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- [Nikole Goncalves] Hey health nuts,
welcome back to my channel.
I'm here with Miss Cashew the boxer on Instagram,
who has eye boogers.
And today's video I'm chatting about 10 things,
I wish I knew before getting a puppy.
I know I'm not alone.
I never grew up with dogs,
so it was like a whole new experience when we got Cashew
and like said I know I'm not alone
and a lot of you guys maybe want a dog
and don't really know what to expect
and let me tell you it will change your life,
mostly for the better, but definitely will change it.
So I thought I would share with you guys 10 things
that I wish I knew, and I think you should know,
before getting a puppy.
Let's hop right in.
Alright, so the first thing that I think is important
to know when getting a new puppy is
that you will lose sleep.
Sleep is very precious,
and you may be taking it for granted right now
but when you get a new puppy
it's essentially like a newborn,
just much furrier and can walk already.
She basically, well, when you have a puppy,
they need to go out to use the washroom outside.
Like every couple of hours, so usually...
Oh, hopefully you can't hear her snoring.
Are you snoring?
It's funny that she's sleeping right now
as I'm talking about sleeping
but you basically have to take them out every couple
of hours to, to show them that you want them to go out,
like go potty outside and not in the house.
You will have accidents, I should say that as well.
So if you have any like rugs or anything
in your living space, remove them.
We just brought back out the rugs.
But we had them gone for a couple of weeks
just because like, why, why have the temptation
or just something else that you have to clean?
So she's been really, really good.
But at night, when you first get your puppy,
you're gonna be up every couple of hours,
you're gonna need to set your alarm,
you're not gonna be sleeping well
and we've been so fortunate that Cashew quickly started
just sleeping eight hours a night.
Thank you.
Like for real though, the first two weeks,
I was a zombie, I was just surviving.
And, yeah, I completely was just, like,
surviving off no sleep so just be aware
that you will have no sleep
and just to kind of switch,
have someone to kind of like, I don't know,
take turns going out in the middle of the night
with your puppy, because it will quickly add up
and then you'll be really tired all the time.
So luckily she sleeps eight hours now
and we are super grateful for being such a good puppy.
She's sleeping right now,
puppies sleep a lot,
just you still have to take them outside.
The next thing I wish I knew was,
you're gonna be outside a lot
and this may be like common sense to a lot of people
like, oh yeah, you walk a dog every day.
You walk the dog all the time,
so when you take them out to go potty
it's not like they go right away.
You're most of time just waiting, waiting,
practicing a lot of patience,
and it can take two minutes, 15 minutes, half an hour,
an hour and sometimes nothing happens.
And you're just outside all the time.
Rain or shine, you will be outside a lot
so it's been really great now
that we've been living in the house we have the backyard,
she can kind of run around in,
we'll usually take her for walks
but as a puppy you know they have a lot of energy,
a lot of energy when they are awake.
So you need to take them out,
you know, get that energy out so they can then
just sleep and grow and do puppy things.
So yeah, it's been really nice so now
that it is getting sunnier,
we're now in the Spring weather
it's been perfect time to get a puppy.
I highly recommend getting a puppy
during the nicer weather because like I said,
you're gonna be out a lot, and I dunno,
it's kinda nice though, I work from home
so it's been a good excuse to get outside more.
The next thing is the time and attention that puppies need,
and I was saying on Instagram,
that you know I've never had kids yet
but I feel like puppies are really close to having a kid,
and so many of you guys that watch my channel messaged me
and said yes I have both
and puppies are very much like having kids.
Obviously kids, I would say are more work,
but puppies need your attention.
She will let me know when she wants to play,
when she needs me just to like hang out with her, you know,
at this point, we're not having her
on the couch, in the bed and stuff,
so when I'm working in the living room,
or doing something on the couch,
she's looking at me as she wants the attention,
so a lot of times I end up just popping
a pillow on the floor, hanging out with her
and then she'll like fall asleep
but they want your attention all the time.
So if you're someone who is like, very like much
in your own world all the time
and I don't know, like,
you've just gotta like share your time,
and give them the love and attention that they need
because they need it, a lot.
The next thing to point out is that you will be home a lot
when you get a puppy.
So obviously, you know, we're working on crate training her.
She's really good at night,
she'll sleep eight hours in her bed, in her bedroom crate.
She's snoring so loud.
But she has a second crate that's here in the living room,
and she's not yet accustomed to it,
we are slowly training her.
It's hard. It's hard to put a puppy in a crate
and then like watch them cry and whine.
But that's something we're working on,
just get her used to it, so when we do leave the house,
not for very long but even if it's like an hour,
I need to be able to put her somewhere that's gonna be safe,
and she's not going to like destroy something
or go to the washroom all over the house.
