The (not so) Joys of a Puppy

Puppies are a lot of fun to raise in many ways. The fun parts are what everyone thinks about when they think about getting a puppy.

The not so fun parts are the parts that cause people to dump puppies at the shelter. The not so fun parts are the parts you have to think about a LOT before bringing home a puppy. Because if you can't put in the time to potty train, if you aren't willing to clean up accidents, if you can't stay calm when the puppy makes mistakes, if you can't react appropriately when the puppy is chewing something important that you are upset at having ruined, you shouldn't get a puppy.

Admittedly, puppies are pretty adorable

You can probably imagine that when I announced I had added a puppy to the family here, a lot of people responded saying they wanted a puppy. I promised to share the bad parts, along with the good. Because there is a lot to be said for enjoying someone else's puppies instead of getting one of your own.

Recalling at the park

Ptera was not potty trained when I brought her home. At six months old, she more or less would choose to pee and poop outside when given the option, but wasn't super good about it. Within the first two weeks, she peed on my bed (not allowed on the bed anymore for the foreseeable future), pooped in her crate (yes, she was let out beforehand, I just didn't give her enough time outside before crating her when I left for work), and peed on Koira's favorite bed (the cave bed). Being told off by Koira a couple of times for rude behavior (trying to steal a chew toy Koira was actively chewing on once, Koira's Kong she was working on the other time) resulted in some scattered pee droplets as well. Koira can be pretty intimidating. And puke a few times on the carpet, and on the linoleum in the bathroom, as she gets used to eating the kibble/raw rotation we feed here. Oh, and a carsick puke in her car crate a few days ago too.

I call this her evil face.

All of these incidents were not fun. Cleaning up pee, poop, and puke is never particularly fun, especially if you can still smell it later, or are potty training and know that any little bit of smell left could encourage more accidents in that same area. Luckily for me, Chewy.com offered to send us Nature's Miracle Stain & Odor Remover to review this month. It couldn't have come at a better time, really, because who needs stain and odor remover more than someone with a puppy? I think I can safely say that I have been testing this stuff to the max, and with great results.

An actual miracle when potty training. Seriously.

That puke in the car crate? Can't smell it at ALL even after the car baked in the sun for hours while I was at work (obviously without the dogs in it). The dog bed? Free of the smell of pee (though currently waiting to be washed anyway because it was getting pretty grungy after a wet winter, and needs to go to the laundromat to get washed). My bed? Not even the slightest wiff of pee even without flipping the mattress. Just spray, scrub, spray, wipe, and let dry. The carpet is the same. The house kennel with the poop was probably the worst to clean up, because she obviously had pooped a few hours before I got home so it was kind of mashed into the wire bars of the kennel, so getting paper towels into all the cracks and crevices without missing anything was something of an ordeal. But in the end, no nasty smell remains.

I will say that I didn't notice any particular smell with the Nature's Miracle even though it is scented. It certainly isn't a strong smell, which in my opinion is a good thing. If it smelled like an air freshener spray, I would worry it was covering up the smell of pee/poop/puke/etc, rather than actually cleaning it.

I find these two absolutely adorable together. Lots of joy in our walks.

Oh, and I want to give a shout out to how awesome Chewy.com was when it came to sending this product. This is the first liquid product I have gotten from them, and I was super impressed. Chewy put tape around the screw cap on top of the bottle, ensuring that it didn't leak while in shipment, then put it inside of a sealed plastic bag as well, to make sure that any leaks didn't ruin anything else in the box or make the whole package soggy. So while the inside of that bag was bone dry, I did appreciate that extra step taken. Of course I forgot to take a picture for the blog, sorry!

As usual, I was provided with this product for free in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated in any other way, and the opinions shared here are entirely my own.