When we first got Leo we didn’t know how many dogs we would have. I had just made myself clear about one thing that we will adapt our life to the dogs. I believe that when you decide to have a dog or a kid, it is because you want to take care, raise, and guide another living being, especially with a kid. But none of them asked anything, you decided and that’s why I think that we should put them before us.
I often argue with people who get a dog when they feel lonely, but a dog is not just there to fill up your lonely time or keep you company when you have no plans. Dogs are very social animals, then need us, they need to be around us, not necessarily all the time of course. My dogs are home alone for about 3 hours in the morning and almost 4 hours in the afternoon. And they enjoy that routine. When we leave they go to our bed and nap until we come back. I know they enjoy it because when we are off work for a few days and we stay at home, they can’t have that same routine, that same pattern. Obviously they enjoy the fact that we are home with them but they can’t sleep and rest the same way. When we will get up and go to another room they would open their eyes and check. They won’t follow us each time but they just wake up to check.

Back to why a fourth dog. Leo even if we would be home most of the time needed a companion. So we decided to have Chester, I was working from home at that time, so it was the best time to get a second dog. But Leo and Chester were barely 13 months apart. So we knew that the chances to lose them both back to back was huge and plus that if the order is respected Chester would lose his buddy and be alone. This is another reason, outside the fact we LOVE dogs, that a third dog became a possibility. The only thing was we wanted to have a bigger span between this pooch and Chester. We got Pumpkin after Chester turned 3.
Now Leo turned 7, Chester 6 and Pumpkin will be 3 in October, so by mid November or December Wifey will go pick up the new dog.
I will not know, the breed nor the sex of the new puppy. It will be a total surprise!
I am so looking forward to it!

2 weeks ago as we were walking with the dogs at the dog park wifey mentioned to me that we will have to pick a name for the new puppy as the litter was about to be born.
We usually pick the name alternatively, she picked Leo (who is a Leo), I picked Chester (reference to the movie the Kid), I influenced her but she picked Pumpkin (she was born in October), so it was my turn. One thing we always do is regardless of who picks the name the significant other has to validate. We both want to enjoy the name, this is why we always look for consensus.

So what would be a nice name for a puppy which I still don’t know the sex?
Obviously your dog name will impact how people perceive you and your dog. When we are in an environment with other dogs and we hear them being called we all have reactions, especially to some goofy names. Plus we attempt to make matches between these dogs’ names and how they behave including their personality. Sometimes it gets brilliant, sometimes not so much. We do make these connections, obviously dogs don’t. But for sure there are some names  we perceive better than others.

On the training side, short names tend to be more effective for your dog. I wouldn’t go over two syllabes (Le-O, Ches-Ter, Pump-Kin).

For this one I’m using another movie, that we both loved with Wifey: Finding Nemo.
Puppy’s name will be, Bruce (fish are friends not food) or Dory (just keep swimming).

Litter was born and Wifey is in touch with the person from who we will get the puppy. They arranged a meeting for Wifey to go there and choose the puppy out of the litter. We have the 1st pick in the draft 🤣.

Before she goes we will grab a few pieces of fabric or rags and put our scents, Wifey’s, the dogs, the cat and myself. This way the process of bringing him/her home in a few months will be less traumatizing. Because these scents won’t be new for him/her. You can watch the video on what to do before to get a puppy (here).

After Wifey will choose the one, the breeder will be able to use the name I picked to familiarized the puppy with that sound. When the puppy will arrive I’ll start the training with Teaching Your Dog His Name and The Recall.

Of course there will be potty training and crate training as well. But when the dog won’t be sleeping or eating, in the little time I will have, I will be focusing on these 2 things. Puppies have about a minute or two of attention span so you have to be careful on what you want to work on and keep it very very short.

Now all of this is happening and I am super excited!