We've had Sami for almost six years now, and he turned out to be a well-behaved, well-traveled little dog. But the road there included losing him three times, one urinary emergency, a set of back hernias, and a potty training saga that lasted twice as long as it should have. These are the six biggest mistakes we made raising our Westie puppy - what happened, why it was a mistake, and what we'd do instead.

A comment on one of our videos asked for exactly this: "if I knew then what I know now." So here it is, the honest version.

Mistake 1: Trusting Him Off Leash Too Early

What happened. In his first year, Sami was so good with people and listened so well that we convinced ourselves he wouldn't run. He had recall, I always had treats on me, and we had a quiet forest behind our house. So we walked him off leash. A lot.

We lost him three times. The first time he vanished into the bushes after a squirrel while I shouted his name for ten panicked minutes - he eventually strolled out five meters in front of me with a face that said "are you calling me? are we looking for someone?" The second time was the same forest, same terror. The third time didn't even involve a walk: the wind blew our gate open, Sami jumped a fence we were sure he couldn't jump, and we found him two houses down - inside a neighbor's yard, being barely restrained by their 12-year-old daughter while he tried desperately to fight their much bigger dog. My husband went over their fence in his pajamas. Sami ripped his shirt and scratched his chest bloody in the struggle to keep fighting.

Why it's a mistake. Terriers have a prey drive that overrides everything. There's a split second where they lock onto a cat, squirrel, or interesting smell - if you catch that moment, fine, but once they're running, no recall on earth brings them back. Two hundred years of breeding beats six months of training every time.

What to do instead. After the second time, we never walked him off leash again. For beach runs and zoomies we use a 10-meter thin long line - light enough that he doesn't notice it, long enough for freedom, and I can always step on it. He wears a collar with his ID and our phone number at all times, even in the house. And the yard got a higher fence. There's more on our off-leash thinking in can Westies be trusted off leash - short version: ours can't, and we've made peace with it.

Mistake 2: Using a Collar Full-Time on a Puller

What happened. I started with a harness, then our trainer suggested a collar - puppies respond better to gentle neck-level cues because that's how their mother corrected them. It made sense, it worked in training, and we used the collar for everything for a year or two.

The problem: Sami was an intense puller. On a trip to Greece, surrounded by street cats, he pulled so hard and so constantly that his paws went bloody from friction with the ground. All of that pulling was happening against his throat.

Why it's a mistake. Our vet warned us that constant pulling against a collar can lead to tracheal collapse - the windpipe weakens over time and creates breathing problems. She sees it regularly in small dogs that pull.

What to do instead. Both, with a division of labor. The collar for short, controlled training sessions where you're managing the leash properly. The harness for everyday walks, where a young dog will inevitably lunge at something. That's exactly the system I'd use with our next puppy, and it's covered step by step in our Westie leash training guide - because the real fix for pulling isn't equipment, it's teaching a loose leash.

Mistake 3: Letting Him Treat Stairs and Furniture Like a Parkour Course

What happened. We lived in a two-level house with slippery wooden stairs, and Sami barreled up and down them at full speed, many times a day. He jumped on and off the couch and bed constantly, and did zoomies on hardwood floors where his legs slid in every direction. We thought it was just an active dog being an active dog.

Around age two, I noticed him skipping on a back leg. My husband thought he looked happy, bouncing around. I knew dogs don't skip for joy. After a lot of investigating - knee, hip, all the usual suspects - an MRI showed small hernias in three places in his back: bulging discs pressing on nerves. The vet's verdict was years of jumping and impact.

Why it's a mistake. Small, long-backed, short-legged dogs take real damage from repeated jumping and slippery surfaces. It's invisible until it isn't. Westies are also predisposed to luxating patella, and every hard landing works against the knees too.

What to do instead. Dog stairs at the bed and couch from day one - it took Sami two days to adopt them, and he hasn't jumped off the bed since. Carpets or rugs on slippery floors, at least on the zoomie highways. Carry the puppy down long flights of stairs. None of it is expensive, and all of it is cheaper than an MRI.

Mistake 4: The High-Protein Diet

What happened. Puppy Sami was picky, so I rotated between foods to keep him interested - and everything I picked was high-protein, because high-protein sounded premium and healthy. Later, when his allergies appeared, I tried a raw diet on many people's recommendation, which is even higher in protein.

Then one day he lifted his leg and nothing came out. Again and again, nothing. At the vet, they had to insert a catheter to empty his bladder - traumatic for him and for us - and it happened more than once. The diagnosis: struvite crystals. The high protein load had made his urine acidic enough to form crystals that can eventually become stones.

Why it's a mistake. High-protein diets are built for highly active working dogs. A companion dog who takes three walks a day and supervises the kitchen doesn't burn that fuel, and his body pays for the excess. "More protein" is not automatically "better."

