1 Being Prepared

​Planning and thinking about how a puppy will fit in to your family life makes the transition easier from the breeder to your home for your new pup and helps you relax and enjoy your new arrival.

After all the waiting, bringing a new puppy home is exciting and even more so if you have young children.  It is a big step for any puppy to leave the only home they have known, go in a car for the first time, leave their mother and perhaps littermates, all at the same time. So, thinking about some of the preparations before your puppy arrives helps you to work out what he needs in these first few weeks without his mother.
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It is an excellent idea to ask the breeder for a piece of bedding that your puppy has been using for the first few nights with you. Agreeing as a family where your new puppy will sleep, how you will manage puppy in the first few days, what happens when you go back to work and planning on how to prevent your precious puppy escaping when lots of visitors come to see him. Stairgates are invaluable for providing safety and peace of mind.

Building a trusting, loving and stable relationship is a key part to robust, friendly and confident puppies that grow up to be brilliant pet dogs.

There are lots of ways to develop these relationships with your puppies through play, cuddles, feeding, exercise, spending quality time together and of course reward based training!

Working through training challenges and learning together is a great way to build, improve and strengthen those all-important relationships, with the added benefit of improving communication and teaching some manners.

For me, I start by teaching a hand touch. This is where, when presented with a hand at puppy’s level and asked to ‘TOUCH’ the puppy will run up and touch the hand with their nose. This might seem like a strange choice but is has a few huge benefits.

​Dogs of any age love to search for things – and especially puppies – as searching uses their young brain too and is great mental exercise for them.

Searching for food or toys not only teaches them to use their nose as well as their eyes, but begins the training process of them learning to wait ‘for good things to happen’.  You can practice your ‘wait or stay’ while you go about hiding food or toys and your lovely puppy is being taught some self-control too. A very useful skill for puppies!
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So, to get him started, he can be in the same room as you and you can hide some smelly treats in an empty toilet roll holder or a furry pencil case. Show him what you are doing so he realises that the treats are hidden inside. However, he must not move whilst you hide the item, as that is ‘cheating’, so if your puppy needs support to remain in one position ask a friend or family member to help while he is learning. Puppies learn fun tasks like this one especially quickly!  I like to use a release cue to begin the search such as ‘search’ or ‘find’ or a simple ‘free’ will do too but you might need to give him lots of encouragement as he learns what to do. Try as hard as you can to let him find it on his own and when he does, open it and give him the scrummy contents. When you think he gets the game, you can begin to hide it in another room or outside. A great addition to the game is pretending to hide it in one place but put it in another, and he will learn to really use his nose! This mind game works super well on a rainy day or in the garden where there are lots of hiding places and competing smells!

We all see our dogs chewing their toys or other items we have given them such as filled Kong's or 'bones' and although they look like they are enjoying chewing we may think it seems a nice way to pass time.  Our view may be different when we get a new puppy and their chewing is directed at our personal belongings or furniture!  Then both you and your dog are focused on redirecting their chewing onto appropriate items and suddenly we realize that puppies love to chew!. Also older adolescent dogs who perhaps lack confidence may chew some of your precious belongings too!

It is generally thought that chewing releases endorphins which are considered nature's feel good hormones. Dogs who may be stressed or anxious are often thought to be chewing more to release some of their stress through this activity.  Dogs use up lots of energy by chewing and for many dogs using their teeth and mouth can release pent up frustration . A much better way to do this than  with a suitable chew toy than your lovely furniture!  So consider how your dog releases his or her stress as they cant tell us , or write to us and for dogs who love to chew it actually may be a necessity to deal with how they feel.. Adult chewing of home items can often be related to boredom or anxious so if you think that this might be the case consult a professional who can help you.