You guys! We got a puppy!!!!!
I am so excited to introduce the newest member of our family, Koda!!!
She is a husky lab mix, and she is an adorable ball of energy!!!
We got her on Saturday, January 23rd.
Ummm wow, has it really been that long?!
Anyways, I have been meaning to write this post since we got her, but a little certain someone has taken up a lot of my time ha!
Koda is my very first dog.
Well, I did live with a dog for 3 years. My roommate got Ari as a puppy, when we started living together. She traveled a lot for work so I dog sat for her. Ari and I were close, we had a lot of fun together. But of course, he was never fully my dog. When I get the chance I always enjoy visiting him, and my friend, of course ha!
Other than that, I have never lived with a dog, or trained, or raised a puppy.
I have always loved dogs, and have wanted one of my own since I can remember.
Paul and I have wanted one for about 8 years. We ALMOST got one on a few other occasions, but the timing wasn’t quite right. Whether it was finances, or the fact that we traveled too much.
With Covid preventing us from being gone every other weekend, and having more flexibility in our schedules with Paul working from home, we just knew, the exact perfect time was now!!!
Koda’s adoption story:
Funny thing is, we got Koda because we took up snow shoeing at the beginning of January.
We went to this trail park that had a section for dogs to run off leash. I guess it is a dog park of sorts, but it’s not fenced in. Anyways, that was the best part to go snowshoeing because it was the area the snow was the least tramped down from regular hikers.
There were so many dogs running around, with their owner’s nearby.
Seeing dogs at parks has made us excited to get one. We always say things to each other like: ” I can’t wait until we get a dog”. ” What kind of dog do we want? “When are we going to finally get a dog?”
This particular time, we said our usual statements, followed with a, “well, we aren’t gone on weekends anymore”. Followed by, “with both of us working from home right now…”. Then it dawned on us, that maybe now would be the perfect time to finally become puppy parents.
We gave it some serious consideration that maybe we would get a puppy in February. We started looking around online at puppies available in Iowa. Of course, we knew that if we found a puppy for sale that they might be adopted really fast. We looked into breeders that already had unborn puppies spoken for, and cost was a few thousand dollars. We looked into rescue puppies, there weren’t many available.
On Saturday January 23rd, we were looking online at puppies available in Wisconsin, since we were having no luck finding any in Iowa.
Finally, we found a place that had 8 week old yellow, and black lab puppies. We gave them a call and decided to drive the two hours to meet the puppies. We ate lunch and then took another look online and found some 10-week old husky lab puppies available. We quickly realized it was from the same breeder. They said she was the only husky lab mix left. They were available for us to meet the puppies at 6 pm.
Bonus: they didn’t cost several thousand dollars lol!
We had ZERO puppy supplies. So, we ran around town picking up what we thought we would need to possibly bring a new puppy home that night.
Then, we drove two hours to a tiny town in Wisconsin that we pass through to get to my Parent’s house in Janesville. We stopped at a gas station and ate beef jerky and bad cheese curds in the car, on the way there. A dinner of champions lol.
It felt so rushed, we felt unprepared. But, at the same time, it seemed to flow, it seemed right.
OMG how do you choose just 1 puppy from an entire litter?!?!
I wanted to take all of them home. Not really, but seriously, it’s a challenge to not want to bring home more then one puppy at the same time lol.
Anyways, we were both open to getting either a lab puppy, or the husky lab mix, however, we both have always admired huskies.
She was the last one left in her litter, so I guess she was meant to be ours.
We took turns calling both of our parent’s on the drive home to tell them the news. They had no idea that we were planning to get a puppy, no one did, so they were all surprised, but excited for us.
A recap: We started seriously talking about getting a puppy 2 weeks before we actually got her. The day we got her was the same day we officially made the decision to become dog owners.
It was a whirlwind, but a cute one!
How old is Koda?
We got Koda at 10 weeks old.
She is now 18 weeks, or about 5 months old.
The first handful of pictures you see were taken within the first week or two we had her.
OMG she has grown!!!
When we got her she weighed about 28 pounds, now, she weighs 38 pounds!
The first 2 weeks:
You guys, the first two weeks of owning a puppy were SO HARD!!!
Koda needed to be watched literally EVERY SECOND that she wasn’t in her kennel. Her constant energy, and curiosity to get into EVERYTHING we own was exhausting.
We had to get up at least once during the night, and early in the morning to let her outside. So, between the constant amount of attention that was required during the day, and waking up during the night, we were both constantly exhausted.
