Hi, I am Saina and I never thought I’ll be writing a book. Neither did I think I’ll never get a chance to be a dog parent. But I got both, so let’s start my story but don’t judge it’s my first book and also my first time raising a dog
I still remember the day I thought I was going to meet my Dog for the first time. I had literally planned every second of that day from top to bottom, and I was actually bouncing off the walls. I had exactly imagined how it would go. I would enter. I would see my adorable little puppy, and we would be best friends forever , but of course, that’s exactly not what happened. Me and my dad pleaded my mom for a dog for a pretty long time. While you can say ever since I was four years old, where I live, we have a long garden which is officially called Central Park, but it was built over a nala so we call it, Nalla park which eventually converted into a dog park, also like a bridge to go to the other side of the colony. While crossing it to go to the children’s Park, I always thought that one day I’d get a dog and get him here. My mom got a message that there was a Labrador puppy available for adoption and I just can’t express in words how happy and excited i was, it struck me he needed a name. I thought about many names cookie, Casper , Cooper, so many more with this confusion, I thought it would be better to name him when he would finally be mine! The next day which of course I thought it was the day that I would get to meet my dog, we drove down to the pet shop only to realise he was going to come by train from Amritsar, but had yet not reached, hence we had to wait another day. The train was delayed. And I was dramatically miserable for the rest of the day. One whole extra day waiting, felt like a lifetime, Would he even know that I was meant to be his person? the next day everything changed . We went to the pet shop where he had been sent to wait for us, I still remember, stepping inside. It was almost the first time I stepped inside a pet shop after I lost my fish. And to be fair, I was not a great fish parent and never knew how to feed them properly and take good care of them I named them Goldie and pebbles, as my first experience with animals had not exactly been the best. I was not sure if I could do it right, I don’t think I can do that moment justice when I entered the tiny pet shop, and they were a couple of baskets laid with the smell of biscuits and fur. The tiny barking sounds. He had just travelled from Amritsar in a crate. We were also confused being first time Pet parents, we discussed with the owners and employees on how to raise him well, of course, now I am an expert with that time we purchased everything they said, which would be needful! I laid my eyes at him and he was the cutest thing ever, but I’ll admit I was hesitant and a little scared. The moment looked a bit different from what I imagined. He was real, making that even more terrifying, and then I saw him, and he was that small that he could fit inside a little shoebox with the adorable soft white fur and a confused face and eyes that looked way too intelligent for someone who had just travelled from Amritsar in a crate. The owner showed us a picture of a full grown labrador on how he would look when he was all grown-up, and we suddenly zoned out. My mom jokingly asked if we could take the small Pomeranian puppies instead. Yet I knew there was something about him that made feel different, Soon enough we drove down home, I was a bit scared at the time, so my dad held him in his lap. He cried a bit on his first ride home. We brought him on our first floor- with me, my sister , and my parent’s room. We set up his play crate in our living room and I was fascinated by him. He waddled like a little duck, curious to look around as we followed him everywhere, but eventually, he started following me around. Soon it was time to eat. We did didn’t know what he would eat, and I think that was vital information to be asked yet we didn’t. So we went with porridge but he refused, then it struck my mom- he was to be fed cerilac. Also known as baby food, which was pretty tempting to eat. We spent a good amount of time Dog proofing the house. it was time to make his little corner. We didn’t have a fancy dog bed as yet but it didn’t matter. We gathered a bunch of soft pieces of cloth and even a fluffy towel and piled them up into his play pen. It looked like a messy patchwork of love. I remember pressing my face against it and thinking if I were a dog, I would totally nap here. And that’s exactly how we spent our first couple of days, exploring the nearest pet shops, getting some toys and getting him comfortable with the new environment. He was only 40 days old. And had spent almost 10 to 15 days with us when he realised that our living room table was a chew toy and as people call it, the dreadful teething stage had officially started. At the same time, my heart melted it was official. This was his home now. We almost named him, metal boy since he loved chewing on anything metal. He mistook the crate for a bathroom several times! We came to the nearest vet that the pet shop owner has recommended, which also had a toy shop nearby. We were all new to the concept, but soon warmed up. We had various guests that came over to meet him with toys and lots of love. It was time for the day. I was still confused on a bunch of names. There was no group decision because whenever there was a tough decision such as picking out his name, he suddenly became “Saina’s dog” the way I decided was putting his first picture which I took in the car as an Instagram story as the first thing I wrote was welcome, Home baby Cooper after a while of posting, I was unsure of the name, so I got rid of that, and we settled on Oreo because he looked like the centre filling of an Oreo biscuit.
