Puppies are awesome . . . most of the time!
Frito feeties, tuna breath and a lot of mischief!
You got a puppy!
You imagined life with your new puppy - snuggles and loves, playing and running, taking long walks and showing your beautiful puppy off to all your friends! THEN <insert scary music here> you actually bring your puppy home. In less than 24 hours, you realize that your puppy is a land shark that has scarred your hands and arms, tripped you countless times, thinks your couch is a chew toy and has his eye on your shoes! Gulp. The image and the reality don't sync up and just like that the perfect puppy bubble pops. Don't worry - it's normal! The first few weeks of a new pup is pretty overwhelming.
Puppy 101
In the first few months of your puppy's life with you, you need to focus on 3 major areas:
- Housetraining
- Bite Inhibition
- Socialization
Housetraining:
Let's face it - this can be overwhelming, but let me make this a bit easier for you. Your new pup needs to go out every hour when awake or every 15-20 minutes if they're running around playing. Yup, you read that right! That's a lot of outdoor time! Your puppy also needs to go out after eating and waking up from sleep/naps. Keep a record (I use old fashioned pen and paper for this!) of when you take them out and what they do. Before you know it, you've got a great routine going!
Bite Inhibition:
Puppies explore the world with their mouths and you and your kids are part of that world. We need to actually teach puppies how to play with humans because if you think about it, they play with us like they would with other pups. But we don't like that! Simply get a really long toy like a long stuffy snake or a long rope toy and wriggle it on the ground and say "get a toy" and let your puppy grab on. Play with them for a bit. After a while, you will see that your dog will bring you a toy each time they want to play with you.
Socialization:
Let me first tell you what this is NOT. This is not letting your puppy play with other dogs like the Tasmanian devil! Socialization is getting your puppy out and about to introduce them to the world. While you shouldn't be taking your puppy on hikes or to dog parks before their full immunizations, you MUST take your puppy out safely so they can experience as much as they can as early as they can. The first fear period ends at 11-12 weeks meaning everything they experience in that first 3 months stays with them forever. So we want them to have wonderful experiences meeting people, kids, garbage cans, mailboxes, sewer grates, horses - whatever is relevant to your life! And for the love of everything puppy, you MUST bring them to puppy class!! It's best to start them early so they don't keep practicing those puppy behaviors we don't like! We have puppy classes starting the first week of every month and we can't wait to meet you!
And the MOST IMPORTANT thing you should do with your puppy is HAVE FUN!!! They're young for such a short time, enjoy them. Enjoy even the shenanigans because one day those zoomies will end and I promise you, you will miss them.
With Gratitude,
Nil