People get dogs for all kinds of reasons. Dogs provide companionship and protection, and help to keep their owners on their toes. Every year, over 2 million dogs are adopted from animal shelters across the United States, and every one of those adoption parents had a good reason to get their dog!
It might surprise you to learn that people get puppies for different reasons. Typically, puppies are not adopted, but rather are sold by breeders, pet stores, or given away when a pet parent realizes their dog has gotten pregnant.
Puppies offer their owners a different experience than dogs do, because puppies have different needs and limited abilities. Getting a puppy isn’t a “better” decision than adopting an adult-age dog, and vice versa. Each requires different demands on their owners.
Read on to learn the top reasons why people get puppies, and ask yourself, are those the reasons you want to get a puppy, too?
1) RAISING AND CARING FOR A PUPPY BUILDS PATIENCE
This cannot be overstated enough. When you first get a puppy, you will put in a lot more than you initially get out of the experience. That’s why it’s so important that if you get a puppy, one of the reasons you want a puppy is because you want to spend the time and energy raising a puppy. Puppies aren’t window dressing that are cute to look at and self-sufficient otherwise. They aren’t self-sufficient at all. Do you have the time, energy, and patience to teach your puppy how to behave on a moment-to-moment basis?
Puppies are eager to please in general, but depending on the breed, you might not end up with the fastest learner. Raising a puppy requires patience and being consistent, and you can expect your patience to be challenged along the way. Many people who get puppies are happy that their patience will be improved, and they’re also happy that raising their puppy is a demanding, long-term project that they can pour themselves into.
2) HAVING A PUPPY CAN CURE EMPTY NESTER SYNDROME
Puppies can enhance every stage of a person’s life, but one stage in particular when people greatly appreciate having a brand-new puppy in their homes is after their adult-age children have moved out. This phase of life is commonly referred to as the “empty nester” phase, and for many parents who spent 20+ years making their children the focus of everything they did, suddenly living in an empty nest can be depressing and boring.
For empty nesters, having a puppy to focus on, spend time with, raise, and care for can keep the pep in their step and prevent them from feeling down. Puppies really are little fur babies, and new puppy parents experience all the joys and rewards of raising their puppies and celebrating the milestones that occur along the way. In fact, getting a puppy can greatly help to ward off depression that would ordinarily set in due to bereavement of a loved one, and also the bereavement of another family pet.
3) A PUPPY IS A CLEAN SLATE TO TRAIN HOW YOU WANT
One of the biggest reasons that a person might opt to get a puppy instead of adopt an adult-age dog is because they want to be able to train their companion in specific ways, and not have to undo, redo, or struggle with “correcting” someone else’s training of the dog. Very few dogs reach adulthood completely untrained, but there are still a lot of dogs out there who learned a set of rules that might not be enough to uphold your house rules. Those dogs would have to learn the rules, and a lot of people would rather train a brand-new puppy than try to teach an old dog new tricks.
While wanting to train your own puppy is a perfectly valid reason to get a puppy instead of an adult-age dog, we would like to take a moment now to dispel the myth that it’s hard to train older dogs. It isn’t. In fact, adult-age dogs have a longer attention span, more self control, and less boundless energy, which makes them far easier to train than puppies. They pick up on new things much easier than puppies, and unlike puppies who need a 5 hour nap after they expend energy, adult-age dogs aren’t constantly interrupted by long sleeping sessions. It’s something to think about, which is why you really need to be ready to exercise patience long-term if you want to raise a puppy.
4) PUPPIES CAN BE GREAT PRACTICE FOR HAVING A BABY
Believe it or not, this is a big reason why people, especially couples, get puppies. Yes, puppies and human babies are completely different, and to compare them closely is, well, insane. But the specific skills that a parent of a newborn quickly develops are in fact the same skills that a puppy parent develops and strengthens. These skills are patience, selflessness, nurturing, dependability, reliability, and unconditional love.
Depending on who you ask, raising a puppy can be an excellent “test run” for raising a baby. Others will tell you that puppies and babies are nothing alike, and still other people will insist that raising their puppies didn’t prepare them for family life with their own kids. Most interesting are the people who insist that raising puppies is harder than raising children. At PuppyBuddy, we would never want someone to get a puppy because they see it as practice for having a baby. But we do happen to agree that the skill set that comes to fruition as you raise and train your puppy will be the same skill set that develops further within you when you start your family.
5) PUPPIES ARE LOVABLE & CAUSE YOU TO RELEASE HAPPY BRAIN CHEMICALS!
Spending just 15 – 30 minutes with a puppy can help you feel more calm and relaxed, reducing stress and increasing happiness! Playing with a puppy increases your brain’s levels of dopamine and serotonin, both of which are neurotransmitters associated with pleasure and tranquility. Those are excellent reasons to get a puppy, and the best news of all is that interacting with your furry friend even after the cuteness of their puppyhood has faded will still cause you to release happy chemicals in your brain!
Now that you have 5 reasons to get a puppy, do you know which breed will complement your home and lifestyle? If you would like a little extra help, PuppyBuddy can introduce you to the best breeds for you! Stop in our Boca Raton location or meet our puppies for sale online.