Chapter 2, who is a good boy? (still debatable.)
Training time soon arrived, or as I like to call it the Oreo show after a reference, we found the perfect Trainer, but the plan was to teach him all the basic stuff sit stay calm, but Oreo had decided to teach us instead he taught us the perfect things to match his fancy- patience, humility, and how to mop P from the floor in under 10 seconds so we started off with tiny treats and small expectations. The first time he sat down command I almost threw a party. We quickly learned that Oreo was not food, motivated. He was food obsessed. Whenever someone would open even a packet of biscuits, he transformed into a high speed helicopter. Soon enough, we realised that he had selective hearing. How could someone have the audacity to call him and tell him that he did a bad job by peeing on the floor? Well of course, if someone opened a bag of chips, 20 feet away, he would come! He became a high speed missile for food. Sure, he would listen, but if the food was not in my hand. Sit? Absolutely not. And “come” worked perfectly until something more interesting like a leaf or his own shadow showed up. Which was often. But we tried being pretty patient, watching a lot of YouTube videos and repeating commands in that weird cheerful voice that Dog Trainer uses. Maybe it was the routine, maybe it was the love or maybe just maybe he had decided he didn’t want to be a tornado anymore. He wanted to be a pretty good boy. Slowly, the chaos turned into connection. He began to look at my eyes when I spoke to him. Not zoned out, rather he listened. I felt the time was right- for our first visit to the park, which was going to be his favourite place in the world, but little did we know that at that time. The first trip to the park is like a toddlers first trip to Disneyland minus the cotton candy plus the squirrels and mice. The first time we reached the park. We realised we were releasing a wild animal back into nature, except this one was on a leash, trying to eat every single napkin before we even left the house. Luckily, he was small and weighed much less than us. Soon enough, he lost his tiny dog, mind, grass, dogs, people sticks, more dogs, a bug more sticks, his zigzag across the path like an automatic vacuum cleaner, we try to guide him, but he was having a full blown sensory explosion, and we were just extras in the blockbuster movie. Getting the leash on him for the first time was already chaos since he thought it was like a toy or a wiggly snake, and that he must destroy it before it destroyed him, but somehow we got it on and had started going for a short walk to the park, but even that felt like an expedition, we had to stop at every single tree and chasing every single fly. I remember untangling him from his own leash while he tried to make friends with a Labrador, who was politely unimpressed by his behaviour and backed away from a pug, which was like a monster. He was yet smaller than a Shih Tzu. We sat on the bench for a while while he trotted around like he owned the place. Patan, some sympathy came over me. This tiny ridiculous creature had never seen the world before, and he deserved the chance to figure it out on his own. Back at home, things were going great. All the training worked, but as soon as we reached the park, there were million things which were more interesting then stupid old Saina. His sleep schedule was not yet set. We were just trying to make him comfortable towards the environment. Yet we ended up making him overconfident, which was not exactly the goal. Before getting a dog, it was clearly decided that we would take chances to get up in the middle of the night to adjust his bathroom cycle, but obviously that’s not what happened because I was the princess of the house. My dad slept next to him in the lobby, as he would get up at least five times every night. Before we knew it, the five turned into four and the four in three and we were down to 1. He knew almost all the tricks that every circus animal would know how to spin walk, jump sit and stand with the tricky was that he only knew how to do all these things when you would hold an interesting treat towards his head. Deciding what he would eat, was not that difficult, he would eat anything placed in front of him, but his body wouldn’t adjust. Some nights he would bar it out, and that’s exactly how we figured what he would eat. As a pure Punjabi Dog, as my dad would say he loved lassi Just, water, and curd which would consume almost 3 times a day. One thing we had in common words, we both loved drinking a lot of water, even when the washroom was far away, also one of the reasons, my family dreads taking road trips with Me. But as for Oreo, he was soon trained to bark whenever he had to pee, but he obviously took advantage of that just to go on a walk. We would try new foods such as carrot, cucumber, boiled potatoes, pumpkin and others which he would absolutely love. But then he met his first love, chicken and egg, which he would love more than his life. Training with chicken men, you could get every single trick out of him in half a second. He was the most adorable friendliest puppy, not all of the training went smoothly as a tiny puppy reached his teething stage. Where