It is all extremely exciting; the day has finally arrived when you collect your new puppy. He is now 8 weeks old; he must be by law. You should check with your breeder that puppy will have a piece of bedding with litter mates’ scent on it, it will be a comfort for puppy, a current feeding chart of what puppy is eating and times that he is fed plus a weeks’ worth of food, you should gradually change over food if you are going to be feeding different food.
Preparations have been made, the garden has been checked at puppy level, you should have removed all poisonous plants and berries or at least blocked them off so puppy can not reach them, fences and potential holes fixed or blocked. House is puppy proofed, all things like loose wires, rugs all made secure, remember whose fault it is if they get chewed, it is not your puppies, it will be yours as puppies are very inquisitive and will investigate.
A good buy is a puppy playpen, in which you can place their bed and some toys and have a toileting area for the puppy. This will also serve as a safe space for when you are busy, like cooking or cleaning, even if you have visitors., it will also help stop your puppy from learning bad habits.
When you first bring your puppy home, take him straight into the garden first, he may need to go to the toilet, and this is the ideal opportunity to start your toilet training. He can also explore his new surroundings and get his first praise and rewards from you. Now its time to introduce the family, if you have children, they will be very excited for their new family member, remind the children to be calm and not noisy, the puppy will be overwhelmed and possibly scared, ask the family members to sit down and let the puppy come to them to investigate, maybe have a few small treats to give to puppy.
If you have another dog in the house, introductions should be done in a safe space, not all dogs will tolerate a puppy’s advances and exuberance, watch for any signs of stress from either dog or puppy, if adult dog becomes aggressive remove him to another room and try again later, this is where a puppy pen helps, older dog can see the puppy and become comfortable with the new addition.
The first few days are very scary for a puppy, new surroundings and smells, new people so be patient especially at night. Take your puppy to the bedroom with you, with a high sided box for him to sleep in you can then reassure him when he wakes up, you will also be able to take him to the toilet when he wakes up too.
First few days are difficult for both you and your puppy, be patient, he will sleep most of the time and want to be with you on waking, this is the difficult part, puppy needs to learn to be alone for short periods of time. You can leave him alone for two to three minutes at a time to begin with, he will make small whining noises or baby barks, just ignore these but DON’T ignore the distressed barks, you will learn the difference, the idea is to build up the time of leaving puppy alone, for several short sessions throughout the day.
Its natural for us to treat puppies like children, but they are a different species, with dissimilar needs and different learning. To have that special bond with your puppy, now is the time to learn the differences and learn how to communicate with your puppy.
Around the circle
I am part of a fabulous blog circle with other dog trainers. Each blog in the circle links to the next so you can read what each of them has to say about choosing the right dog.
So next in the circle is –