Puppies are a HARD. They are SO much work.
But now its spring…
So what does that mean? LOTS OF PUPPIES!
I have started getting the calls I see every spring:
“I got a new puppy and he keeps biting my hands”
“My new puppy chews up everything”
“I’ve had my puppy for two weeks and he’s not potty trained”
“My puppy knows sit but won’t do it every time I tell him”
Most people want these issues to be fixed… Immediately. But what we really have to remember is that these puppies are just babies. They are not mature dogs, and many won’t be mature dogs until they are two or three years of age.
And all of the above mentioned behaviors? There are normal puppy things. Does that mean you should ignore them? NO! These are all things to manage and train for, so your puppy grows up with good life skills and becomes an easy to live with household member.
Management:
This is when you set the environment up so your new puppy can not get themselves into trouble. With puppies, I use the 100% rule: The puppy is either 100% supervised, or 100% contained.
How do I do this? I like to set up “puppy spots” with crates and x-pens, so the puppy can be “out” with me, but safe and sound in their pen. I then add all sorts of goodies-- various chew toys, some soft toys, and frozen stuffed food toys so the puppy learns what they are allowed to chew on.
Mr. Yogi: cutest puppy ever! Now a ginormous doggo!
If I find them chewing on the wrong thing, I remove them from that item and give them something I want them to have.
As the puppy gets older, I create larger “containment” areas by using baby gates and more x-pens, allowing the puppy to have space in the house without giving them full access. As they get older, I give or take away space based on their actions.
I also do 100% supervised “free roam’” time. I allow the puppy to be loose or dragging a leash in a small area of the house. While doing this, I am not doing anything else important! I may or may not interact with the puppy. Sometimes I want to let them explore, other times I want to be doing something with them. If I see something I really like, I ALWAYS reward it to encourage that behavior!
Training
With puppies, I focus on things I think are important for a happy life with my dog. Your dog can learn fancy behaviors like heeling at any time, so focus on those life skills!
I work on socialization and ability to focus under distractions, because I want to be able to take my dog places. We work on not jumping on people, and walking nice on the leash.
I work on recall because I like to go off leash hiking, and I want to be sure my dog will come when called if there is an emergency.
I always work on entering and exiting the crate and house calmly, going to their crate or bed on command, relaxing in their crate or bed, and dropping items so it is easy to get something “stolen” back. These are skills that make living with a puppy more “bearable” in my opinion!
But most importantly, I am reinforcing the puppy for being good ALL THE TIME. With me, puppies almost never eat out of a bowl. It is always training food, or enrichment food (kongs, etc).
When I get frustrated with a puppy, they go into their kennel with a nice frozen Kong to chew on and I remind myself they are just babies. They are babies doing what is natural to them. They are not being jerks, or trying to hurt you on purpose, or being stubborn. They are being stupid, silly, normal puppies. This is not always easy to remember. I had a visiting puppy and smashed full force into my face while I was tying my shoe, leaving my bruised, crying, and mad (with maybe some yelling. I am human after all). But I had to take a few deep breaths and just finish our hike, because she needed the exercise and she needed to do the training exercises we had planned.
(full disclosure when puppy goes to bed for the night I usually have a glass of wine or some nice rum to help the human half of the equation, haha)
Have you had a puppy in the house recently? How did things go?
Share below in the comments!