For all the amazing quotes you have on puppies, the reality of actually having a puppy in your home is quite different. I won't say it's not amazing, in all fairness, puppies are absolutely amazing and delightful. But the not so delightful parts, like cleaning their pee and poop and getting them to stop making your house look like a perpetual disaster zone does take away from the amazing-ness of it all. I guess it's how motherhood is romanticized. It's not that motherhood isn't wonderful, but moms know just how difficult life is on a dat-to-day basis.

It's much more difficult if your first dog has been a relatively good pup. In my case, my elder one - Kiki, has been an angel. She's almost an ideal dog now and as a pup indulged in minimal destruction of property and minimal biting of parents. Au contraire, my little one - Lexie - really feels like she is the devil incarnate. Well to throw more light, Kiki is a 2 year old Lhasa Apso who looks like a cross between a teddy bear and a dog; while Lexie is a 3 month old Beagle who cocks her head to either side at every seemingly strange/new sound.