It was a childhood dream for us to have a dog as part of or family. This year in 2019, it has been the perfect year for us to get a dog. Preparations in getting a dog starts 6 months prior to selecting the dog. We signed up in Facebook pages for dog groups and visited dog parks to understand the life of pawrents and its commitment. Based on our research, we were committed to get a dog that is active, loving and who us to be his family.
Visiting numerous pet shops, we were surprised to see the dogs having its own personality and character, being social, playing around with each other and enthusiasm and vibes it brought when we entered Pets Arena. Dogs were given enough space to roam around and given sufficient care through helpers. We have selected the Pets Arena as our shop to get our pet as it is the best option compared to others.
We had shortlisted on few dogs at Pets Arena, but Archie is the one whom we chose over others. There were few criteria to choose the right dog.
- 1) A dog shows interest to come to you for example: We spent at least 2 hours with Archie and he was with us through out the duration not even once he was distracted over something else.
- 2) A dog is active like circling the cage before you pick up.
- 3) A dog that is well taken care off. There was a side door, a link to its storage space, and dogsdoesn’t run away to escape.
- 4) A dog that doesn’t seek your attention all the time. For example: When we were playing withother dogs Archie wanted our attention and showed his interest but didn’t claim for it.
We have planned to collect Archie one week later as we need to prepare our house. It is essential for your dog to have a welcoming environment such as its own place, a place where guests can play with your dog, other essentials such as food, water bowls, leash and mattress. The day of picking up your dog marks a critical day and would suggest to spend lot of time getting to know him.
First week with Archie was more or less we had spent the time with him. We slept near his crate, we have trained him to our schedule. It is necessary to plan the days activities of your dog and follow it diligently. A typical day looks like breakfast and morning walk, crate time pick him up after lunch, crate time, play time of about one hour and walking, dinner and play time and finally bed time around 10pm. Having a new dog is like having a baby and hence it is required to have lots of patience and understanding to train him. For example: I was thinking that dogs know naturally to play with a ball. The fact is that I had to play hit the ball to him hundred times for him to pick once and of course treat is a must when he picks. After few days of trial and error, he had learnt to pick a ball.
After two weeks of orientation with Archie, we had decided to get a professional trainer to assist in understanding the dog further. Joseph is recommended by Pets Arena is a AVA credited trainer having trained in Sweden.
Joseph gave a good perspective and taught us how to communicate with Archie. Our actions and instructions are to be clear and concise for the dog. We will need to stay calm and patience in terms of training a dog. Beagles being a greedy for food dog and the effectiveness in managing exercise and food consumption. A distinctive difference between training methods and its effectiveness such as positive and negative oriented training, benefits, drawbacks and usage of E-collar, being firm and effective in terms of instructions.
Being a first time pawrent, we tend to be lenient towards dogs but not focusing on discipline. Joseph being experienced in terms of training dogs for various purposes like military and household. He has guided us on when to be firm, when to be lenient and how to keep dogs control in an effective manner. We believed in building relationship with Archie and hence Joseph guided us on how to link the training and our relationship with Archie in building discipline and character.
We have seen a clear difference in Archie’s behavior and our relationship with Archie has strengthened significantly every week.
