‘Forgive thy puppies, for they know not what they do.’: 17 Things Puppy Pawrents Wish Someone Had Prepared them For

Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor

Jul 3, 2026 7:30 AM EDT

To paraphrase Forrest Gump 'Adopting a puppy is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get.'. But with the help of some heroic pupper pawrents, we are giving you a glimpse into what you might get…

Reddit's r/puppy101 subreddit is wonderful place for pawrents both current and prospective to ask for advice, share anecdotes and celebrate the little wins. But this thread we pulled from the subreddit is a pawticularly useful one as it gives a helping paw to all the prospective pawrents about to step into puppyhood pawrenting. Revealing some of the silly, scary and stupid things that a puppy might get themselves wrapped up in. And more importantly, the things that other pawrents and dog people furget to mention before you bring home your dog.

Now, we cannot say that the withholding of information is intentional. After all, raising a puppy has tons of upside and the experience is so draining that you are all too quickly going to furget a lot of the bad parts. But this does rather unfortunately leave a lot of new pawrents without prepawration for the events that might be headed their way. And after having collected these, we would strongly advise to equip your home with plenty of cleaning supplies and to be prepawed to throw out certain pieces of furniture. It might not be what you want to hear, but that is the price we pay to take on one of the most rewarding challenges in this life. So if you are ready to face the music of becoming a pawrent, get to scrolling and find out what is waiting for you in your first few months.

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Yikes, we can only call this a lesson in expecting the worst and striving for the best. Trying your best is always a good idea, especially when you have a clueless puppy roaming your home, capable of leaving ‘gifts’ in interesting places for you to find when you least expect it. But the trick is to expect the failure, to know that no matter how much you try, how vigilant you are and how much you have planned, there is always going to be something that you fall short on and it will likely be something big. Oh, and also always keep a mop and bucket handy…
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Oh dang, it sounds like that puppy took a few megabytes out of her computer… All jokes aside this is one that is far more common than you might think. Much like babies, puppies teeth and need stuff to bite on to alleviate the discomfort. The problem being that a puppy is far more mobile than a baby and has far stronger teeth. Allowing them to often grate their way through tables, chair legs and the off television remote. But you can never assume they will limit their chewing to those few simple items, after all curiosity is what fuels caninekind…
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