Puppy Insights

As a dog foster parent, I've taken care of hundreds of puppies. Well, that may be a slight exaggeration... okay fine, a huge exaggeration. But I do feel that I have enough experience with puppies to share with you the following insights.

1. All puppies are cute. And as a general rule, the cuter the puppy, the more trouble they are.

2. A puppy needs to drink and eat often. And what goes in, must come out, just as often. Be prepared to do a lot of cleaning up when you have a puppy.

3. The only thing cuter than one puppy is two puppies. However, refer to rule #1 and rule #2 above.

4. Even a typical "tough guy" can be brought to his knees by puppy love.

5. Puppies love to chew. No matter how cute they are, don't let them get away with chewing on things that you don't want to be destroyed. If you never really liked that pair of shoes though, just let them keep chewing while you take pictures.

6. Don't let them fool you. Puppies can be tough too.

7. Puppy teeth are some of the sharpest teeth in the world. They have been proven to be sharper than knives. Really.    Okay not really.

8. When they are just six weeks old, most puppies haven't completely mastered running or walking. And this makes them fun to watch. But be warned - by seven weeks old, they may have mastered the art of escaping from their pen. So when you get home from work, you could find them wandering around the house, doing whatever they want (refer to rule #2 and rule #5 above).