Quote:
Originally Posted by DawnMarch
I totally know what you are going through. First, I have a lot of anxiety too. And I have freaked out over puppies more than once. The first one, my daughter turned out to be allergic to and I was so stressed out after about 5 days (even though she was a sweet, tiny little thing) that I was actually relieved when we had to find her a new home. I felt like the meanest and most unhinged mom in the world.
Then a few years later, we adopted our current dog and I was again a total wreck for the first couple weeks. I now call it the "OMG, WHAT HAVE WE DONE!?" phase. I think it is 100% normal, especially since all the "experts" make you so paranoid that you have to do everything right or your dog is going to be a nightmare when it grows up.
It will absolutely get better. Your puppy will learn how your family works and what's expected (though some of It obviously takes a while). My "puppy" is turning 5 this year and despite the fact that we definitely didn't do everything right -- he is a fantastic and mostly well-behaved dog.
Oh, and one thing I found incredibly helpful is I bought a fence/play-yard kind of thing so that we could cordon off a very limited part of the house for him to be in (part of the family room so he could be with us). Then I didn't have to be constantly following him around or worrying what he was getting in to. That made me feel much more in control of the situation and know that he wasn't going to destroy the house.
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Thank you so much, Dawn! This made me feel SO much better. I am a classic first-born-child overachiever and I feel so much pressure to have a 'perfect dog'. Especially since I want her to be the type of people WANT to watch for us when we need to go away on vacation.
I got the octagon play yard I had in the attic from when the kids were babies and I am using that for the dog, it is the best thing ever! HUGE sigh of relief. Thank you so much for the suggestion!