Everything You Need To Know About Adopting And Owning A Dog

Come here you guys, we're gonna film a video. Come here, come here. Up, all the way. Okay you can have these first. Hello everybody, how's it going? My name is Mayuko and welcome back to my channel. I've got two very special guests here today, my dogs Kona and Ellie. So I realized recently that I have a lot of people around me who are getting dogs and then I also realized I know a lot about dogs because I've learned them over the last, how old are you Kona? Seven years. So today I want to make a video about dog ownership because I feel like that's a thing that a lot of people consider in their 20s and 30s and beyond. So I went on Instagram a couple weeks ago and I asked y'all for some questions about having dogs. I've kind of divided this video into two parts. So the first part is about getting a dog, adopting a dog, that whole process. And then part two is about like actually owning a dog and all the lifestyle changes. So quick background about me and dogs in general. So I grew up with a dog. I got my very first dog when I was seven years old. He was a beagle named Pepper. We loved him so much. I grew up with him all my life. He, you know, saw me through elementary, middle, high school, and college and beyond. And so because I grew up around dogs, one of my dreams was to own a dog post-graduation. We adopted you Kona in November of 2014. I graduated in August of, no, July of 2014. So I got you four months after I graduated. So Kona was like my dream dog. Excuse you, miss. Off, off. Yes, good girl. As I was saying, I was living with Scott at the time already. We lived in a tiny 500 square foot apartment with Kona. And then a year later, we moved to the Bay Area where we lived in a 1500 square foot townhouse for a while, which didn't have a yard, but we lived with him for that whole time. We also got our cat Benny at that time. And then in 2020, we moved to the current house that we're in that has a really big yard. And then at the end of 2020 in November, we got Ellie. Yeah, I've lived with dogs like my whole adult life. Life is just very weird without dogs around me. So before we move on napping, Ellie and I want to thank the sponsor of today's video, Helix Sleep. They're a company that creates premium mattresses customized to fit your needs delivered right to your door. They've got a sleep quiz that matches the perfect mattress to your body type and your sleep preferences. I've actually got two Helix Sleep mattresses at home, both of which are the Dusk Luxe, and I like them so much that I recently gifted one to my friend Alex. This is a queen size Midnight Luxe. First impression of the mattress is it's so bouncy for a foam mattress. I think it's actually hybrid, but by far the comfiest one I've ever slept on. I don't even want to get up in the morning. And his roommate actually has decided to also get a Helix Sleep mattress after laying on his. Helix delivers your mattress right to your door, which is rolled up in a box and it's super easy to set up and they have free shipping in the U.S. They include a 10-year warranty and they offer financing options and flexible payment plans. They've also got a 100 night sleep trial to make sure that you really love the mattress. So visit helixsleep.com slash hellamayugo to get up to $200 off your Helix mattress plus two free pillows. Thank you again to Helix for sponsoring and now let's get back to the video. Okay, so part one about getting a dog. One of the first things that I want to talk about is where to get your dog because I think this is one of the very first decision points that I really want to talk about. I'm kind of passionate about this topic and that's really about getting a dog either from a rescue or a breeder. In Southern California, I think in all of Southern California, but definitely in San Diego County, pet shops are like not a thing here because pet shops tend to kind of facilitate what we call backyard breeders and puppy mills, which create like really inhumane, unethical, really dirty, not great environments for puppies to be born into. So if you are going to go to a puppy mill, like ask them about their practices and where they get their dogs. I recommend going through a certified breeder or a rescue instead. So if you're going to go through a breeder, then you're probably choosing a certain type of breed that you're going to go for. Just check to make sure that they're certified and they're not like inbreeding their dogs too much and stuff because that can cause health problems. I've actually never gone through a breeder, so that's all I can really say on the topic, but the other side of it is the rescue. So the first question that I want to answer is the, is it hard to take on a rescue? And I think it really depends. It can be. For me, it hasn't been at all. These two have been just angels, like so good, like they're such good dogs, but I think there's a couple of things to think about. So rescues typically rescue dogs from either dog shelters or sometimes like hoarding situations. Sometimes they're just found on the street and they're taken into foster care for a few weeks or a few months, depending on what their health issues are, and then they're adopted out to a family. There's lots of different kinds of rescues out there. So the first thing to think about when looking at dogs on rescue websites, so you can either go to the website itself or look at them on Petfinder, is that the breed labels are always going to be wrong. And that's because certain breeds have stigmas associated to them. Breeds like German Shepherds, Pit Bulls, Dobermans, all are kind of have this like scary, really aggressive kind of vibe. Because of that, most dogs are going to be labeled as like Labrador Retriever mix or like Pointer mix or Golden Retriever mix. It's kind of, it's pretty, honestly pretty discriminatory. And the other thing about those breeds is like, yes, some of them are definitely bred to be guard dogs and be aggressive and stuff like that. But I believe that a lot of it is based on, yes, maybe part of it is their energy level and