New Puppy Guidelines
- Behaviors such as chewing are normal. Puppies cannot discriminate between what is acceptable to chew on and what is not. Provide multiple chew toys and ensure that all other items that are desirable to puppies (i.e. shoes) are picked up and put away.
- Rules for the puppy need to be established from the time the puppy enters the house. These should be agreed on by all family members and enforced. Examples include: No biting, jumping on furniture, jumping on people. Remember, this dog will grow up and things that are cute as a puppy such as jumping on people are not nearly as cute when the dog is 60 pounds and full grown.
- Puppies are extremely pliable during the 3 to 12 week period so take advantage of this time to make all of the rules clear.
- Reward positive behavior and discourage negative behavior.
- Disciplining a puppy usually only requires a loud verbal command, clapping of hands or shaking a can full of pennies.
- It is important to teach a puppy to be calm and relaxed. Ensure that when a dog is quiet and relaxed he/she is rewarded. We often ignore a dog that is quiet and tend to pay attention when it is rowdy. This rewards the excitable behavior.
- Teach your dog to settle. Come up with a verbal command such as “go settle in your bed”. Give the command and then put the puppy in his/her bed with a food stuffed toy to keep him quiet. The dog will learn that good things come to a puppy that is quiet.
- Socialization is important. Dogs should be exposed to all types of people. If possible have as many different types of people meet the puppy and make it a positive situation. Have friends, neighbors and acquaintances give the puppy treats. Avoid overwhelming the puppy. Different meetings should be fun.
- Ensure that the children who meet the puppy or those who live with the puppy are gentle and behave quietly around the puppy. The puppy needs to learn that children are enjoyable and also not a time to become excited.
- Discourage rough play in the house. Exuberant play is an important need for puppies but they shouldn’t be knocking everything off the coffee table or trying to solicit play when kids are doing their homework. Encourage quietness inside the house and save running and ball playing for outside.
- Although socialization is recommended, avoid situations where other unvaccinated animals have been until your puppy has had his/her full set of vaccinations.
- Start doing some basic training early. Even young puppies can learn to sit, come and stay.
- Puppies need to learn to tolerate being handled, being given medication, having their ears handled, teeth brushed and nails trimmed. Teaching your pet all these things now make them a much better dog in the future.
- When housetraining, it is important to keep the puppy within eyesight at all times. If somebody is unable to watch the puppy, put him/her in a crate.
- Watch for signs of the puppy becoming restless or whining and take outside.
- Somebody must go outside with the puppy at all times. Take the puppy to the same location every time and use a command. Repeat the command over and over until the puppy urinates or defecates so that the puppy learns to associate the word with the action. Give a food reward immediately after.
- One of the big mistakes people make is ceasing to go outside with the puppy too early and just rewarding when they come inside. This simply rewards the puppy for walking back inside.
- Ensure that there is a regular schedule for eating and drinking. This allows for a regular schedule of urinating and defecating a set period of time after eating and drinking. Also ensure that the puppy goes out first thing in the morning, last thing at night, after waking from a nap or being in the crate. Anticipate your pet’s schedule.
- Do not punish for an accident in the house unless you actually catch them in the act. Punishing when you find the puddle ½ an hour later does not teach the puppy to urinate outside.
- The general rule of thumb is that a puppy can stay in the crate one more hour than its age in months. I.e. a 2 month puppy can stay in his/her crate for 3 hours later. By the time a puppy is 4 months old he/she should be able to make it approximately 7 hours in a night without a problem.
- Housetraining is usually much easier if the appropriate amount of food is being given. Overfeeding a puppy can make housetraining more difficult.
- Close supervision is extremely important in the first several months of a puppy’s life. If the puppy cannot be adequately supervised, the puppy should be in the crate. The crate is not a punishment but a place where the puppy cannot get into trouble. You would not allow your 2 year old child free access to the house and a puppy should not have it either.
- People tend to allow new puppies to do just about anything because they are cute. Remember, this dog will grow up and those behaviors that are cute now, will not be so cute later.
- Crate training is an excellent tool and often very useful in later life.
- It is important to understand that a crate is not a punishment. Once a puppy is crate trained, puppies love their crate and will go in by themselves. A crate is a safe, quiet place for the puppy, like a person going into their bedroom to relax.
- Use the crate regularly, for short periods of time so that the puppy realizes that it is a safe place and that people will return for them. Try it initially for 5 minute periods. A chew toy can be given or a favorite blanket to make the experience more pleasurable. Gradually increase the length of time spent in a crate.
- In order for the crate to be an effective tool for housetraining the crate must be just slightly bigger than the puppy itself. The puppy should have enough room to comfortably lie down and turn around. Anything bigger, simply gives them a place to sleep and a place to urinate and defecate.
- Submissive urination is when the puppy rolls over on his/her back and urinates when somebody approaches and stands over the puppy. This is a submissive puppy’s response to what is perceives as a dominant or threatening action.
- Submissive behavior is an appeasement behavior. The puppy is saying "Please don’t hurt me, I’m not a threat".
- Do not punish submissive urination as the puppy will simply feel that it needs to be more submissive and the behavior will become more extreme.
- The best way to deal with this is to ignore the puppy but also teach a command that will show them what to do.
- In daily exercises, teach the pup to sit for a treat. When the pup has solidly learned this command, the owner can tell the pup to sit when visitors arrive so that the puppy will know what to do instead of submissive behavior.
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