And let’s just not talk about the puppy biting. Let’s just say puppy biting HURTS. It’s no fun!
I am not going to lie. It was hard.
I even doubted if I could do this. Was I really a capable of having a dog?!
I am not naive, friends, I truly knew going into this that a puppy has a lot of energy, and needs a lot of care and attention. I knew that it would be a lifestyle change.
But, like most things in life, you don’t REALLY know until you go through it.
So, we just took each moment, and each day at a time.
We both struggled to get the bare minimum of work done, let alone house chores. We both took a nap once a day, while Koda was also napping ha!
I am not a mother of a human child, yet, but I can see why comparisons are made between raising a puppy, and raising a human child lol!
The training progress:
Training has been a learning experience for us all.
I realized quickly, that I had no idea how to train a puppy. As I said before, Koda is my first dog.
Ari, my roommate’s dog was taught the commands by my roommate, she simply showed them to me, after she did all the hard work. Paul grew up with a dog, but he of course wasn’t in charge of the training, so he didn’t know how to train a puppy very well either.
We did what every millennial does, we watched you tube video after you tube video about how to train a puppy. (I highly recommend both McCann Dogs, and Zak George, if you’re in need of dog training advice).
We also signed her up for a puppy training class.
She actually got potty training down fairly quickly.
Because we were both home all the time we were able to stick to a schedule. We set a timer for every 30 to 45 minutes and took her outside. She did have some accidents here and there, but, often we realized it was because we dropped the ball on sticking to the schedule.
YAAAY, points for KODA!
Also, points for having hard wood floor and literally NO carpet in our house. Easy clean up!
What it’s like to have a puppy in -20 degrees (F) weather?
Of course, we happened to get a puppy the exact same time that we had two weeks of -20 degrees with wind chill.
At least Koda is half husky!!! There were times that I wished I was husky too lol!
Also, we had tons of snow (see pictures below). Koda, loved it! She was up to her armpits in snow, but she couldn’t get enough of it!
She would hop around in the snow, eat it, roll around, dig, and burry her face in the snow. It was a joy to watch, and made the harsh winter days do much more fun.
With that being said. It is quite the challenge to train a puppy outside when you can’t take your glove off to grab the treats.
Needless to say, we need to work on leash training soon.
Living with a puppy and a cat:
If you’ve been following my blog for a while you may know that we have a cat named Luna.
Koda and Luna aren’t best cuddle buddies just yet, fingers crossed they will be one day.
When Koda sees Luna, Koda sometimes gets excited, but a playful excited. And Luna hisses and hunches up if they get too close. We keep Koda on a leash at all times, so we can keep her in line when needed.
For the most part, Luna keeps her distance by staying in high places…or upstairs lol.
Luna has gotten more and more bold and gotten closer to Koda. Luna does have her front claws, there has been one cat swipe made to Koda. Koda was bleeding everywhere and I think she learned a bit of a lesson.
As Koda continues to grow, learn, and phase out of her puppy energy, I hope Luna and Koda can be the best of friends.
Koda in the present:
After having Koda for about 1 1/2 months things have gotten way easier. Every week keeps getting easier.
She can now sleep through the night (most of the time), without needing to be let outside. Her potty training has gotten even better. Now, she mostly has an accident when she’s overly excited.
Koda is so smart. Once we learned how to teach her commands, she has caught on quickly.
She now knows sit, down, stay, wait, and leave it, pretty well. And, she is better about not ALWAYS jumping up on us, or the table. She graduated from puppy training school. YAY!
We no longer need to keep hawk-like super vision on her when she’s out of her kennel. YES! Finally!
She can be real sweet, when she’s not hyper. She loves hugs, she leans right in. She likes lots of pets, and is so excited to meet new people.
As the weather started to warm up, and the massive amounts of snow melted we were able to throw balls for her in her back yard. She LOVES it. And, it burns off a lot more of her energy then walks do.
Things were so hard at first. I had so many doubts, but, this was a new experience for all 3 of us.
Now, I realize that she was the perfect puppy for us.
I am so excited to continue to watch her grow into a loyal, reliable companion. We are looking forward to hiking with her, taking her on so many walks, take her camping, and on so many other adventures that we have always dreamed about doing with our dog.
Thank you for being here to share this journey with us. I would love to share more updates of Koda as she grows.
Be sure to scroll through the remaining pictures below.
Be ready for so much puppy CUTENESS!!!!
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