he would nibble on anything that he found yet he became protective of his house, not letting anyone enter, but as he was a baby, no one was really scared, the tiny squeak, which he thought were loud barks. We love the way he was over friendly with every person he met, and also at the same time, protective of his house and all of us. Training took a bit of time after some scratches, nibbles and tooth marks. We got the hang of it. The biggest problem at that time was that he loved to nibble slippers. The teasing stage soon ended as I also collected all his teeth and put them in a jar as a keepsake which I still have. But he never left the habit of always loving every slipper that he has. Even in present day, whenever our family sit down to play Ludo and sitting comfortably on the sofa, when he spots the shoes without feet and them, he loves to jump like a big dinosaur and water up the stairs carefully without anyone noticing he stole the slippers so I guess some habits never die. But the important thing is with the ups and downs of training. We were moving to the next part of Oreo adventure. Training still continues, so he doesn’t forget to be obedient but it was time to make more memories and move on to more chapters of Dog parent life.
Ch 3 Oreo’s first real friend and other garden experiences
I could write a whole book about Oreo socialising with other dogs because it’s just as funny and cute. At first, he was curious and wanted to smell every dog bottom and be friends with them. Eventually, he realised not every dog was friendly, but he never made a proper friend. Let’s be honest, people don’t just “come over” anymore. No one knocks on your door and says hi neighbours. Let’s make a dogs meet. Everyone is Busy booked or hiding from social interaction, so Oreo he had to make his own proper friend at the park like a proper extrovert on four legs. I wasn’t worried because I knew his friendly behaviour would get him to make many friends, but now he has seen a lot of dogs. Big ones, tiny ones. But soon enough, he made real friends. He used to run up to every single dog at the dog park and say hi, you exist. Let’s be friends. And I guess that’s exactly how it worked out as my dream was officially fulfilled. The park which I once used to cross over as a bridge as a child, wishing to get my dog here. Someday I would go there every single day, I still do. Oreo he looked happy, goofy with his tongue out, proud kind of happy, like he finally got what this “being a dog” thing was. He finally made his first best friend pepeto. When he got home from the park, after meeting all his friends, he didn’t sleep. He collapsed like socialising had drained all five brain cells and both legs. Every day I used to whisper you made a friend today. Oreo and his tail gave me one sleepy, thump like yes, I did now. Let me sleep peasant. We started making friends and getting to be a part of the colony. Dog parents group as we will leave our dogs offleash at the park they run around together as we would socially interact. The best advantage of being part of the Dog parents group is getting to know all the colony gossip that most people don’t share on the normal humans group. Because the park was in the middle of the colony, we got to know everything and every single thing like what the security guards Mother made for lunch. We got to know about many tactics on how to raise dogs and soon enough. We Gotta know about different parks. Lodhi Garden on the nursery which were before just a picnic spot that we used to go once every season were now a place that we wished to visit with Oreo. We started celebrating his every month like happy first month on earth, Oreo. And yes, I’m not kidding. I was extravagant celebrating each and every achievement like Oreo tried cabbage for the first time today or Oreo learnt how to spin today. He knew everything or maybe I’m just dramatically exaggerating a bit or maybe he’s actually that perfect. He was really naughty. We cut a cake with his best friends in inviting them over to our parking lot at Home. We set up a happy first month, birthday banner and celebrated each and every small achievement in his life. For his sixth month birthday, we decided to take him to Sundar nursery, which is a beautiful place. We went at 8 o’clock in the morning, which were usual events. I would never get up for, but for Oreo always. Only regret, I have the first year of being a parent is that I did not take enough pictures. I do have many, but according to myself, I take 10 pictures visiting the bathroom every time so for me, taking even 100 pictures of Oreo‘s childhood are not enough. If you ever get a dog, make sure to take many pictures because no matter what anyone says they grow up really fast. By the time we went to the nursery we had this realisation. He grew up very fast. He started pulling on his leash and was fascinated by every single thing there we did not leave him without his leash because he was a bit protective of us and also, we didn’t know all the directions. But after all, we set up a picnic mat and had an aesthetic little picnic when he ran around, chasing a mosquito. I always thought if he could speak. He would say how did you have the audacity to come near my family and try to suck