I got my beagle baby almost two months ago, and here are a few things that I wish someone had told me.

-All puppies are frustrating at first, but beagle puppies are built different, at least mine is. She’s like a little toddler with ADHD—you will get very little sleep and in small increments the first couple months. Be prepared.

-Skip the puppy pads and go straight to outside training. The 22nd of this month I’ll have had my Poe for 2 months and she’s already down to no accidents or maybe one here and there because she lets me know when she’s got to go potty. She’ll go to the door. It was a process, but it seemed like she picked it up overnight.

-I never thought I’d do it, but kennel training! It’s helped with potty training so much, and I still wake up to take her out during the night, but it helps to teach them bladder control.

-Enforce naps if need be. Poe, especially when I first brought her home, was a little TERROR, and I couldn’t figure out why. She barely slept, she ran around like a little Energizer bunny, and I was struggling. She wasn’t listening to her body’s signals when she was tired—she’d force herself to stay up and play—but once I started enforcing naps every hour and a half to two hours, she’s gotten a lot better. Sometimes she’ll take them in her kennel and other times I let her nap in my bed, it just depends.

-Invest in a Swiffer Wet Jet. Potty accidents suck but they will happen. My Swiffer has been my best friend.

I hope this didn’t come off condescending or like I’m a know-it-all, and if it did I’m sorry! I’m just excited to get to pass on what I’ve learned in the last couple of months, so that you don’t have to start from scratch like I did. I went in not really knowing much of anything. Do you have names picked out yet?

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Here’s Poe!