Puppies are fantastic and having them is a great addition to your family. But having your own new puppy can be a lot of work (trust us). When it comes to housetraining, walking, getting them to sleep when you want them to, or just chewing on things they shouldn’t, puppies can be a ton of work. Here are some tips to get you on the right path
Socialize Them
Socialization is necessary to help your pup develop into a lovely full grown dog. Exposing him or her to a large variety of people, places and experiences early on is key, but make sure to watch their reactions and move slowly. The purpose of this exercise to make sure they are non reactive to most things. Different dogs will be reactive to certain things over others, but there are some commonalities. Fireworks, barking, traffic, loud banging noises among others will make your dog react quickly, but over time they will acclimate to these stimuli. Make sure not to do it too quickly
Exercise
Constant exercise is crucial to your pup’s mental and physical well being. This will likely be difficult to start with, especially with younger dogs, but this is a KEY aspect of socialization and behavioural training. Bring some good treats along (high value if possible) and make sure you let them know what it is they’re being rewarded for. Praise lots when they do something good, but avoid too much negative interaction when they misbehave. Be firm but not overly firm. They’ll get the idea
Train Them Early
Start training them as soon as they get used to their new home. You should start with the basics, which can be found in our other article but feel free to find other sources too. You could try taking them to puppy classes, as these tend to work wonders in earlier years of their puppyhood. One other thing you could do is hire a personal puppy trainer (only if it is really needed as it could end up very expensive)
Stop Bad Behaviours
When your puppy is young, it’s so easy to let them get away with murder. This is something lots of dog owners struggle with but it’s crucial to their development to learn boundaries. It is so much easier to train a puppy (tough as that can be) than to untrain one fully grown big dog. If they’re jumping too much, stop them, if they’re nipping at you, stop it immediately and make sure they know that behaviour is not tolerable
Stay Consistent For Best Results
The most valuable thing to take from this is consistency is key. You have to teach them through a constant routine to ensure they understand the world around them. Dogs are extremely intelligent creatures and will understand how they’re supposed to behave if rules are properly laid out for them to follow. They will come to understand how to bend these rules too, so stay firm when disciplining them
