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Most Important Things You Must Do With Your New Puppy

Montreal Puppy Training
Most Important Things You Must Do with Your Puppy | Puppy Care Tips

Most Important Tips For New Puppy Owners

Getting a new puppy is exciting and can be challenging and even overwhelming at times. here are some of the most important things you must do with your new puppy. These tips and strategies will help you get rolling along the way to your future well adjusted and well trained adult dog!

1. Puppy Training

Puppy training is crucial for teaching your new canine companion some very important things that will life easier for all. Socialization, house training, crate training, basic commands and manners. Puppy training is about more than teaching and expecting “perfect” behaviour. It is about bonding with your puppy through fun adn games, teamwork, setting realistic expectations, and teaching your puppy to want to work with you as part of a team.

2. Socialization

Socializing is a widely misunderstood topic. Many people think that it consists of having dogs meet other dogs or even puppy socialization group classes. True socialization includes acclimating your puppy to the world around him and helping him feel safe and confident in a variety of settings, sounds, smells, surfaces, people and places. The Video below where I am feeding my 8 week old puppy at Starbucks is a good example of showing my puppy that the world going by (cars/people/noises etc…) is just a background for our activity.  It is one of many things I encourage my puppy pre school clients to do in order to help foster a well rounded, confident puppy   

3. Grooming and Healthcare

I like to have my pups get used to having their ears/tail/eyes/feet/mouth handled right away. Start when your puppy is tired and relaxed and let your puppy curl up in your lap. You can have some food in one hand while you handle your pup with the other. If need be have someone else hold the food for you. Dont feed all at once – let the puppy lick at the food and make it last in order to distract the puppy from the handling.
Keep these sessions short, light and the goal is just to acclimate your puppy to being handled with as little stress as possible.

4. Play

Play is crucial to keeping your puppy happy, to encouraging good behaviour and building a bond with your puppy.
Playing fetch and tug of war with your puppy will go a long way towards channeling your pup’s mouthiness and energy. Puppies want to play, they like to try and engage us and if you are proactive with these games and make them exiting, your puppy will begin to look forward to these play sessions.

5. Exercise and Mental Stimulation

Puppies have lots of energy to burn, so providing regular exercise and mental stimulation is essential. Take your puppy for daily walks, play interactive games, and provide puzzle toys to keep their mind stimulated. This helps prevent boredom, destructive behavior, and promotes a healthy lifestyle.

6. Love and Attention

Puppies need to feel safe and secure in order to be content.  Part of this comes from the structure we provide and it is equally important we show our puppies love and affection.  Petting, talking to them, knowing when to encourage and also understanding that scolding or reprimanding has no place in puppy raising is important. My puppy is social and loves to meet people but at 11 week sold we already have a bond developing that if he were being petted by someone other than me and I began to move away he would choose to be with me and forget about the person petting him.

Raising a well rounded, happy, confident puppy is a long and rewarding process.  If you start early, have a good understanding of what is needed and know how to tailor things to suit your individual puppy you will be well on your way to the beginnings of shaping a great dog for years to come. The concepts, images and videos here are just a small sample of what it takes to raise a well rounded puppy.

For more information & puppy care tips, visit our puppy pre school page.

Many clients then go on to future obedience training in the form of one on one lessons or in kennel training / Board and Training Montreal services to make sure they have a great grasp on things.

