Adopting Our Homestead Puppy
Meet Luna!
She’s a very well behaved Labrador Retriever puppy.
For our homestead, we wanted to adopt rather than buy a puppy from someone. Adopting can be risky business because you don’t know what the puppy has experienced. Trauma, neglect, abuse, being bounced around from lots of “homes” can lead your pet to express negative behaviors. These factors can be especially difficult to manage the older the pet is.
We loved the idea of adopting, but wanted to reduce the risk of behavior issues by adopting a puppy. We wanted to train from early on to help prevent behavior issues. And nearly immediately after we decided this is what we were going to do, we found an adorable little lab at a local adoption organization.
They selected our application (out of 20 others!) and we were soooo excited to go meet her. Another family got first pick because they already had a family dog to match with the puppies, but we were getting the remaining sister!
And then, only a couple of hours before we were scheduled to adopt, the adoption was postponed. The foster mom had come home from work and found that one of the puppies was sick and had thrown up. Because of the risk of parvo, a sometimes severe stomach virus, since a couple of the litter mates were being fostered together, they whisked they litter mates off to the vet. And it was a very good thing they did!
At the vet, they tested positive for parvo and got 24/7 care for a few days. Finally, after lots of healing and rest, we got to meet our little Luna a week and a half later. She’s been home two weeks now, and is such a great puppy.
But still very much a puppy. And by that I mean: she gets us up before 6, pees in the house about once a day despite her many gallivants outside about the homestead, and has razor puppy teeth. All of that goes with the puppy territories. She’s learning the rules, and how to be gentle when playing rather than breaking our skin with those barbed puppy teeth! She knew “sit” before she ever came home (thank you foster mom!), and learned her name very quickly. She knows “lay down,” “come,” and “wait,” all with hand signals to help reinforce her learning, thanks to lots of little, soft treats.
She loves the rugs, her puppy blanket and pillow, and the couch. Yep. She’s spoiled rotten.
We love her so much!
Her homestead chores are to scare rabbits away from the garden, watch the chickens, eat bugs on the patio, and follow me everywhere I go to keep me super safe, even from one room to the next. #personalsecuritydetail
We hope this both inspires you to adopt a puppy if you’re seeking to expand your furry family, but also to serve as a reminder that puppies require a lot of time and attention. You need to make time to train them on the right rules and behaviors so that they understand what is okay and what’s not. But remember, it’s a learning process so it takes time.
