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By Jill Abramson for New York Times

ALL last week, like clockwork, Scout sneaked into our bedroom and licked my face at 3:25 a.m. Precisely. Talk about an unwelcome wake-up call.

It reminded me of her earliest puppy days, when she would yelp several times in the middle of the night and I would darkly ponder whether she was more than we could handle. Even though we had raised other puppies successfully, there were those stressful moments when I fantasized about handing Scout’s leash to the next stranger who stopped to admire her.

New dog owners sometimes don’t realize how much love, care, time and patience it takes to raise a puppy. My friend Dana just brought home a toy Yorkshire terrier, Bailey. Although Dana thought long and hard about what a new puppy would entail, she conceded she wasn’t fully prepared.

“The first week I felt I had adopted a human infant and I kept saying to myself, ‘What have I done?’ ” she said.

His second day home, Bailey woke up at dawn, barking loudly and giving Dana a panic attack. Nor was she prepared for the size of the first veterinarian bill. Paper training is hard, although Bailey is starting to get the hang of it. Dana worries that her young son, Jordan, may play too roughly or step on Bailey. By the time she visited my office for some tea and sympathy, Dana said she was determined to tough it out.

If they are well socialized and trained, dogs (and their humans) usually make it through the most exhausting puppy phase. I came home the other night to find Scout trying to take part in an impromptu fashion show that Cornelia, my daughter, and two friends were having in our living room. (They smartly hid a pair of heels.) At 9 months she is trained enough to have the run of the full house, so we can cuddle with her next to the fireplace after long walks in the snow. White hair covers most of our stuff, and vacuuming is our constant occupation.

My dog-crazy son, Will, 24, lobbied hardest for us to get Scout. He and his girlfriend would love to have their own dog in Brooklyn, where they live. I’ve bitten my tongue. So, when my husband and I went to China for a week in December, we asked Will and Lindsey to dog-sit for Scout in our apartment. Here is Will’s report:

We are mildly dog obsessed. We’ve been known to torture ourselves for hours looking at cute, sad face after cute, sad face on Petfinder.com. We viewed this dog-sitting stint as a sort of doggy test drive and couldn’t wait to say zaijian to my folks.

Cold reality set in the first morning. I work in the music industry with very late hours and I usually don’t wake up until 8:30 or 9 a.m. Not Scout. She’s up and ready to rock at 6:30. I hadn’t been up before sunrise in years without having a flight to catch. This early start on frigid dawns had a domino effect on my schedule. I was a morning person for the first time, but I was sleepy by 9 at night.

One of the classic benefits of having a canine companion is the explosive happiness a four-legged friend displays upon its owner’s arrival home. I loved this, especially since Scout has a unique ritual for such occasions. First she picks up a favorite toy (in most cases a quacking duck) and then proceeds to circle you while emitting a guttural moan reminiscent of Ludo from the movie “Labyrinth.”

This sound would seem to express anguish and misery in any other animal, but for Scout it means that she is infinitely happy that you are back.

We were no longer relegated to gawking outside dog-run fences; we were free to not only enter any one that we pleased, but also to pick out favorite dogs, and (animal and owner willing) pet them. All it takes is one line of banter (“Oh, is that a Vizsla?”) to enable you to get acquainted. For the dogless dog lover this is a very nice arrangement.

There were triumphs. My girlfriend helped Scout learn to shake, respond to the command “Down” and roll over -almost.

But with both of us working, often late, we realized our schedules are incompatible with full-time dog care. Conclusion: We don’t want a dog less, we just understand the limitations it puts on your life.

The reality of all the work and love that go into puppy care is one reason, among others, why it’s always a bad idea to get a dog on impulse. That’s why some breeders and rescue groups won’t release animals during the Christmas season. There is usually a small spike in dogs taken to shelters after the holidays.

According to Wayne Pacelle, chief executive officer of the Humane Society of the United States, millions of dogs have ended up in shelters over the last decade, and many of them have been euthanized, because people received them as gifts and couldn’t handle them.

“People who relinquish their dogs often don’t know how to cope with behavioral problems or they just aren’t prepared for all the work and even the expense,” Mr. Pacelle said.

For the last year, in a program called Pets for Life, New York City shelters have had Humane Society counselors on premise to talk to people who arrive determined to leave their dogs. The owners can get informed advice on training and dealing with problems that most often stem “from human failings,” Mr. Pacelle said. As a result of the program, he said, quite a few people have ended up keeping their dogs.

Watching Scout happily leaping in the snow for the first time erases the memories of her middle-of-the-night wake-up visits. Like many dog owners, we’ve learned that it’s up to the humans to latch the bedroom door.

Correction: January 11, 2010

An earlier version of this column incorrectly identified the shelters in New York City where Humane Society counselors work on premise. The shelters are not run by the Humane Society.