the blood now. I am going to try and chase you all the way out of the park. He had not yet become full sized, but was obviously really strong, and we realised his old collar was not fitting him anymore. We changed to a new one, but he would just pull on his neck a lot, which would also give a negative impact on his the development of his neck, so we decided to get him a harness, which was the first time I went to the Dog section on Amazon and bought a beautiful harness, which was only beautiful for the three seconds, which he wore it, and I took a picture soon enough. It was torn. But it was beautiful while it lasted. But we still need a harness, so we stuck to getting a few different ones and observing him while he wore it. We had never had a dog before and six months were enough to get to know him properly. All our staff, my parents, my dadi and me were truly loving him. But there was also downsides, he did not like my sisters and barked at them. He used to pee on the bed, but obviously they cannot be upsides to everything. The whole three years I have learnt maybe more than as much as I have learned in my whole entire life one more thing I’ve learnt is that no matter how old your dog is, make sure to dog proof your house, which even we did but we never thought our dog would get so creative to get his nail stuck in a drain- It was one of those deceptively peaceful afternoons—the kind where you think absolutely nothing can go wrong. I wasn’t even at home when it happened, which somehow made it worse, because I only heard the whole story after the chaos had ended.
Apparently, Oreo was busy playing near the water drain in our parking area. Now, when I say “playing,” I actually mean “digging like he was on a mission to find treasure.” He was splashing his paws in the water, trying to “catch” whatever imaginary creature he thought was living down there. And then…
His back knee slipped right into the narrow iron grating of the drain and got stuck. And not just “oops, stuck for a second.” Properly, tightly wedged in like it was never coming out again.
From what I heard, the scene turned into a mini rescue mission. My family rushed to him, trying to calm him down as he barked and yelped, confused and scared. But no matter how much they tugged, his leg wouldn’t move. In the end, the only way was to physically lift his whole body at just the right angle, twist his paw ever so slightly, and pull him free.
But the damage was done. Oreo’s knee was hurt, and one of his nails—his smallest one—was broken badly. The vet later confirmed
That it was his nail that was stuck in the drain and which broke off completely. and to this day, that tiny nail has never grown back. It’s like a little battle scar, a permanent reminder of the Great Drain Incident.
Of course, Oreo walked around afterwards as if nothing happened, milking the drama for extra treats and sympathy. Meanwhile, my family and I were traumatised enough to keep him miles away from drains forever. Suggest my way of saying if you ever get a dog, you think that you have Dog proved the house by removing sharp objects and removing tiny things, just know that a dog like Oreo can get creative, and even the most normal thing like a drain can become a threat to him.
Now whenever Oreo walks past a drain, he gives it the same look I give people who once embarrassed me in public—pure disgust, with a hint of trauma
Ch 4 Not even one but already a tiny menace
You think that being under one year old would make Oreo, this innocent squishy little bowl of love and obedience, well wrong. He had a main character with an energy before he even hit six months. He didn’t just chew things. He destroyed them with Joy. He loved tearing apart, newspapers, remote controls slippers, personal two toys, all gone. The corner of the sofa was his favourite to toy. Apparently, very delicious. He once stole my favourite T-shirt and ran around the whole house like he had discovered a secret treasure map, we never found it. Here’s the thing, nobody wants you about- puppies under one year old are not Dogs. They are toddlers with fangs and they absolutely do not come with manuals well I’m kind of glad because I never read those things. and absolutely do not care about your sleep schedule. We spent the first few weeks in decisions like did he just eat that? Why is my slipper in the garden? how did poop get there? Oh God, what in his mouth now and yet I fell for all of it, the chaos, the nonsense and absolute circus That life turns into after getting a puppy. But I found myself celebrating little things like he peed outside, even though he peed inside two minutes later, things like he sat when I sat, but only because he was too lazy to stand, he didn’t bite my hand this time he bit my toe instead. Puppies will always test your patience in ways that you didn’t know were possible. After rebuilding our house in 2018, I got my own room after sharing it with my two elder sisters, getting my own room for the first time meant, keeping it absolutely clean, but obviously, I had to go all out with all the decorations and every single thing had to be perfect, which also a bit irritating at times, every thing could not always be perfect, but I kept changing things around and making them look perfect. I never got a professional interior decorator for my room because I just loved doing it myself. but after getting a dog, I realised it was time to let go of the things that didn’t really matter that much. Now it doesn’t bother me if the tissue box is kept on the dining table or in its proper place on the kitchen counter. 