Do you feel like you need a Puppy Support Group?

3 shoes, 7 socks, 1 paper plate, 4 power cords, 2 books, 3 Lego pieces, 4 stuffed animals, 2 chair legs, 1 original canvas painting, all destroyed. Living a life with no rugs on our floors and saying “NO” or “Stop it” A LOT.  

Does this sound familiar?  If so, you have adopted a puppy.  

You forget when you look at those beautiful, adorable, soulful eyes, when you smell that puppy breath and they are all so small and fuzzy.  You forget, at least I did, that puppies are a lot of work and are hard.at times.  

You forget the middle of the night walks to go to the bathroom followed by the burst of energy and the crying if they are away from you. All when you just want to sleep.  You forget stepping in a puddle of pee on the floor in your bare feet, you forget your home without any rugs on the floor and you forget that when you are tired and wanting to settle down for the night that they really want to play.

Puppies are so much fun but to quote a new parent – they are like angels 80% of the time and pure demons 20% of the time.  

I personally forgot what puppyhood was like.  I hadn’t had a puppy in over 16 years.  As the director of the Lynchburg Humane Society, I see puppies all the time.  And I have always said, “I am not a puppy person”.  I love adult dogs because they are settled and I know their personality and I don’t have to do as much training.  So I have 99% of the time looked past the puppies.

 Then one day, Becca, our intake supervisor stopped in with the most adorable puppy I have seen in a long time.  It was a brown and white terrier mix with the softest hair and seemed so calm and cuddly and all it wanted to do was sleep in my arms.  I fell hard.  

Part of recovery is acknowledging you have a problem.  Well we have a problem.

Now we are the 7-8 months old stage and the cute adorable tiny puppy has grown to be a cute adorable adolescent or teenager in her second teething stage.  

Here at the humane society we have a puppy support group among staff. Many of the staff got puppies around the same time and you know what?  It helps to tell how your puppy destroyed your 6 year old’s favorite stuffed animal last night to a fellow puppy owner and hear how their puppy got out of her crate and chewed her book case along with several books.  

When it comes to getting through a puppy stage, misery really does love company in order to realize that you aren’t alone and these feelings are normal. 

In the last 2 ½ months we adopted out 106 puppies from the Lynchburg Humane Society.  Many don’t have puppy crazy co-workers like we do so we have started our own version of a puppy support group.  Every Tuesday from 5 – 5:45 you can come to our Center for Pets and for $5 your puppy can play with other puppies and you can talk to our trainer about the problems you are having. 

Then if you want to really be the best puppy parent ever you can take our Puppy K class which is $20 per class and you can begin to really train and learn how to communicate with your puppy so they follow the household rules.  

You have to remember that puppies are hard but we are here to give you help and support.  You can always even just call or contact our trainer for personal advice or training.  All this information is on our website under Services. http://lynchburghumane.org/services/training-and-behavior/

You are not alone and we are here to help you.  We are even here to help you find another puppy as a playmate when you forget what puppyhood was like.