Meet Pickle and his humans, Xanthe and Dan!  Pickle is a 6 month old Miniature Dachshund who has been living up to his name ever since they brought him home.

Bringing a puppy into your life is a joyful and momentous occasion with plenty of new things to learn and adapt to.  We caught up with Xanthe and Dan to find out more about their experience…

“ Getting a puppy and becoming dog owners was something we had talked about for a while.  Our initial plan was to wait until we got married and bought a house so we could make sure we had the best environment possible to raise a little bundle of energy.  But 2020 had other ideas and we had to put our plans on hold.

As lockdown continued our busy life became less busy, and with the opportunity for Dan to start working from home more, we decided the time was right to get a puppy.  We spent a lot of time researching the best breed for us and our lifestyle, as well as making sure we were finding genuine breeders with the proper credentials.  It was really important to us not to unwittingly support puppy farming or the illegal importation of puppies as the demand for them grew.

When we found Pickle we just knew he was the one!  We were able to go and meet him and his mum along with his siblings and he was so affectionate and mischievous.  A month later it was time to bring him home and that’s when the fun started!  Even though Dan was at home, his work as a trainee trade mark attorney could be pretty full on, and as I am a nurse working shifts, sometimes we can end up on what feels like different time zones.

This meant that keeping track of Pickle’s day and trying to give him the structure he needed was trickier than we anticipated.  But luckily we found the PitPat dog activity monitor.  So even if we were not in the house at the same time, it was easy for us to check in with Pickle’s activity throughout the day, just by pressing the button and looking at the data on our phones.  We could quickly see how much walking, running and playing he had done, and compare that to his tailored exercise goal.  This made it really easy to know whether it was playtime or naptime that he needed.  Having a text chat for when his last wee, poo or meal has proved invaluable too!

In fact, when it comes to food Pickle has definitely been the opposite of what we expected.  He is not motivated by food at all and encouraging him to eat is not always easy.  Having chosen a Dachshund as our breed of choice we always knew we would need to keep a close eye on his weight, but we didn’t expect it would be to make sure he was gaining enough!  PitPat has really helped us there too.  The weight management feature in the app is a simple way to keep track of where he is and we can share that and all the other data with our vet to make sure he is developing and growing as he should.  We don’t know where we’d be without it!

Owning a puppy has definitely had its challenging moments but it has also been an absolute joy to watch Pickle grow and see his personality start to shine through.  We’re sure we’ve got plenty more challenges to overcome but puppy cuddles make it all so worth it!”

What a happy pup!  And if you have a little pup at home like Pickle who would rather indulge in zoomies than their dinner, why not join the pack and get them a PitPat too?  

Discover all the ways that PitPat can give you a helping paw and get your puppy off to a flying start.  We got you!

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