3 things that having a dog have completely taught me are number one perfection doesn’t matter number two always keep stain removing spray at your side. Number three always keep a towel nearby. You never know whenever it will be important, but with puppies, there is no perfect. Just progress, puddles and million tiny miracles disguised as destroyed, bedsheet arrangement. If I could get a chance to rename Oreo, by the time he was six months old, I would name him Barker. The air was s uspicious, the dust floating in the sunlight, clearly haunted, and if he heard the doorbell- instant breakdown, you think the house was under surveillance by his sensitive ears, that heard everything, except when we called out for his name. He ran like a criminal one second. He was sitting in the next, zooming out through the house, like his tail caught fire. Sometimes to mess with him we would joke around, saying that the certain object of person was mine and not his, and sometimes I did it with his tail but he would have to prove that the tail was his so he would spend at least 15 to 20 minutes, trying to chase his tail and get it in his mouth and show me that it was definitely his. Let’s talk about his sleeping positions. Let’s start venting out. He would completely ignore the soft expensive bed that we got and instead pass out half on the sofa on the clean laundry inside. some days, I would wake up to find myself in the middle of a crime scene where he would most, probably say- you are welcome, I fixed the carpet with my teeth. Once he bit an entire corner of the cardboard box and burped, like it was nothing and then slightly panicked and blamed the box for existing. After visiting a couple of people with Dogs, I realised that it’s not Oreo, it’s universal a madness, every dog would do these. The most important journey when Oreo was seven months old was the discovery of the mirror. That comes a moment in every puppy’s life when they meet their first match, that equal the mysterious twin. It was a portal a full blown crisis, the first time he saw his reflection, his soul left his body. He spotted himself and paused, and started to bark like we had invited a secret dog into the house behind his back and Me, who was quietly reading a magazine was fascinated upon his reaction. He sneezed and looking at the other dog sneeze, he ran into the curtain and disappeared for five minutes until we had to call three different people to comfort him into coming back that was officially the end of my mirror, which was then covered up with a white bedsheet. Finally, let’s address the mystery that scientists, dog parents and sleep deprived people everywhere have yet to solve. Why are dogs always so dramatic at 3 Am? All day, we would tip-toe around him like royalty in a silent movie, so he did not wake up and then just when the house was finally dark, and everyone was in their comfy spot in bed, the world was peaceful and BAM, Oreo like most Dogs used to decide at 3 AM that it was the perfect time to bark at the wall and chase Invisible ghosts, or chew his squeaky toy, like he was audition for a horror film. Imagine sleeping and all you hear is squeak squeak squeak followed by the sound of licking of paws. At 3 AM puppies, don’t see darkness or sleep. They see opportunity to bite their own tail to wake you up. Just to stare at you like oh, you’re sleeping. Couldn’t be me. Some Say it’s the leftover puppy energy, so we started to take him to the park just before sleep time, but yet his brain has still not figured out the sleep cycle or as I would like to say he was secretly on Night Shift for some sort of underground Dog cult, but there is no logical reason that he would go on full wrestler mode in the middle of the night, but he just did. Finally, my worst nightmare came true Oreo mastered the art of ancient selective hearing. It was heartbreaking to realise that your dog can hear you, but he just did not care at first. It hurts and you think then why doesn’t he come when I call him, and then there comes the googling time that does my dog actually hate me. You stand there, holding a treat. Calling your puppies name with a voice so sweet That It could shutter glass, but he just walks away. Sometimes, I could feel he would say that, yes, lady, I can hear you, but I just choose not to. Oreo was a pro at this when I would ask him to come here. He would pause and think about it. Look at me dead in the eye casually wonder off to chew grass like we didn’t just make eye contact and telepathically fight. but say the word snack by accident, while talking on the phone. Suddenly, he would run all the way across the house. There were always a trigger words something like chicken cat or khana. So I started experimenting something like sit. Nothing. Stay- silence, banana- Dog has entered the chat. Dogs just think listening is optional? And this really hits hard when we all are showing off our dogs at the