Being a Good Puppy Parent is another talk in our pet series. This one hopefully will give you a heads up, some tips, and some advise for when you get a new puppy. Or if you are thinking about getting a new puppy, these are some things to consider, before you being a new puppy home. If you have already jumped in and gotten a new family member, these tips may be of use.
Being a Good Puppy Parent means different things but there are certain things that are required. Knowing your puppy, its’ personality traits, what puppy will need, and how to train puppy are the very least things you need to know.
A. Things to Know About Puppy
Being a Good Puppy Parent means knowing your puppy.
Have you just brought home a new puppy? If so you have much to look forward to. A puppy can bring happiness into a home nearly as much as a new baby can. Unlike a human baby though, your puppy will grow quickly into an adult. It will go through many changes very quickly. Puppies certainly need plenty of love and attention. With beneficial training, it will soon become a cherished member of the family.
1. Puppy’s Personality
Your new puppy has its’ own unique personality along with traits that are common to the breed. How your puppy responds to the recent change in its’ surroundings will depend on these factors. Some puppies may be frightened at first. It’s not unusual for a scared puppy to hide behind the couch or under a bed.
2. Puppy’s Energy Level
Some puppies get very excited about their new home. Your new puppy may want to jump on you and lick you like a lollipop. Puppy may run around aimlessly exploring its’ new home. You will want to curb this kind of behavior though from the first day. In short time you can begin providing further training for your puppy. Especially from the start you wouldn’t want to overlook any signs of aggression.
3. Puppy’s Personal Area
Another matter that you will want to attend to right away is to introduce puppy to its’ own areas. Puppy will feel more comfortable knowing that it has a place of its’ own. This includes where it sleeps and where it does it’s business. Take puppy outside at the first sign of needing to go. If puppy has an accident it’s not necessary to strike or rub it’s nose in it. Simply taking puppy to its’ area outside will reinforce that this is where puppy needs to go. In short time puppy will make the connection and scratch at the door or whine to go out. As with all training it’s important to be consistent with your new puppy about this.
4. Feeding Puppy
A puppy does not eat the same food as an adult dog. Puppies need more protein, more fat, and more nutrients than adult dog because they are growing so quickly. Make sure you are feeding your puppy a puppy food that is a complete diet. There are foods made specifically for different sizes of puppies to cover their special needs. A poodle puppy can use small breed puppy food, where as a Great Dane would need giant breed puppy food. Food also comes in wet and dry so you can use both. Add a little wet food to the dry food to make it better tasting and add some fat to the meal.
As the puppy gets older the food requirements will change. Be sure to keep up with this change and adjust the food to your puppy’s age and needs.
5. Chewing Puppy
Your puppy will also begin to teethe very soon and needs to chew on things. To save your furniture from damage it’s a good idea to provide puppy with chew toys. Raw-hide chips are available at almost any grocery or discount store and are excellent for pups to cut teeth on. All kinds of toys, bones, and ropes are available and made just for puppy sizes. Be sure to offer different kinds of toys so puppy does not get bord.
Do not give your puppy your old shoes, or clothes to chew on. If you do, it will confuse puppy and puppy will not know the difference in your new ones and your old ones. This is one of the reasons dogs chew on shoes and clothes. They were allowed to chew on them as puppies so they do not understand why they can not do the same as adults.
6. Breed Traits
Get to know as much as possible about your puppy’s breed or breeds as the case may be. Try to take into account its natural temperament when training too. Hopefully, you’ve chosen a breed that is conducive to your lifestyle and your new puppy will fit right in. There are some breeds that just do better in certain settings than others. Be sure you have done your research before you choose a new puppy breed.
Example 1: Do not try to keep a Great Pyrenesse in a camper in Florida. The area is too hot for a dog with long hair and a camper is far too small for a dog that size.
Example 2: Do not get a chihuahua puppy for a class pet. A chi is far too nervous to live around a large group of children. The chi will not be happy and may become aggressive thinking to protect itself.
7. When Puppy Gets Older
Being a Good Puppy Parent means loving and keeping your puppy its’ entire life, even after it grows up.
As your puppy grows he may begin to lose some of his “cuteness”. Even though he is becoming an adult, he still needs attention and love. Spending plenty of quality time with your puppy throughout his entire lifetime will create a special bond between you and him. He’ll love you and want to protect you, your family, and your home. After all, that is your puppy’s new job and he’ll carry it out gleefully when that bond is strong.
Unfortunately, many people want a puppy to stay small and cute, that is just not practical with most breeds. There are some toy breeds that will stay small but most puppies will grow up to be real dogs some day. Think about this when you are choosing a puppy.
8. Medical Needs
Being a Good Puppy Parent means giving it the right medical support and protecting your puppy form diseases and parasites.
Puppy will need you to help keep it healthy by providing proper medical care. Puppies need several sets of “puppy shots” and deworming as they grow up. Adult dogs need yearly vaccines to keep them safe from diseases and parasites.
It is also possible that your puppy will need some kind of medical treatment in its’ lifetime. Dogs can get almost the same medical treatments as people can these days from dental cleaning, to eye surgery, to tumor removals. Get to know your local vets and decide on which one you will use before you need one. Waiting til an emergency occurs to find a vet is not being a good puppy parent.
9. Getting Your Puppy Fixed
Being a Good Puppy Parent means getting your puppy spayed or neutered. This will help stop dominate marking (peeing on stuff to mark its’ territory), running off, dominate behavior, and of course having unwanted puppies.
