Your First Dog: What to Expect

What is it like to own your first dog? We list the many surprises that we faced with our first dog, Hazel. We tell you what we wish we had known in advance, what we would do differently next time, and what we learned the hard way. We also discuss general pros and cons of dog ownership.

We did a lot of dog research before bringing Hazel into our family. Nevertheless, we still faced a constant barrage of surprises that no book, web site, or other dog owner had prepared us for. Given our prior research, why did we face so many surprises?

We think the problem is that much of the advice we took was from "experts." The experts likely grew up with dogs and/or had multiple dogs over their lifetimes. The shock of bringing a first dog into their family was something that either they never knew (because their parents had handled any problems when they were children) or it was something they had long since forgotten about. We are not experts, but ordinary people, and we have done our best here to tell you what to expect with your first dog.

Hazel the Chocolate Labrador has enriched our family life in ways we never expected. My family and I wish you the best of success with your own first-dog adventure.