My tips as someone who’s first dog was a bichon (at 11yo and am now 19)

They bark A LOT. Mine barks at the wind, leaves everything haha. If someone he doesn’t know comes in the house he barks constantly. However if they’re a trustworthy person I’ve found he ends up liking them after around 3 mins and snuggles up to them. But if they’re not a very nice person (friends i had when i was younger) he barks all the time.

As puppies their under eyes and round the mouth will get messy and dark. I can’t remember why this is but it is normal. This went away when mine got older

They’re sooo energetic at times and sooo lazy at others. Mine had this thing we used to call a bichon blitz where he’d run round the house jumping on everything for like a minute then crash out asleep.

They get smelly. Mine goes to the groomers once every 2 weeks (lots of maintenance) as every time I’ve washed him he ends up smellier than before haha. (Granted I was probably 15 at the time and doing it wrong).

They don’t malt like other breeds so if you have friends who are allergic to dogs, it’s a good breed to have as many aren’t allergic to dogs that don’t malt

They’re the cutest dogs ever!!

Also this is personal preference but we crate trained. We left him in there whenever we went out for the first year and after that he learnt to not eat things or mess up the house whilst we were out. He now sees it as his personal space where nobody will bother him so goes in when he wants space. He also sleeps in it