And so just in the beginning, you gotta be home a lot.
I know a lot of people who just take a week off
when they get a puppy to properly train them
crate train them and just be there with them
because they're so little and dogs are pack animals
so they need to be around people or other dogs,
and they kind of just crave that,
so I'm, a lot of you guys assume,
in my assumptions video you guys assumed
that I was a house body.
I'm not, I love, I get Cabin Fever really quickly,
I love being outside, and being social,
so for me it's been a struggle.
She does like keep me occupied though,
I don't feel like I'm home all the time
and we'll go for walks and go to the pet store
and do things, but just FYI, you'll be home a lot
when you're training a new puppy
because they're just too little
to be left alone for too long
so just something to keep in mind
because yeah for me that's probably been
one of the biggest struggles.
But you have lots of family to babysit you.
The next thing you should know is that
you need to be disciplined, and not only with yourself,
but with your dog, so if you're learning
to have a well trained puppy,
she actually started puppy school last night.
You need to be consistent and on the same page
with your partner, or whoever is, whoever else is
in the house that's training your dog.
So, there are certain things you want to be consistent with,
with like how you feed them,
how you take them for a walk,
how you tell them to do things,
you know, puppies need to know what what words,
what command words mean different things.
So she knows if I'm asking her to wait
before I give her her food that she needs
to sit calmly and wait instead of like
just attacking the food bowl,
so whatever type of dog you're looking for,
you really need to put the work in
in the first like year or two,
in order to have a well trained dog,
and you need to be disciplined and consistent to,
in order to do that, so for instance you know
if we're putting food on the coffee table,
we will train her right then in there
that nope, like she needs to stay on her mat
when there's food that's not her food,
and yeah you just gotta be consistent
and discipline and you're basically you know,
teaching a newborn on how you want them
to behave in the home with you.
The next thing is, basically, that puppies are kinda
of like babies.
You have a lot of toys.
You have just dog things everywhere.
I have a dog like diaper bag, things take longer.
You take longer to leave the house,
you have to bring their bed and all their supplies with you
so just keep that in mind like
you are taking care of another being,
and it takes, you know, it takes doesn't take a village,
but it takes extra time so just be wary of that you know
if you're someone who doesn't like to be late,
like me, that you need to make sure
that you're giving yourself extra time to leave the house,
or just being more prepared,
I have like some stuff already set aside in a bag
in the closet if she needs to go somewhere.
I have to bring all of her supplies with her
so she's just like a little, little baby, little puppy baby.
The next advice I'll give you is that puppies
are all different and this is really important
because just like when you're a new mom or new parent,
everyone's giving you all this information
on what not to do, what to do,
and you're just feeling overwhelmed
and you don't want to be a bad parent
or paw-rent as we call it here.
It's important just to know that your puppy
is gonna to be different than someone else's puppy.
And you know it's good to like take people's feedback
into consideration, but to really do your own research,
talk to your vet, talk to your professionals
and talk to the people at the pet store to find out
what you should be doing with your puppy
and when I first announced that I got Cashew
on social media, obviously I got so many DMs
from you guys congratulating me,
which thank you so much,
it's like I'm super appreciative
that you guys are so supportive.
But I also got a lot of like you're doing this wrong,
don't do that, do this.
And, you know, and even like the food that we feed her,
all this information was just like coming at me
and I felt like everything I was doing was wrong
and I really just had to know my dog
and know what Cashew needs,
and I did my own research talked to my vet.
Even her food that she's on I made sure
that I checked with my vet to make sure
that it was good for her, and just know,
she's in very good hands.
We're giving her lots of love,
and just something, yeah, to remember
because every dog is different.
Some dogs will chew bones,
we're not giving Cashew bones
because I've heard things
that they can crack their teeth, blah blah blah,
and they have puppy teeth
and they're really fragile and gentle
so she's just been chewing softer things.
So yeah, everyone's gonna have a different opinion
and things work for different dogs.
I'm sure not all dogs sleep eight hours a night
and a lot of them need to be woken up.
So just like, you will get into a rhythm
and you will know your dog,
and just know that your dog is different.
Just like people, we're all different.
Alright, the next thing, which is an important thing,
if you're thinking of getting a puppy,
is that puppies, guess what,
they're expensive, yeah, (register chime)
apparently Matt knew this already,
and I think it's one of the reasons
he wanted to hold off on getting a puppy.
But yeah, puppies are very expensive.
There are so many things that you need
when bringing a dog into your home.
We actually met Cashew on a Sunday,
we didn't pick her up until Thursday
because even though she was ready to take home,
because Matt wanted to make sure we were prepared,
we had all the things that we needed.
We were fortunate enough to get some stuff
as a hand me down from Matt's mom.
