We would like to congratulate you on the acquisition of your new puppy. Owning a dog can be an extremely rewarding experience, but it also carries with it some responsibility. We hope these notes will give you some help. If you have questions concerning any subject related to your puppy's health, please do not hesitate to telephone us.
What type of playing should I expect from a puppy?
Stimulating play is important during the first week. Stalking and pouncing are important play behavior in puppies and are necessary for proper muscular development. If given a sufficient outlet for these behavior with toys, your puppy will be less likely to use family members for these activities. The best toys are lightweight and movable. These include wads of paper and rubber balls. Any toy that is small enough to be swallowed should be avoided.
Can I discipline a puppy?
Disciplining a young puppy may be necessary if its behavior threatens people or property, but harsh punishment should be avoided. Hand clapping and using shaker cans or horns can be intimidating enough to inhibit undesirable behavior. However, remote punishment is preferred. Remote punishment consists of using something that appears unconnected to the punisher to stop the problem. Examples include using spray bottles, throwing objects in the direction of the puppy to startle (but not hit) it, and making loud noises. Remote punishment is preferred because the puppy associates punishment with the undesirable act and not with you.
How do I ensure that my puppy is well socialized?
The socialization period for dogs is between 4 and 12 weeks of age. During that time, the puppy is very impressionable to social influences. If it has good experiences with men, women, children, cats, other dogs, etc., it is likely to accept them throughout life. If the experiences are absent or unpleasant, it may become apprehensive or adverse to any of them. Therefore, during the period of socialization, we encourage you to expose your dog to as many types of social events and influences as possible. However since the puppy will not have built up a complete immunity from the vaccination program until approximately 14 weeks of age you have the dilemma of endeavouring to socialize him on the one hand and trying to isolate him from exposure to potentially harmful diseases on the other. The aim is to strike a balance and obviously not expose him to the risk of disease but at the same time ensure that as much socialization as possible, both with people and other animals takes place.
Training your puppy
Responsible ownership involves having a well-trained dog and this training should be commenced as soon as the puppy is acquired. Puppies are continuously learning from the moment their eyes are open and responsible breeders will ensure that the elements of training have commenced long before you acquire the puppy at 6-8 weeks of age. Remember training is not some formal process but should occur all the time we are together with a dog.
Training and socialization are intermixed, a well socialized dog is invariably a well trained dog and vice versa. Thus puppies should be socialized. They should be handled by family members and strangers as soon as possible and then be introduced to other dogs, preferably to puppies, as soon as their inoculation program allows. Many training clubs and some veterinary practices today run puppy classes in order to initiate training and ensure adequate socialization takes place. Enquire from your veterinary surgeons.
Basic training of a puppy is not a very difficult task provided certain simple rules are followed:
- Keep the tasks simple and only go one step at a time.
- Teach sounds and words as commands and not sentences
- When trying to program the puppy to respond to your command, avoid distractions and competing activities, for example you will never get your puppy to learn to walk round the garden on a collar and lead if Aunt Emma is playing ball with her mother in another part of the garden.
- Be effusive with your praise and don't be afraid to use food rewards.
- Ignore failures and certainly do not punish the puppy, and finally.
- Be consistent and this applies to all members of the family.
Local training clubs or puppy pre-schools are an ideal way of ensuring socialization and dog and owner participation in basic training methods. Other means of training available involve one to one methods, ideally involving both owner and dog with a trainer or sometimes sending the dog away to be trained. However these are certainly less fun and sometimes not as successful as the owner/pet participation and are often reserved for problem animals who have to undergo behavioral therapy.
From St. Anthony Animal Recovery Hospital
