* How did you house train your dog?
Through trial and effort!!! Taking the dog for walks pretty close after they ate dinner. Rewarding through praise or treats when they use the bathroom (to this day when they use the bathroom I say good boy/girl and they are 3 and 5 respectively)

* Where does your dog sleep?
The yorkie sleeps in the bed with us (don't start this unless you plan to keep this up, lol). The pitbull sleeps in her own bed right on the landing of the staircase (she snores and my husband can't take it/she used to sleep in the bed with me before hubby came along).

* What does your dog eat?
My dogs and my cat eat Nutro Natural Choice brand. It's only available at pet stores. They seem to like it. I don't given them wet/soft food. My yorkie likes with my wet his food with water (but that's because he's spoiled, it's completely unnecessary).

* What are your favorite products?
Nylabone (excellent chew bone that lasts forever), Kong brand peanut butter in a can, regular tennis balls and rubber tires

* Do you have insurance?
No.

* Do you have that PetSmart Care plan?
I had it last year, but it gets so expensive with all the additional things you pay for (pain meds after any procedure they are put under, antibiotics, etc).

* When do you leave your puppy @ home? Where?
They roam the house and pretty much sleep all day long where ever they lay their heads.

OK. Enough advice. Go have fun with Mae. And happy Mothers Day to your wife! :)

In the "learn from my mistakes" file, my One Big Suggestion: go with the crate training. We did not do this, and have suffered from it. When you teach a dog YOUNG, they come to view the crate as their "indoor dog house" (rather than a cage, as we humans tend to view it). Our dogs roam the house freely… the 2 year old purebred Lab is VERY destructive (although it has gotten better). The rescue dog, who is about 7 (she is a Lab/Spaniel mix) is not destructive.

The KONG toys are really wonderful for keeping them busy when you are gone during the day… you can stuff them with KONG treats, beef jerky, peanut butter, whatever. I think whoever invented them deserves the Nobel Prize. :)

As far as sleeping, one of our dogs (the big, rambunctious one of COURSE) sleeps with us… the other (docile sweet) one, sleeps near the front door.

They are EXCELLENT protectors of the home, and of the children.

As far as insurance, we've never had pet insurance. As I mentioned, I've had dogs my whole life, and have never had any catastrophic medical bills…. I guess it's a personal choice thing.

So…. relax… have FUN with Mae. She is precious and you, your wife and your kids will LOVE having a dog! She will become a part of your family before you know it!

1) Crating is so important when potty training. As soon as you let her out of the crate, take her outside. Also, as soon as you feed her, take her outside. Be sure there is not a lot of room in the crate or she will go potty in the crate if she can get away from it. If the crate is big because you want to buy a size that will accommodate her through the years, put a milk crate or something similar in it to make it smaller while she is being potty trained.

2) When you take her outside, take her to a spot she previously went potty. Dogs tend to "go" easier when directed to the same location they previously used.

3) I have also found Wee-Wee pads to be a life saver. If she is not already potty trained she will have accidents in the house. When she urinates in the house, put some on the Wee Wee pad and then keep that in the room she is in, so if she must go and she is not outside, she will be drawn to use the Wee Wee pad.

4) One more thing that I learned the hard way is not to give dogs bones. Whether they are from pork, chicken or beef, they can splinter or become lodged in the dog's body. Better to stay with the chew toys like they sell in the Pet Store, Target or Walmart. Good luck with the training. You're whole family will be blessed with the unconditional love the family dog provides!

I use to work in the pet industry and would have numerous couples find out the other one didn't have the same list of rules as they were explaining to me how they could not get their dog to follow rule x, y and z.

My wife and I love our Banfield Wellness Plan (petsmart care plan in some states). I have my preferences on training, etc but it is really important to focus on something you can all agree on and enforce.

Details:

- Our dog sleeps in our living room. We crated him for a long time until he could stand to be out of his crate without peeing all over the place and getting into our trash. Also, he would run into our bedroom early in the morning and lick our faces to wake us up and play. It's cute the first 3 times, then it's torture.

- Make sure your dog is social. Take them to church. Take her to VBS. Take her with you to go get ice cream. Making sure the dog is OK with strangers is important. (A dog is an AWESOME conversation started. More people will talk to you than ever before. If you let HIM, God will use Mae for kingdom work).

-I don't know how old MAE is, but our dog can be at home by himself for about 9 or 10 hours max before he's guaranteed to pee or poop on the carpet. So leaving your dog at home is pretty much all about how long they can handle it.

Details:

- Our dog sleeps in our living room. We crated him for a long time until he could stand to be out of his crate without peeing all over the place and getting into our trash. Also, he would run into our bedroom early in the morning and lick our faces to wake us up and play. It's cute the first 3 times, then it's torture.

- Make sure your dog is social. Take them to church. Take her to VBS. Take her with you to go get ice cream. Making sure the dog is OK with strangers is important. (A dog is an AWESOME conversation started. More people will talk to you than ever before. If you let HIM, God will use Mae for kingdom work).

-I don't know how old MAE is, but our dog can be at home by himself for about 9 or 10 hours max before he's guaranteed to pee or poop on the carpet. So leaving your dog at home is pretty much all about how long they can handle it.

I trained my pup with a "Tell Bell" that I bought from Amazon. I still have to blog about that. He rings a bell to go outside! We don't have a fenced yard, but big enough. We take him out on a leash and clean it up right away with poop bags (Target is cheaper than PetSmart), which I love. We have a small step trash can outside and empty it once a week with the trash collection. With a new pup, watch him like a hawk! Until they are trained they will pee and poop anywhere. Be ready to take him outside in a flash. I don't think paper training is a good idea, if you can avoid it. You are only training them to go in the house. We got our puppy last year at this same time and it was a good time of year to train them outside.

Our pup sleeps in a crate in my son's room.

Our pup eats Innova dog food. I did tons of research. It's organic and has no fillers. I buy my food from Inman PetWorks in Inman Park. The owner is the best and answers all my questions. Do not buy dog food from the grocery store. The same for snacks. Buy your pup quality food and snacks and they will stay healthy and have "good poop."

With a new puppy, my favorite product is Nature's Miracle which gets up "accident" smells. There will be some. It's MUCH cheaper at Whole Foods than at Petco/PetSmart. And baby gates to keep them out of the areas that you don't want them in. Go to Babies R Us for the best selection. We have gates (still) up at our kids' rooms because there are things in there that he would eat (toys, etc) that are dangerous.

We do have Pet Insurance. PetPlan. It gives me piece of mind.

Nope, don't have PetSmart Plan. Is that for the Vet? Our pup goes to Village Vets in Decatur and I highly recommend them. Puppies are expensive at first for all the shots, but then it's only once a year after that.

We leave our puppy in a bigger crate when we leave home, more like a playpen with a top. We won't leave him out in the house…he would destroy it. That being said, we don't leave him for more than 4 hours at a time, even now. I feel too guilty. We take him to daycare if I am going to be gone all day and he loves it.

Always check Target first for pet toys and supplies before PetSmart, Petco. I find that those places are sometimes DOUBLE the price. In fact I rarely go there….I shop at Target and Inman Park Pet Works. Glamour Paws is good too, but more for when you are buying something "special."

Cesar Milan's books are good to read. Oh, we took our pup to training class at 4 months of age and it was helpful and fun.

Puppies are expensive! Get your mind right now. Just put it in the budget: vet bills, grooming, food and snacks, monthly medicine for tick and heartworm prevention. BUT, I love my dog to pieces and so do my kids.