Thank you, Terry.
Things like cages and crates and stuff,
those can be a couple hundred dollars,
so try to get them on Kijiji,
ask a friend or someone else that you know
that has a dog and maybe doesn't use them anymore.
Obviously, things like a bed, we had to buy,
toys, you need a lot of toys
so they don't chew your furniture,
you need different treats, and even like her,
she loves bully sticks, which do not Google what they are
because you'll just be disgusted
but they're expensive, they're like,
for the large pack they're like $20,
and she'll chew one up in no time.
So, they are expensive,
obviously you can like buy cheaper food
and buy cheaper toys and stuff
but it's still going to be an added expense.
If you're maybe a student and you're just struggling
to like feed yourself maybe wait
until you have the funds to get a puppy.
And that's just one thing I would let you know
that puppies are expensive and I'm happy I waited
to get a dog because we've already spent quite a lot
in vet bills, vet bills are crazy expensive,
so things to think about, puppy insurance.
All these vaccinations they need.
Are you going to get them spayed or neutered?
Lots of expenses that quickly pop up when you get a dog.
The next thing is that puppies grow so fast.
Can we just talk about the fact
that like Cashew's doubled in size since we got her.
She's so big now, which I'm happy she's growing,
'cause I want to be able to take her on hikes
and the beach and the cottage, that we don't have,
but we want to rent one the summer,
and it's been really nice to see her growing and be healthy
but at the same time, we're not gonna be able
to hold her much longer and I'm so sad about that,
so basically I'm just telling you guys
to take as many, as many photos as you can.
There is no such thing as too many puppy photos
because you will regret it if you don't,
and I've already, I luckily did a full photoshoot
when she was like, only here for a couple days.
And I'm so happy I did,
I wish, I still wish I took even more
but I figure like I have a lot of puppy photos already
but yeah, just something to keep in mind,
they grow so fast I think they grow like,
most of their weight in like the first few months.
I'm not quite sure but like she's so big already.
She's gonna get big.
I don't think I mentioned, she's a boxer mastiff mix.
So she's gonna be a big girl.
And she's a snorer.
At night I'm like, I can hear her snoring,
I'm like oh, how do you stop a dog from snoring?
You don't, you're just like, "Cashew, ssh!"
Alright, last but not least,
(laughs)
last but not least, puppies bring so much joy and love
into your life, and that is like the main reason
you should get a dog, despite all of the other things.
She has just been so much fun and such a joy
to have in our household.
I cannot imagine life without her now,
like Matt and I just like stare at her
and anytime she does anything cute
we're just like "mmm so cute"
like, how did we not have you before.
She is, I would say free therapy,
but it's not free because you gotta pay for the puppy stuff
but like she is just constant puppy therapy,
you know for someone like me,
who deals with like a lot of stress and anxiety.
I can guarantee like that, I'm just like a test,
I'm a testimonial that like puppies,
reduce stress and anxiety.
Mine has like decreased significantly
and you're just like more in the present moment
you're not worrying about things as much,
you're just thinking about, you know,
taking care of another animal outside yourself
like if you're someone, like Matt and I,
you know we've been together for many years
and we have our own routine
and we're just very independent
and having to take care of something else
other than ourselves has been a really nice
like challenge and just like, yeah,
it's been a really nice thing,
like growth, like personal growth I think as well.
Yeah, it's just, she's been a joy to have and I,
I think having a pet or an animal in your life
is an amazing thing and I've already seen
like my niece and nephew really warm up to her
and I just, yeah, I think that everyone should have a pet,
not everyone but like, if you can, if you can make it work,
and it fits within your lifestyle, honestly,
the best thing ever, so.
Alright so those were my 10 things
I wish I knew before getting a puppy.
Oh sorry, did you want that?
Did you want that, I'm sorry.
There's your carrot, there's your carrot.
So those are my 10 things I wish I knew
before getting a puppy, hopefully they will help you out.
If you have a puppy, or if you're thinking
about getting a puppy, honestly,
she's the sweetest thing ever
and you should totally follow her on your Instagram account,
Cashew_the_boxer, I will link it down below,
and let me know if you have a dog or a cat
or an animal or a pet.
Leave me a comment down below letting me know what it is
and what the name is and, yeah,
you guys we can all follow each other on her Instagram.
So thank you so much for watching guys,
obviously this was like a different style of video
than I normally do.
Don't worry, lots of smoothies and recipes
and healthy living tips coming your way.
But obviously Cashew is a big part of our life,
and I've gotten a lot of requests for some puppy videos.
I also wanna do a puppy haul video on some things
that we've picked up for Cashew that I think are so sweet.
Thank you so much for watching guys, have a fabulous day.
And goodbye from Cashew and I.
Hey Cash, hey.
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