Giving a Puppy as a gift
The topic of giving a puppy as a gift is a very controversial one. For a very good reason, as an uncle or aunt it might seem like a fantastic idea to give someone that gushes over your pet every time they visit a gift of a new puppy, but what if they didn’t really want one?
The giving of gifts over the holiday season, at birthdays and other celebration events has always been exchanged in times of good fun amid lots of happy laughter. But before you sour a relationship forever it would be recommended that you do two very important things before you embark upon your puppy buying mission.
Giving the gift outside the home
Firstly you would be very well advised to do a lot of research about whether the person actually wants a puppy and which type of puppy that they would like. In fact it would be advisable to remove the element of surprise and have that person accompany you to the place where you are buying the puppy from so that they can choose the puppy for themselves. Choosing from a litter is a very personal choice and you would be advised to let the receiver of the gift do it for themselves and choose the sex of the new puppy at the same time. If I bought my wife a male puppy without telling her – she would simply send me straight back the next day to change it, and how the hell do you exchange a puppy?
Giving the gift inside the home
Giving a gift of a puppy to a member of your own family is a little different and could be handled as a surprise. Naturally depending upon the age of the child you would handle the choosing of the puppy differently and the older a child gets the more you should involve them in the choice of type and sex of the new puppy.
Please allow for the age of the child as small breeds of dog are possible likely to get injured if the child that will be playing with it the most is a little young. At the same time you need to think about the yard area and other factors as to where they will play the most, the amount of exercise area needed and other important factors.
Goodies with the puppy
While you might think that giving a puppy as a gift was a brilliant idea, and might be, but you need to remember that there are a lot of accessories that are needed with this new pet. If the household already has a dog or two then things like food and water bowls are probably not necessary. However it is always advisable to have new bowls for every puppy added to the house as you could end up with a lot of dog fights over food territories.
There are a whole lot of items that you should get with a new puppy like baskets, blankets, toys, chewy toys, treats food and things like a walking lead and a collar.
Finally a good dog guide book could also be a very welcome addition to the collection as it would be appropriate and give the pet owner good tips on the upkeep of their new pet.
