Did you know that it’s been 35 years since Dogs Trust launched their ‘A Dog is for life… not just for Christmas’ campaign? To commemorate it, they’re asking people to stop and think before getting a dog and asking dog lovers to #presspaws.

Please forgive the quality of the picture! I’ve been trying to get Poppy to pose for this all day, but she’s such a diva and hates having to look at the camera!

I can’t stress enough how important is it to do your research before getting a dog. Before we even started looking at rescue centres, we waited until we could devote the time, energy & money needed to look after a dog. It was a slightly epic mission, that involved getting the garden dog proof, making sure we had enough money to pay for insurance and everything else dogs seem to need. We also made sure that we only looked at dogs who would suit our lifestyle. We wanted a young dog, but not a puppy; nothing too small, but nothing too big either as our house isn’t very big. We had clear ideas about which breeds we’d be happy to have because some would suit us better than others. For example, we didn’t want a working dog because they take up more time than we have to give. We also knew that we didn’t want to buy a dog, and that we wanted to adopt a rescue. We were able to look online and check out the recommendations for each dog, helping us find the right dog for us.

Dogs Trust outline all the different things you need to consider on their website. Despite having grown up with dogs, I am still surprised by how much our world now revolves around Poppy. We can’t go out for more than 4 hours at a time, we get woken up by her if we decide not to get up at the usual time, we have to walk her or she goes all kinds of hyperactive etc. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t want it any other way because she’s ace! But she is a lot of work. While we’ve got the time & just about have the energy, not everyone does so if you’re considering getting a dog, then please stop & think about it.

Dogs Trust are spreading the message via Twitter, their Tumblr blog and you can follow everything using the hashtag, #presspaws.