Eight week old puppy and new owner bonding
Bonding with new puppyGetting to know you. Stopping to have a potty break and snack at a fast food place along the way during a 10 hour drive home from the breeder.
Bringing a new puppy home and bonding with your new puppy
Bonding with new puppyFirst day home and we are exhausted from our drive and just hanging out together. Bonding time.
Socializing your new puppy
8 week old puppy exploring new surroundingsExploring new surroundings
Teaching a puppy to allow handling and grooming
Puppy's first bathFirst bath. It is so important to start all of these grooming and handling concepts early on in order to acclimate your puppy to them.
Puppy learning to play fetch montreal dog trainer Vaudreuil
Puppy fetchLearning to play fetch on day one.
Teach your new puppy to come when called
Obedience training a new puppyPracticing Off leash recalls at a Tim Hortons @ 9 weeks old
English bulldog puppy socializing in front of Starbucks
How to socialize your new puppyMeeting friendly faces and learning the world is full of happy dog loving people.
How to socialize your puppy and build confidence
tips for Socializing a puppyMeeting friendly strangers at a local bank. New sights sounds, new flooring and friendly faces all help build a more confident puppy.
teaching a puppy to allow nail trimming and handling
how to trim puppy nailsFirst nail trim, and Hooligan was barely aware because he ate a ton of treats to desensitize him to the trimmer. Everybody wins!
How to play with your puppy to encourage good behaviour
Teaching a puppy to play fetchLearning to play fetch, interact with his humans in a fun and engaging way, and at the same time, not eat all the grass clippings on the ground because the focus is on the toy.

Puppy Play – Most Important Tips

Train puppy to play and not bite or be destructive

How and Why to play with your puppies and dogs


Make a point of playing fetch, playing tug-of-war, and teaching them that the highlight of their day and ultimately their existence is time shared with you.

Play with them like you mean it. Put your heart and soul into it.

Play with them until you’re both exhausted and then keep going.

There are numerous benefits to this that we will explore in this dog training article and video   

It’s no surprise that when people don’t do this with their dogs and they “socialize“ their dogs in all the wrong ways, such as dog parks, etc. the dogs learn to be hyper social and their focus for the external creates behavioural issues.  By using external stimuli such ans other dogs to play with, dog owners  are teaching a convoluted value system that fun is to be had away from you.  It’s wonderful that dogs like other dogs. Of course this is helpful in preventing unwanted aggression and they can have fun together, but it comes at a price.  Especially if that is the primary means of stimulation and exercise.   There is also the  risk of the unknown dogs, fights, bullying and aggression.  In the best of circumstances you risk a hyper reactive, uncontrollably social dogs.

Bad Dog Training.  Unintentionally training dogs to be over excited and easily distracted

What this also means is that the hyper social dogs will lose their ability to focus on their person because they’ve been conditioned that the highlight of their day is away from their person and with other dogs.


Think about it this way: who is a dog going to relate to easier?


Another species?   One who doesn’t play with them, form a bond through shared mutual interests and activities, one who doesn’t create a backdrop of adrenaline, excitement and dopamine their interactions?  

Or

One of their own who speaks  their native language, who can run fast to chase and be chased. One who can entice them to play, jump/chase/bite and feel free. Or a boring human who is nothing more than an Uber to the dog park.

 

Dog socialization is largely misunderstood by dog owners and many dog trainers and Veterinarians


True socialization is teaching a dog to be comfortable in their environment and ultimately, I want my dog to be neutral to things around him/her so that communication between us is facilitated.  Friendly, open and neutral is ideal.

Hyper social and Being hell bent on  interacting with everyone and everything does not facilitate living with a dog and creates a dog with a hectic mind.
In our modern world think of the equivalent being trying to have a conversation and the other person is constantly looking at their phone.
It renders the conversation and ultimately interaction and communication meaningless.

Playing tug of war and Fetch with your puppy and Dog

The benefits to this are so numerous.
By teaching this to your puppy they will learn:

  • They want to be with you.  You are fun!
  • It will make obedience training easier because you are the centre of fun.
    When I’m with my puppy or any dog for that matter it’s like I get to relive being a child.  It’s freedom to act silly, to run around like a lunatic playing with toys and bouncing balls and by the end I’m sweaty and tired.
  • Work will = reward later on when the puppy has been conditioned to understand that you set the tone for the games. “Hey Puppy?  Want to have fun?  Gimme something (sit/stand/place etc..) and you’ll get that game you love so much.”
  • Do this with our dogs to help them spend their energy, to create a bond that will complement every aspect of our lives.
    Have a look at this video – I have been playing with Hooligan since the day he came home at 8 weeks old. It is the highlight of our days, just as it has been for all my dogs going back decades.   I really hope that a few dog owners out there get this message and take it to heart. It will enrich your life with your dog more than you know.  ♥️ 

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