My Princess Daisy *dot* com

The First Week

I think it was about the third or fourth day that I decided I was going to officially name my puppy Daisy. I felt she was a Daisy and she looked like a Daisy. She had the personality of a little wild beast, yet I still thought Daisy was the perfect name for her. I registered Daisy with the AKC (American Kennel Club) since she is a full breed beagle. Since I was registering her, I couldn't just register her as Daisy. I had to make it more special. I decided to register her as Princess Daisy, since she is my little princess pup. I also added my last name to Princess Daisy to make it more unique. That became her official registered name with the AKC. If you ever have a full breed dog, I highly recommend registering him/her with the AKC. Also, go with the Gold package. You'll know what I mean by Gold package when you receive the registration form. With the Gold package you get your puppy's pedigree, a free AKC video, and a subscription to AKC Family Dog magazine. Do it! It's worth it.

After experiencing a pretty simple first night with Daisy, I thought to myself, "Hey, this is going to be easy!" Well... I was wrong. I told myself that I would do my best to take care of Daisy. No matter what it takes. I'd be responsible and I would do what I had to do to make this work. I didn't want a puppy that was going to pee and poop all over the house. I needed my puppy to be perfect. I felt it was a long shot, but hey, it can happen.

I wanted to make sure there we no accidents in the house or in her crate. I wanted to crate train Daisy. I read up on how to do it and it seemed pretty simple. The first thing I needed to understand was that puppies have super small bladders and that they need to be taken outside to go potty a lot. To get the puppy to understand where she needs to go, you'll have to take her out and place her on the grass so she knows that this is the place to go potty. Not inside the house. Take the puppy out to go potty every hour, just to play it safe. This is what I did and it worked pretty well. When you can't be home and when you have to leave your puppy in the bathroom or laundry room, I highly recommend puppy pads. They work really well. They are basically diapers for the floor. The puppy pads have a certain scent on them that tells the puppy THIS is the place to go potty. It works, it really does. It makes it easier to clean up when you get home as well. When you are home though, do take your puppy out every hour. I can't express this enough. The more accidents your puppy has in the house, the harder it will be to house train your puppy. Even though it's a pain the butt to do, it will be worth it in the end.

This is where it got tough. The second night I went to sleep around midnight. That's what time I usually go to sleep. I put Daisy in her crate, next to my bed. She fell asleep. About 2am, Daisy wakes me up, by crying. "Okay" I thought to my self, "She needs to go potty." I took her out, and she did. We go back to sleep. 4 am and she's up again! Same ol' deal. This time, she won't go back to sleep. It's as if she got a second wind at 4 in the morning. NOT FUN! I decided to lay on the floor in my room with her because she likes to cuddle up with me and I know she can fall asleep easier and faster this way. I know what you're thinking. Almost like a real baby. Basically, yeah! I'd say so. It sure felt like it, especially when she had me up again at 5:30am. Okay, so now she's waking me up every other hour or so.

Morning finally comes. I'm tired and Daisy is ready to play. If you didn't already know this, beagles LOVE to play. So if you're thinking about getting a beagle, be prepared to play. Beagles love to play fetch, tug-o-war, chase, and they love to chew. When a beagle is bored, they will chew. Don't learn this the hard way. My plan was to play with my puppy a lot, this way she won't get into trouble by chewing on your garden hose. She'd also be nice and tired so she'll sleep during the night. I found that my plan worked pretty well.

The third night was pretty much like the second night. I was waking up every couple hours to take Daisy outside to go potty. I made sure she wouldn't have any accidents in the house. I promised myself I wouldn't get lazy about it. I had to take her out when she needed to go out.

After the first week of waking up 3 or 4 times a night to take Daisy outside, I was tired... really tired. I knew that sleeping on the floor with her was the easiest way for her to sleep longer. So I did it for the first week, and even the second. I needed sleep and it worked, but I didn't want her to get used to the idea that I was going to sleep with her every night on the floor. I wanted her to sleep in her crate and I wanted to sleep in my bed... the whole night.

Of course Daisy and I had an accident inside the house. On my bed actually. It was my fault though. I had her inside way too long. Usually when your puppy has an accident inside, it's usually the owners fault. You have to make sure you take your puppy outside often. I did what I had to do to get my puppy outside as much as I could. I also did what I had to do to get sleep at night. Eventually the sleeping arrangements changed. Read all about it in The First Month journal entry.

Even though it seems as if the first week of owning a beagle puppy was tough, it was all worth it. It's such an awesome feeling come home from work every day as she runs up to me, wagging her little white-tipped tail.