The Puppy Project

 Last November our fifteen year old Sheltie passed, the last of many in the family over the last twenty-odd years. Though slowed from age, he was a big personality and his absence left a large void in the household.

We knew not to rush, but agreed we’d eventually introduce a new dog into the family. Though sad and still missing Shelby after 6 months, we casually perused various New England breeders. And so began what I have come to characterize as “The Puppy Project.”

Thank goodness for project management methodology, a set of steps and tools to manage the chaos. I’ve never obtained a dog through a breeder, until now I’ve only ever adopted older shelter rescues. Without some kind of plan, it was obvious the score was going to quickly be “Puppy 5, Humans 0.”

We actually started the puppy search much like an IS project, though I didn’t initially know it. When we decided to go down the puppy path we needed to define things like: what breeds we might want (high-level scope); when we wanted to adopt (timeline); our budget; who we had to break the news to (the cats might be the most critical stakeholders!). This is starting to sound a lot like a project charter.

Once we agreed to these details, we were in high-gear puppy search. They all looked so cute! But, not every breed is right for every home. We needed to perform our due diligence, to make the best decision possible and further refine the scope of which puppy is right for us. That adorable Great Dane just went out of scope and we decided on another Shetland Sheepdog. To even think again about that Great Dane, we’d be headed to change control, and our family’s project manager would absolutely hold me to that plan!

Before we knew it, we had a puppy selected and we were onto a full-blown project schedule with dates, tasks, task owners, and dependencies. We couldn’t bring him home before we got his crate, doorway gates, collar, leash, toys, and food, right?  The only way we thought we wouldn’t miss any critical steps was to create and agree to a schedule. The schedule is detailed, and it’s keeping us on track. We have feeding schedules, walking schedules, veterinary visit schedules, puppy training class schedules (or is that owner-training classes??!!)…Yes, we even added subject-matter-expert consultants to supplement the project team-the trainer!

The process of adopting Finn has been a lot of fun and a lot of work. Looking back on these few weeks, the transition would not have been nearly as smooth for Finn or for us if we didn’t wrap a solid plan around this whole effort. There’s never a dull moment with a puppy and we’re constantly adjusting. But, we know that having applied a few of the project management tools I use at work has really helped us smooth out the rough patches around this new change to the family, and even avoid a few mishaps along the way!