temperament, but a big, really huge part of it is how the owner treats that dog. So don't let the breed or like the shape of the head or anything scare you. So if you adopt from a rescue, the thing that they really want to make sure is that that dog is not going to come back to the rescue, like the dog's going to be in a happy place. And so one of the things that they usually do is like a meet and greet where you get to meet the dog before you say, yes, I want to adopt them. This happens after you send the application and they're like, yeah, this is a good person. Let's, let's set up the meet and greet. And so we did meet and greets for both Ellie and Kona. And honestly, we got really lucky because we didn't really know what we were looking for, especially for Kona because he was our first and both of them have very chilled temperaments. For Ellie, when we were looking at her application, like her dog detail description, it said that she was really chill. And we were like, cool. We like chill. If you're chill as a puppy, you're probably chill as an adult. But if we were to kind of adopt another dog, I think we would look for those keywords again, that they're like mild tempered. They're also very responsive. Like you want a dog that's really easy to train and quick note, if you're going to go see a puppy, they're likely going to be hyper and playful because all puppies are, they're, they're like little toddlers and babies. They have so much energy. So yeah, I don't have like a hard and fast rule for this whole thing about like, how do you know if you're compatible with a rescue dog? Honestly, you just have to meet them and it's like a vibe check. So just go with your gut. Honestly, I don't have great advice for this part. Okay. And the other kind of big PSA that I want to give when it comes to choosing a dog is you don't get a dog just because it's the cutest dog. Dogs are 10 year commitments. And so you really want to make sure that you are compatible with this dog. I know a lot of friends who've gotten dogs just because they're cute. And then they realize that dog is the devil and they can't take care of them anymore. And really, I think one thought exercise you could have is yes, the dog is cute, but could you live with this dog and take care of them? Not just for a week, but like every single day for a month, weekends and holidays included, because you are going to be that dog's parent every single day. The next part that I want to talk about is the cost. So in 2021, all of my pet expenses between Kona and Ellie, probably a little bit of Benny, but she really is super low maintenance. It totals to $4,982.74. And that total is kind of divided into two different buckets. One is medical related. And so we take them to yearly checkups to the vet to make sure that they're healthy. And we also get medication for them for flea, tick and heartworm, which is just maintenance to make sure that they don't get diseases. The vet expenses were $2,062.62. So those are all the vet expenses. I will say that probably like $1,500 of that was Ellie, because she just has a lot of allergies. And also these two had a lot of like ear infections last year. So likely if your dog is healthy and doesn't have huge medical issues, it's going to be less than that. And then the other part of it is like the foods, treats and toys. We get them like really high quality food. We always have treats on hand and they have hella toys. And so we spent $2,920.12 on all of that last year. Now let's go on to part two, which is about taking care of the dog. The first question that I want to answer is from Maddie. And she says, how did you manage having dogs schedule wise and working nine to five? Which is a great question because yes, dogs require a lifestyle change. They need a lot more care than other animals. We're not constantly working every single minute of the eight hour work day. And so the times that we need breaks, we tend to just like hang out with the dogs or do stuff. But our dogs are really chill. They just demand a walk in the morning. And then they kind of just like hang out and nap for most of the day at around four or five o'clock, they need another walk. And so we take them out. And those walks can be anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. I actually really appreciate that dogs kind of like help me take me out of my whole work routine, like especially when I was really busy with work. When I was living in the bay, it was really grounding to be like, okay, but I also need to take care of this animal. So yeah, most dog owners have some sort of routine with their dogs. And that's something that you establish within the first year or two. And it really depends on your lifestyle and the dog's kind of personality. So in terms of like getting a dog that matches your lifestyle, the next question is all about kind of, can you have a dog living in an apartment in this tiny apartment? And the answer is yes, of course you can. But again, it really depends on your energy levels and the dog's energy levels and what you can do to help manage that dog's energy level. So if you get a dog that's high energy, they're likely going to need a lot of exercise. So if you get like a vishla or a beagle or a corgi, then they're just going to need a lot of stimulation. And they're going to need to like run for like two hours of the whole day sort of thing. Our dogs are very lucky. They don't need a whole lot of exercise or they're, they don't get like antsy and rip up furniture and misbehave if they don't get that level of exercise. But when Kona was a puppy, he definitely had a lot of energy. And like I said, we lived in a tiny 500 square foot apartment, but what really worked for us was that we had two dog parks within our apartment complex that we could bring into for daily puppy playtime, where he would like rough house and play with all of our neighbor dogs. So if you are going to live in an apartment, just make sure that there's a way for the dog to get their energy out, whether on walks or playtime or running or whatever else. So the next big lifestyle change that you