Many people do not know how many animal are killed in animal shelters every month just because someone did not get their dog fixed. Unwanted puppies end up on the streets or in animal control and die because no one cared about them. That is tragic. No one should ever have to feel that one on cares about them. Most states kill over 1000 homeless animals a month. Please get your pet spayed or neutered, do not be part of the problem be part of the solution.
B. Puppy Training Tips
Being a Good Puppy Parent means giving your puppy the proper training.
Puppies are so full of vim and vigor! You just may wonder if you will ever be able to bring your puppy under control. But don’t worry, puppy training isn’t that difficult if you know what to do.
When you first bring home your puppy he may be excited or frightened by the new surroundings. Of course you will want to cuddle and play and get to know each other. But it is important not to allow the puppy to chew on your fingers or bite you. If you let the puppy think it is ok to do so now then it will just be harder to break him of it when he gets older.
Here are some puppy training tips you might find useful.
1. Potty Training
Some people like to begin their puppy training with a dog crate. This is because it’s unlikely that the puppy will willingly soil its’ immediate area. This technique of housebreaking a dog is only effective though when the puppy is old enough to control his bladder and bowels.
Another method of housebreaking is to show the dog to the door when it begins to sniff around. Keep at it and puppy will make the connection sooner than you might think.
2. Chewing
Puppies do love to chew so it’s a good idea to provide a few toys to chew on while teething. Dogs respond better to reward than to punishment. So if pup starts chewing on furniture legs or ripping up the couch, stop puppy immediately with a stern no. Then take puppy to hits’ designated area and offer puppy a chew toy. When puppy begins to chew on one of these, praise puppy for doing so. This will reinforce in its’ mind which things are ok and which things are off-limits.
3. Proper Socializing
Being a Good Puppy Parent means giving your puppy the proper instruction and socializing so they will know how to act around other people and other pets.
To prevent dog fear, aggression, or fights in the future it is important to introduce your puppy to other dogs as soon as possible. Proper socialization is key to a happy, safe dog. Training your puppy now on how to get along will save frustration later on. Just make sure that neither dog is allowed to establish dominance. That place is reserved for humans. Puppy should be taken on walks, to doggy parks, to the vet, and to other places regularly. Make sure these trips are fun, not just going to the vet when you need to. Let puppy meet new people and new animals frequently. This way meeting new people or animals will not frighten puppy, it will be something that puppy is used to.
As puppies get older they may want to be the dominant dog, if you have more than one dog. Do not let puppy do this. There is always a natural “pecking order” within a family. It does not matter if you are talking about people or dogs, someone is always dominant. But with dogs, training your new puppy to understand that you are the dominant will help keep puppy from acting up when it gets older.
Sometimes the new puppy will try to show dominance over the other dogs that lived there before puppy arrived. This kind of behavior can easily lead to fights and dogs getting hurt. So be sure to keep an eye out for this. If this situation occurs in your home, quickly separate the dogs and take control to show that you are in fact the dominant, not either of the dogs.
4. Barking
Barking and whining are hard habits to control in a dog. Of course, it would be completely unfair to expect your dog to never bark. But you can train it to bark only when it’s appropriate to do so. When is it ok for a dog to bark?
Barking is your dog’s way of talking, you need to understand what the barks mean to know what your dog is trying to tell you. Dogs will have different barks for fear, anger, and protection.
a. When it is frightened. People scream or cry and a dog will naturally bark.
b. When it is happy to see you it may bark a little out of excitement.
c. When someone enters your property or knocks on the door. Praise puppy for doing its’ job of guarding your home and family but don’t allow the barking to persist. It may be necessary to put puppy in another room or in its’ crate.
d. It’s only natural for dogs around the neighborhood to communicate with one another. That doesn’t mean though that you have to allow your puppy to bark all night long. If you’re training your puppy to be an outside dog you may want to put it in the garage or barn at night.
5. Be Positive
Being a Good Puppy Parent means giving your puppy positive motivation and good vibes.
There are any number of things that you can train your dog to do, not just how you want it to behave, although that is a good place to start. Think about what you want your dog to do or not to do. Do you want your dog to do cute tricks, or help on the farm, or be your guard? All of these things a dog can be trained to do, the key here is for you to know what you want and how to get the desired action from your dog. And of course, positive reinforcement is always best. If you dog does good praise it. But if you dog misses the mark do not yell and hit it, these things will make your dog afraid of you, not teach it what you want. Your dog being afraid of you will make it impossible to train as it will not trust your or want to be with you.
Puppy training can be challenging yet fun. There are times when your puppy will test the limits and try your patience. But if you keep your cool and a positive outlook, the dog will pick up on your attitude towards training and begin to look forward to spending this time with you.
No matter if your puppy get it or not, just keep trying. The time spent training your puppy is still time spent together. And that is the point of having a puppy is it not?
Being a Good Puppy Parent is by no means a complete list of what to know, what to do, or how to do it for your puppy. This is just a list of important things that all good puppy parents need to know.
We hope you have enjoyed this talk on Being a Good Puppy Parent. Try out some of these tips and see how it goes for you. Remember every puppy, like people, have their own unique personality so do not expect what works for one to always work for all. Enjoy your puppy, the fun, the love, and the time you have to spend together.
In case you missed any of our other talks in this pet series, check them out below.
You Are Thinking of Getting a Pet?
Being a Good Fish Aquarium Keeper
Thank you for visiting and please come again for another edition of Out Standing in the Field.
Well covered. Good points about all of it.
Thank you, Glad this info is useful to you.