You’ve read recently about picking a breed of dog and where to locate that perfect puppy. Now let’s talk about the first couple of months of puppy ownership-it’s joys and pains.

The amount of time and commitment you will need to spend with your puppy in the first couple of months is much like caring for an infant. It’s round-the-clock Your only breaks come when he is sleeping or when he is safely tucked away in his crate.

Puppies are either playing, eating or drinking, putting things into their mouths, eliminating, or sleeping. That’s pretty much it. So, that should give you an idea of what you will be monitoring for the first couple of months.

In Florida, we have a “Lemon law” which says a puppy must be 8 weeks old to be sold and must be inspected by an accredited veterinarian.

This generally includes a first set of vaccines, several oral de-wormings, and a fecal analysis. Once your puppy is home, the fun and full time attendance, begins.

Watching a puppy first learn to go up steps is a wonder to behold.

Having a puppy trust you enough to become like Jell-O in your arms and lick you gives you a warm fuzzy feeling.

Watching him fall all over himself as he learns to run is funnier than watching Jim Carey’s facial antics.

One of my favorite entertainments is watching my 2-year-old English springer spaniel drag my 13-week-old puppy across the terrazzo floor as they learn to “share” the same toy.

But in the face of all this fun, it’s still a lot of work monitoring your puppy (Does he need to go out? Again? What is in your mouth this time! ) and entertaining him (my older dog does help with this).

     Also you should plan on getting less sleep the first couple of weeks as you will need to take him outside several times thru the night until he gets better control of his bladder.

We will cover potty training next time in detail but I would like to preface it with a word of caution: You need to have the time during the day and night to take your young puppy out to potty. Dogs make great companions, but they may not be right for everyone.