might encounter in having a dog is about this. How do you travel with or without them? Now, yes, traveling is one of the tricky parts about dogs because you can't just leave them at home like you can with cats, cats, you can just kind of like leave them at home with food and water and a litter box for like a week. So we've been really lucky because when we lived in the Bay, Scott's parents took care of our dogs when we were away. And then now that we're in San Diego, we have a lot of dog friends where we like mutually watch each other's dogs when anyone goes on vacation. And that's really worked out for us. But I think a lot of it is just coming down to can you find someone you can trust to watch your dogs? All right, next big lifestyle change. This is literally probably one of the most disruptive, intense parts is about how do you deal with the dog's poo and pee? This is the thing that I think is actually kind of the hardest, especially when you're taking care of a puppy because puppies are not potty trained. They don't come potty trained, but you have to teach them. So with Kona, we adopted him at 10 weeks and it honestly took three or four months to get him fully potty trained. And it was like a gradual thing of having like potty pads in our house. And then also setting up like a pen for him so that no matter what he would always pee on the potty pads, like he could do no wrong. Setting up that association to like, I'm going to go potty on the potty pads. And as soon as that association clicked, then we gave him more and more room so that he still had that association, but he knew exactly where to go to do his business. Then eventually we moved the potty pads to our patio, which then kind of gave him the idea of like, oh, outside is where I go to potty. And then we just kind of went for it and took away the potty pads totally. And then he was potty trained, but it took a very long time. I just remember those first like few months I was like, I feel like I'm living in a sty of poo and pee. Ellie, on the other hand, we got her when she was six months old. And so she was a little bit, she had more like bladder control. And so it was a little easier to potty train her. She was also very responsive. So I think it maybe took like a month maybe to get her used to going outside. And for that, we, we did use potty pads, but really what we did was every hour we would take her out. And if she pottied outside, we would reward her for it. So we did kind of two very different methods for our dogs. And we did something that works for both of them just based on what they were used to prior and their age. Next question is about how do you deal with shedding? Which yeah, dog shed. I don't honestly mind it because my beagle that I grew up with shed. So I'm like used to it as like a lifestyle thing. It's okay that there's dog hair in places like my hair is also in places, but yeah, it's, it's a lot. And so some of the things that we've done to help us is to number one, get a really good vacuum. Number two, get a really good wet vacuum. And number three, get stuff that you can machine wash. Okay. The next big question that I got a bunch of times was about training, which all of these things about lifestyle changes and stuff like can really all be managed and mitigated with proper training. And then the second kind of meta question that I got with this is like, should I put my dog in training? Is it actually necessary? I'm going to say if this is your first time taking care of a dog, then absolutely. Yes. It's really helpful to put your dog in training, not to train your dog, but to train yourself to learn how to train a dog. Because the most important thing is to set up a way to communicate between yourself and the dog, like they're not people. So they don't understand words inherently like we do. And so it's a lot about learning how to cue them, how to motivate them, how to reward them. Those are all things that you learn in a training class. So even though I grew up with the dog, I still went to training class with Kona every week for about like three months when we first got him. And it was super helpful because I learned things like shaping and positive reinforcement. But after that, I got a dogs. Typically I use sort of the positive reinforcement way of doing things. I never like hit my dogs, like none of that. There's a lot of really great YouTube channels actually out there on how you can train your dog to do certain tricks or to curb certain behaviors. If you're thinking about getting a Corgi or a Shiba Inu, because those two are really popular dogs that need honestly a lot of training, then definitely look into it. Okay. So the last part is really just about general advice that I have for all of you who are thinking about getting dogs. So having dogs is definitely one of the most rewarding and most amazing things. Like I honestly think of my dogs as like my children and I can't imagine a life without them. I have such a strong bond with both of them. Genuinely, we don't deserve dogs. I love dogs. But again, I'll caveat this. I think one realistic way to think about whether you're ready to have dogs is the first two years, especially if you're getting a puppy, maybe a little less. So if you're getting an older dog, it's going to require a lot of patience as you learn what your dog's needs are and they adjust to your lifestyle. And it's a long-term commitment. Dogs live anywhere from eight to 16 years. And so just really think about whether you can commit to that time. Just know that like, there's no one right way to do things, but it is important to know that like you, it takes a lot of patience, but if you work on it, it can work. But these are just some of the main lessons that I want to talk about dog ownership. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments down below. I really like talking about dogs. I can recommend like dog treats, dog toys. Big chunk of my life is dogs. Can I shake? Good boy. Can I beg? Yes. Good boy. Good job. Give me 10. Yes. Good girl. Good job. Here you go. Good job guys. You did it. Thanks for being in my video YouTube.