We survived the first month with our lab puppy - here's what I wish I'd known

Biscuit is 10 weeks old now (we got her at 8 weeks) and we have officially made it through what i'm calling the Fog. i want to write down what i learned while it's still fresh because honestly the first month is NOTHING like what i expected, and not in a good way at first.

nobody told me about the puppy blues. the week two crash is real. the novelty wore off and i was getting up at 2am and 5am and dealing with accidents and bite marks on my hands and thinking "did i make a massive mistake." i googled "regretting getting a puppy" at 3am and was genuinely comforted that like half the internet apparently felt the same way in week two. if you're there right now, it does get better. it gets better surprisingly fast actually.

what made the biggest difference for us: accepting that nothing was going to be normal for a while and just letting that be okay. stopped worrying about the mess, stopped trying to maintain my usual routine, just focused entirely on Biscuit for that first month. routine was everything - same wake time, same feeding times, same outside schedule. she figured out potty training way faster than i expected once we had a real schedule.

also frozen kongs saved my life. if you have a puppy and are not doing frozen kongs you are working too hard. stuff it with peanut butter and kibble and freeze overnight. gives you 20-30 minutes of peace while they work through it. i had four in rotation.

the biting is the thing i wasn't ready for. labs especially are mouthy puppies and Biscuit had needle teeth that drew blood more than once in the first two weeks. we used the yelp-and-stop method religiously and by week 4 she was noticeably gentler. not perfect but the survival scratches on my hands are mostly healed now.

anyway - we're through it. she's currently asleep on my feet. i love this insane animal.