What to do instead. Match the food to the dog's actual lifestyle - for a normal pet Westie, our vet's guidance was moderate protein, roughly under 25% for kibble. Sami now eats home-cooked meals balanced between meat and vegetables, and the crystals haven't returned. If you're choosing a food, start with our best food for Westies guide. And obligatory note: we're owners, not vets - dietary changes for urinary issues need your vet's input.

Mistake 5: Pee Pads in Every Room

What happened. Sami came from a breeder where he'd only ever done his business on newspapers indoors. So we continued the logic: pee pads in every room, plus regular walks outside. He was crate trained, I took him out six or seven times a day, and still - potty training took six or seven months.

The defining image: we'd walk him for an hour and a half, he'd do nothing, and the moment we got home he'd trot to the pee pad with a proud face and let it all out. Once, on a day trip to Porto, he held it for hours while I knelt in a public park massaging his belly (Google's advice) as cars drove past. He finally peed the second we got home. On the pad.

Why it's a mistake. The pads taught him that inside is where you go. Every successful pad visit reinforced exactly the opposite of what the walks were trying to teach. We were running both curriculums at once and wondering why graduation kept getting postponed.

What to do instead. Skip the pads entirely if you can. Crate as home base, and a short trip outside after every meal, drink, nap, and play session - the moments a puppy actually needs to go. Praise like they've won a medal when it happens outside. The full method is in our Westie potty training guide.

Mistake 6: Marathon Walks with a Three-Month-Old

What happened. Partly because of the potty struggles, we'd walk tiny Sami for an hour, hour and a half at a time, waiting for results.

Why it's a mistake. That's massive overstimulation for a three-month-old puppy. Like small children, overtired and overstimulated puppies don't get calmer - they get irritated, then frantic. What looks like a naughty puppy at the end of a long walk is usually an exhausted one.

What to do instead. Ten to fifteen minutes, more often. Then back to the crate to decompress - that's half of what the crate is for. Short, frequent, boring little outings beat one epic trek every time.

What We Got Right (So You Can Steal It)

For balance, the things that paid off - because a few early decisions are quietly responsible for the dog Sami is today.

Socialization, done off a literal checklist. When Sami was tiny I printed a four-page list I found online: people of all ages, kids, dogs of all sizes, car rides, city noise, elevators - a hundred-odd items, some of which seemed absurd. "Men in hats." "People walking unusually." We laughed at those. Then we skipped some, and the gaps are visible six years later: Sami still tenses up and barks at older men who walk with a cane or an uneven gait, because he never met one as a puppy and now reads them as threats. Everything on the list we did cover, he's bulletproof about. We took him on short car trips from the start, flew with him at seven months, and last year he did a 10,000 km, twelve-country road trip sleeping peacefully in the back seat. That's not luck - that's the checklist.

Training school from four months. This is where we learned the commands that quietly run our household. "Place" - one defined spot per room, taught with a little rug we moved around, so when guests arrive he goes to his bed instead of climbing them. Wait-before-eating: Sami doesn't touch his bowl until he hears "okay," which builds patience and keeps his eyes on us for approval. We trained it so well that a few times I forgot to release him and turned around minutes later to find him staring holes into my back, dinner untouched. With an independent breed, these check-in habits are the relationship - the Westie training guide covers the approach.

House rules from day one. A dragging leash indoors for the first weeks, so we could gently interrupt chewing and reinforce recall without grabbing at him. No bed access early on - he slept in his crate in the hallway, which taught him to settle alone. (I eventually wore my husband down on the bed rule, but by then the independence was built in, so I regret nothing.)

Crate training as a safe space, never a punishment. His crate is still, by his own choice, where he goes to decompress - there's a second one in the office he naps in while we work. A puppy that can switch off in a crate is a puppy that doesn't spiral into overtired chaos.

A slow feeder, early. Puppy Sami inhaled food at a speed that risked bloat - gulping air along with kibble, which can be genuinely dangerous. A maze bowl fixed the speed. He still eats fast, but no longer like he's being timed.

Early and unglamorous vet visits. Two days after we brought him home, redness appeared in his ears - external otitis, an early flag of the immune and skin issues that became his lifelong allergies. The first treatment was two weeks of ear drops administered to a wriggling puppy wrapped in a towel like a burrito, both of us nearly in tears. Catching it that early shaped everything about how we manage his health, and it's why I tell every new Westie owner: go to the vet promptly, especially for ears and skin. This breed earns its reputation there.

We'll make different mistakes with the next puppy - probably more creative ones. That seems to be how this works. But these six are yours to skip entirely.

Everything we've learned since - routines, food, grooming, the works - is in the Complete Westie Care Guide.