How to: raise a puppy in New York City
We brought Gertie the pug home in June: at 12 weeks old, she was four adorable pounds that wreaked complete havoc on our lives. As cute as she was and as thrilled as we were to have her, the first few weeks were incredibly tough. Although I grew up always having a dog in the suburbs (aka backyard and dog door!), I quickly learned that having a puppy in the city is a whole different ball game. We had to figure how to fit a needy little creature into busy lives, long commutes and a not very pet-friendly neighborhood. It took a reconfiguring of our morning/evening routines, plenty of flexibility and compromises, and lots of patience with each other and our pug child. Also: it’s expensive, in the ways you’d think and some ones we didn’t expect.
We have a bunch of friends who have recently moved in with significant others (or sometimes not!) and are considering getting a dog. I always tell them: it’s harder and more expensive that you think. And then I lend them my pug for the weekend so that they truly understand—although this was much more effective before she was completely housetrained (!). That said, here are a few of our greatest lessons learned—as well as the resources and products that we now swear by.
Choosing a puppy
We opted for a purebred pug puppy, and found Gertie through a Staten Island breeder named Patti Puglady Pugz (she legally changed her name—that’s how much she loves pugs). Pugs are really great apartment dogs since they’re under 20 pounds and fairly lazy, and they have such funny personalities—and they’re fairly tough to find as rescues. One thing to note about getting a puppy from a breeder is that the timeline can be tough to predict, based on when litters are due and if you have strong preferences on genders or colors. However, it did give us a couple of months to make sure our finances, apartment and (vacation) schedules were all ready.
That said, we have other friends who adopted mutts who were a bit older and already (completely or mostly) housetrained—and their transition period was much easier. Badass Brooklyn Animal Rescue is a great local organization if you’re interested in adopting.
Get insurance!!!
This is honestly something that I never really considered when we had pets growing up, but it’s a must living in New York City. I’ve heard horror stories of pneumonia spreading among dogs in apartment elevators, and who knows what they manage to eat off the street in the nanosecond when you’re not watching them (the number of chicken bones on our street in Brooklyn is astounding). We currently have Healthy Paws and I really like it for a few reasons: you can choose the amount of reimbursement you want (aka 80%, 90%, etc.) and how much you want to contribute per month toward the deductible. Most importantly, it covers congenital diseases–which is super important for purebreeds like pugs. It doesn’t cover routine visits, but I feel better knowing we have if anything major ever happens to her. 
Learning how to be a good dog owner
Our breeder told us there are no bad dogs, just bad owners—and when it comes to puppies, I think that’s so true! It’s incredibly frustrating at the beginning because they’re these little blobs of fur that don’t really understand anything, but it’s been incredible to actually watch Gertie’s transition from unpredictable pup to well-behaved dog. We never took her to “puppy school” but we were very dedicated to regularly training her at home and making sure she was socialized. We swore by The Art of Raising a Puppy and How to Housebreak Your Dog in 7 Days, and my boyfriend regularly watched Zak George’s YouTube tutorials.
Figuring out a new schedule
I’m in charge of the mornings, my boyfriend takes care of evenings and we have a dogwalker who comes around noon. (Our dogwalker is a godsend by the way—Gert absolutely loves him, he’s super flexible with our schedule and he helps out when I do things like forget to turn on the crockpot.) But it does make it tough for us both to have after-work plans—we either have to go home first and let her out, coordinate with our neighbors to take her out (they have a puppy too, so we trade off) or only one of us can go. However, we’ve discovered a lot of great new TV shows and have eaten a lot of delicious Blue Apron—not mad at it, but it has been a big shift in lifestyle.
Committing to crate training
One of the things that I’m most grateful that we did at the beginning was commit to crate training (for both sleeping and to keep her from destroying our apartment when we’re not there). Dogs are naturally den animals, so they like having a little space of their own. We worked to make sure that her den was a really positive place: it was never used as a punishment, and we tried not to bug her when she was in there (since a lot of times she’d opt to go nap in there). I keep it lined with some old towels and sheets, and always make sure she has at least one toy to snuggle with and one toy to chew on. Even when it was tough at the beginning, we were steadfast in making sure she slept in her crate every night—and now it makes it so much easier to travel with her since the collapsible crate ends up being a familiar place.
We also set up her “activity room” now when we’re at work, which is a pen that connects to her crate—she usually chases a treat ball around for a bit, and then settles into her crate to nap. I always leave NPR on during the day too so that she has human voices to listen to!
I also never thought that I’d be the type of dog-owner who has a nanny cam, but we have the Logitech Circle and I can’t imagine life without it! At the beginning, it was really reassuring–we would hear her crying when we left the apartment and feel so guilty, but now I check on the Circle and see that she is basically fast asleep within five minutes of us leaving. In an non-helicopter-parent way, it’s also nice to confirm when our dog walker is coming and going.
Housetraining when you live in an apartment
One of the best advice we received was NOT to paper-train her. A little controversial, but basically, we didn’t want to train her to go on newspaper and then have to re-train her to go outside a few months later. So even before she had all of her shots, we took her outside our apartment building to go to the bathroom (on command: get busy!). Our vet’s biggest recommendation was to avoid grass or dirt since that’s where diseases live, so we stuck to one patch of sidewalk. We both spent SO much time in those early months going up and down the elevator (tiny puppy bladder) and walking outside wondering (hoping, praying) that she’d go to the bathroom: in hindsight, I should have listened to more podcasts during all that time! One of the big reasons we wanted to bring home a puppy in summer was so that we could housetrain her before bad weather set in, and now that we have a (99%) housetrained pug right as the weather gets miserable–I’m so glad we timed it that way!
We also took up all of our rugs for her first few months, and were adamant about using this product to clean up any time she had an accident. I’m also very grateful for Bitter Apple spray for saving our couches, walls, rugs and basically everything else a puppy mouth is interested in chewing.
Sleeping through the night
We’re lucky that Gert is a pretty low-key pug who gladly will sleep for 8-9 hours at a stretch, but a big part of making it easy to put her to bed is what David deems “sleep hygiene.” He takes her out for a late-night walk to relieve herself, which usually wakes her up a bit. Then he sits with her on the couch until she falls asleep on her own before he puts her to sleep in her crate. When she was a babe, she used to mew a bit when she was awake in the morning and that would wake me up and I’d take her out. Now I usually have to drag her out of the crate in the morning when I wake up for her morning walk! (Note: the photo above is not representative of her sleeping at night! She is always in her crate!)
Getting around the city
One of the best advice I got from a fellow pup-owner in New York City was to get her started on normal city activities as early as possible so that she would get used to all the sights and smells and noises. I’m so glad that we did because she’s an expert traveler now: as soon as we get on the subway or in a car, she goes right to sleep on my lap.
That said, having the right carrier makes all the difference: we love our waxed canvas tote from Love Thy Beast. It’s sturdy and stands upright so we can put it down on the street or subway floor, and there’s a nice little opening so that she can poke her face out and see what’s going on with the world. I also just love watching people’s faces on the subway when they notice a little pug face staring back at them!
One expense that I didn’t expect: way more money spent on Ubers and taxis! When she was little, it was easier to grab a car (especially if it was a destination that was tough via subway, and that we’d usually bike to). And when we are traveling with her or dropping her off with friends, it’s way more pleasant to drag her crate, food, toys and a little pug in a car rather than deal with a subway transfer.
Any other dog-owners living in New York City have advice to share?