park, something like when I brag about how well trained he is in public but has no clue what I’m saying. Meanwhile a stranger across the field whispers who wants a biscuit and suddenly your dog is climbing into their lap like they are long lost soulmates. It is a bit sad but funny every single time because it’s just how dogs are! That was also this one time. We being very, very fed up of the ignorant behaviour. I went and hid behind a tree and stayed silent for the next five minutes after sniffing every blade of grass, he realised that I wasn’t there and started wandering around like a long lost dog, which was absolutely adorable, but I sense some fear that someone had left him so I never did that again, but he was and is always adorable, chaotic, and emotionally manipulative since birth. The slogan should be that we speak, they ignore, but we still love them, and they still love the food that We provide them! All seemed well until a couple days later- the Health scare! We were taking our usual trip to the park, where we normally left him off leash! It was a small garden by most dogs were not allowed, but being smart, we have good friendship with the card, so he always let us get Oreo and the last point is that this park was really close to our home. We entered the park and I went straight to the swings. It was a small garden and usually empty. There was some people playing badminton at the back. I am a big foodie, so I carry food everywhere that! I remember that day clearly, I was sitting on the swing with an almond cake in my lap, and suddenly Oreo spotted a cat and like a normal dog, he sprinted behind the cat! A couple of badminton players also turned around in shock. As he normally did not run that fast. He chased the cat all the way to the end of the park until it climbed up the wall and out. We took it as a small funny incident and started laughing immediately, paying no attention to him! He too went back to his sniffing and walking, we were on the seesaw when I noticed something peculiar, he was limping, and a dog like Oreo was super excited in his surrounding environment and would never come and sit next to us at the park. He would always be exploring around, but that day he came and sat right next to me, like he was trying to tell me, there was something wrong, so I stopped, looked at him and smiled. He weighed his tail and started walking towards the garden gate like a signal to go home, and while he was working, I noticed the way he was only using three of his legs. We quickly packed up our stuff and headed home. After coming home, he had his dinner and went to sleep. The next morning we took him to the vet- he said that Oreo had a ligament rupture and he was not allowed a lot of movement, easier said than done! He was really active and loved to run and play around. Oreo considered “rest” to be a boring human invention, so we had to get creative to help him to relax, we got him a new dog bed at first, he thought it was just a really big cute toy, but eventually, we told him to sit on it and he started to like it. The trips to the garden soon changed to sunbathing on the roof and the running around and playing at home soon changed into enrichment activities, which is when I discovered those small activities like wrapping some cable in towels and helping him sniff it out or things like freezing some carrots in water and Oreo trying to get them out were the simple ways in which we kept him engaged. He gave us a few dramatic sighs in protest, especially when he saw his leash hanging by the door, but he quickly learned that unlimited belly rubs were part of the deal. After a week of rest, he was able to walk properly again and eventually he recovered, and then again we started rotating around the dog park, like nothing ever happened. Two months later- at the park when we were just playing with the ball, a stranger asked to play with him, he seemed like a friendly dog lover and even Oreo really wagged his tail around him he wanted to play fetch with him and threw his ball as far as possible. I always threw it close yet this time he threw it really far. Oreo zoom across the park to collect the ball in his mouth and run back and forth a couple times when we came home. It was like a repeat of the same scenario he started howling a bit and wasn’t able to sit in his normal posture and then we had to take him for a trip to the vet which we all hated. This time I didn’t go, but he was told to rest again. Every time he rested for a week or two, he would get much better, and we would let him run around again, and then the same situation used to occur and then there were many back-and-forth trips to the vet but Some days, he would sit at the window watching the outside world like a retired runner! Soon enough, after two months of careful rest (and about fifty frozen carrot treats), Oreo had recovered. We were so happy — and I think he was too, because the first thing he did was steal my crocs and sprint across the house like nothing had ever happened. Some dogs learn their lesson. Oreo just learned how to run faster. Life with Oreo had always been loud, messy, and full of laughter — but that day in the park was the first time I realised just how quickly the fun could turn into fear.
