Is owning a dog like riding a bicycle?

Is owning a dog like riding a bicycle? I hope so, because for all but the last decade I’ve had at least one and up to half-a-dozen furry companions in my life. Of course a lot has changed in the last decade, and that’s what has me worried as the countdown to our puppy has begun.

Yes, you read that correctly. One of the family criteria for our move was to go somewhere where we could realize our shared desire for a dog. We recruited our housekeeper with this in mind (previous dog experience and actually likes them); we chose our house with this in mind (dog-friendly with a large enough garden); and we even selected our car with a full-grown dog in mind (Honda CRV, because the rear had more vertical space than the other cars we were considering.)

Our future dog was born a month ago and is just now opening his eyes. We have named him Otter. A yellow Labrador Retriever, ‘Premier’s Otter’ as he will be known to the Thailand Kennel Club, boasts a show champion dad, ‘Romeo Forever’, and a mom named ‘Vanilla’ who hails from India and who is noted from having calm pups. This melt-your-heart photo comes to us courtesy of breeder Matthew at Premier Labradors. All this fancy stuff aside, our aspiration for Otter is nothing more than a happy and well-behaved dog. We know that depends mostly on us, and here are the five things that make this experienced dog owner anxious.

1. The Time-Space Continuum

Ten years ago, every hour outside of work and working out was mine to manage. My sepia-toned memories of that era include whiling away hours at book shops and cafes and leaping into spontaneous, madcap activities.

Fast forward to the present and I have Virgin Active calling me to find out if everything is ok, because this founder member of their newest Bangkok gym hasn’t shown up for weeks. Outside of work hours, I plan my time with two of the most important people in my life. So why would we add a fourth being to the mix? Will we be doing doggy things together, or will this canine fraction our time?

2. Sayonara sleep ins

Having to wake up earlier to fit in an early morning walk isn’t all that bad. The fact that I am an early bird is a good match and those walks will at least mean I am getting some exercise (even better than the treadmill in the air conditioned gym, right?) On days when I go into our office, that means rising at 5:30am, yikes! And on days when I telework… it still means rising at 5:30am because dogs benefit from routine. I have a good role model in this — my dog-owning big brother, who never misses his appointed twice daily walks with his pair of ‘domesticated wolves.’

3. The routine rut

Speaking of routines, prior to being a mom but being a dog owner in New York at the time, I famously dropped this line among a group of parents with young kids, “In some ways, having a dog is like having a child.” Fifteen years later they still remind me of it from time to time!

While I would add an extremely long list of caveats to that statement, I still feel that a dog is a significant responsibility. From maintaining a schedule that works for all and considering how spontaneity might be impacted for unplanned dinners and movies, to making plans for long weekends and holidays. (Luckily we have a secret asset, our dog-loving housekeeper!) Adding a dog to one’s life is a commitment for at least its lifetime.

4. Social suicide?

So is a dog going to be a nail in the coffin for our social life? Far from it. Just as I recall being known in my first New York neighborhood as “Amigo’s person,” so too our impending puppy ownership has already begun to knit us into a whole new canine social network. (Amigo was a rescue Staffordshire Terrier that made the transition with me from Cape Town to New York and was a favourite on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, commonly referred to by many of my Spanish Harlem neighbours as “pequeñito pitbull,” regardless of how many time I tried to explain otherwise.)

Here in Bangkok, there’s our vet-to-be, who connected us to Patrick the dog trainer, who wrote an article for Fay the fantastic owner of Shamu Shamu Pet Centre‘s incredibly produced magazine-catalogue, who gave us the run down on some of the dog-friendly spaces… And our new neighbour with the Golden Retriever… and so it keeps going.

5. Conflicting advice 

Finally, I’ve been reading up the latest thinking on dog care to refresh myself. Thankfully, dog training strategies have taken the same evolutionary path as child rearing ones, with conventional wisdom being that no dog deserves physical punishment. (Why did anyone believe otherwise? We never did in my childhood home.) Some strategies could be said to have gone over the anthropomorphic edge, but let’s leave that in the eye of the individual pet owner. However, I can attest that apart from agreeing to ‘spare the rod’ so to speak, the experts don’t agree on much else. It is like reading up on parenting or dieting. For example:

• Is it cruel to crate train, or it is exactly in alignment with your dog’s natural den instincts?
• Should you let your puppy cry it out, or not?
• Should you feed a raw diet, or is that a sure route to salmonella and impacted digestive tracts?
• Is your puppy eating too little, too much or just enough?
• How can you make sure your processed dog food is slave free?
• This is how much stimulation you should you provide to your puppy… Nope, that is too overwhelming.
• Do you subscribe to the Caesar pack theology or the more gentle strategy of Pippa Mattinson, Labrador virtuoso?

Here’s what I do know!

We’re coming up with a schedule and training programme that resonates with all three of us. The movie, ‘Marley and Me‘ was a recent watch and we could easily agree on aspects where we intend to do things differently. Of course, there is only so much predictability and planning one can bank on when a puppy is in question, especially with a breed that will be in puppyhood for the next 2-3 years!

There is one thing that has stayed with me in my dog-deprived decade, and like never forgetting how to ride a bicycle, I *do* think this remains true whatever kind of dog philosophy you subscribe to: we’re going to love our dog and I believe that he will return that affection. And that, will make it all worthwhile.