Bringing Up Puppy

Hershey has developed a taste for shoes. And I don’t mean she’s longing for the latest designer doggie booties. But if she were, she would probably be ogling Jimmy Choo’s, because that’s what she’s been doing—chewing our shoes.
Last week, she destroyed my favorite sandals. My favorite wear them everywhere sandals!!! [...]

Even if you never watched the show Lost, you probably know the whole series wrapped up recently. I was a total Lostie, and cried through much of the final episode, especially at the very end. And even all these weeks later, I still get teary eyed thinking of the final scene—all because of [...]

I thought it was just a fluke the first time she did it. I brought Hershey outside to pee and neighbors happened to be walking by. Of course they had to meet Hershey, and she charged over to the sidewalk while they oohed and ahhed over her. She rolled over on her [...]

I did not think my pets would be eating each other. I don’t mean play fighting and chewing eating-each-other, I mean Eating. Each. Other. Let’s just say my cat is making Hershey look like a choirgirl. Spencer is the new #1 troublemaker in the house—even after he got fixed! I thought [...]

If Hershey was going to star in a Lifetime movie of the week, it would be about a little dog, teased and taunted and shunned by all of her friends because she was the only one with no sense of smell. But her plucky nature would save the day in the end in some [...]

When we first had kids, we were confronted with perplexing surprises all the time: like the day Riley swallowed a pebble. How serious was that? I certainly felt like Mommy Of The Year calling the doctor with that news. (It all came out fine in the end, so to speak.) And [...]

When a puppy is quiet and out of your sight, there’s usually trouble to be had. The other day when Hershey was neither in sight nor making noise, she was indeed making trouble. She had pushed over one of the baby gates and was exploring the off-limits-for-now living room.
“What are we going to [...]

One of my recent voice over jobs has been narrating a children’s book called A Puppy is For Loving. A little girl spends the summer at her grandmother’s house and learns all about the miracle—and yucky parts—of birth when Grandma’s dog has puppies. Then they’ve got to find homes for all the babies. [...]

My daughter Riley has never liked babies. Not baby dolls or real live babies. I suspect it’s because she’s the baby in the family and resents anyone or anything that crowds in on her cuteness. It took months before she’d even look at the beautiful twins my sister-in-law adopted. Now that [...]

Every day, my dog does something that makes me go, ‘huh? I haven’t had so many bizarre questions to ask since I first had kids and had to figure out why my baby was throwing up on me every night. The good times keep on rolling with our newest baby—the one with fur. [...]

So the gravy train is closed. Hershey is no longer getting treats every time she piddles or poops outside. In fact, she only gets one when she comes back inside. Seemed like a good decision at the time, considering how she was tricking me into so many extra treats when she went [...]

So, I’m driving home from the computer shop with a $180 repair job looming because Hershey shattered my laptop LCD screen, and I’m thinking, I don’t know if I can do this anymore. Basically, all the voice work I’d done that morning will go to repair my computer screen. My work for the day [...]

So we’re coming up on two months since Hershey’s been with us. (I’d love to calculate how many times I’ve taken her out, how many treats I’ve doled out and how many puddles of pee I’ve cleaned up.) If you remember, I’m not exactly a dog kind of girl. I’m definitely a [...]

Now that I own a puppy and a kitten, and can observe them playing and living together, it’s apparent how different the two animals really are. Let me count the ways.
1. Hershey wants to be with you ALL THE TIME. Spencer? Not so much. That little kitty disappears during the day, [...]

I’ve been curious to see how Hershey would react to strangers. It’s not like we’re running into tons of unknown folks on our dashes outdoors in the tundra. We’re not going for laps around the block bumping into people. We did take her over to the neighbors and she was great with [...]

Now that the groundhog has made his prediction on spring, I can’t help but look forward to warmer days—and wonder what Hershey will do if she ever runs into the groundhog I’ve seen in our own backyard. There’s a whole world of wildlife back there, and I’m curious how our little lab is going [...]

It all happened so suddenly. Hershey was nosing around like she does 90% of the day, but something about her nosing looked urgent. I looked at her and grabbed the leash. “Do you need to go out?”
And then the heavens parted and the angels sang and Hershey sat by the door and [...]

I’m beginning to wonder if Hershey is much, much smarter than I’ve been giving her credit for. I swear she’s rationing her piddle outside, peeing in several different spots so she’ll get more treats. And sometimes I suspect she’s just squatting to see if she’ll get something for that, too. Good thing [...]

For a little pup, there certainly are some big bucks to be spent on a new dog. And I’m not just talking about the price tag on the pooch. We spent more on Hershey’s supplies than we did on her—and that was even before we brought her home: the crate, the doggie bed, [...]

I was wondering which item in our house would be the first victim sacrificed to the power jaws of Hershey. (Naively, I thought maybe I could be vigilant enough to keep her from ruining anything. Hilarious, I know.) Turns out, the first casualty in our house is one of our recliners. The [...]

The arguing started on the way to lunch before we picked up the pup. “I want to name her Daisy,” my son Jack said.
“You can’t. That’s the name of John’s dog,” I reminded him. (It’s a cute name, but sometimes we babysit his friend’s dog, Daisy. That would be too weird.)
“How [...]

After finding a litter of purebred Labrador Retriever pups for sale, we made the half hour trip to check them out. And there were quite a few to choose from; this mama lab had twelve pups—and it was her first litter! (Trust me, she looked like a worn out mother!) Since she’s [...]

So, we’ve decided to get a dog—that was the biggest decision of the whole process. Not every family is meant to have a dog, but we’ve decided we’re ready for our first puppy. Now we’ve got many more decisions to make on this journey. And the biggest decision is perhaps the toughest [...]