. They will lay on their back when you hold them and not go wild and try to tear away. You will see their tail wag and they will have great concentration on playing with you. If the puppy is growling and trying to bite and seems aggressive or lethargic and not eager to seek out adventure, this puppy is not a healthy pup. As we continue on our quest I will update this topic so that the journey continues. The goal is to find a healthy happy puppy by the middle of the month, our daughter’s birthday. The journey will begin with a new addition to the family that I know will be both exciting and tedious as we get through all the milestones.