Your puppy's first year and a half in your home will shape the dog he will be as an adult, both in temperament and physical health. Ideally, your new puppy will come to you at the age of eight weeks or older. He should have already received a series of vaccinations for parvovirus, parainfluenza, and distemper, and an initial deworming if necessary. He should be well weaned onto dry puppy food (or whatever his regular diet is going to be), and not fearful or nervous.
Helpful Tips On Caring For Your New Puppy!
Puppy Health:
Giving your puppy a healthy start in life will enable him to grow to his full potential. This includes not only regular veterinary check-ups and vaccinations, but also making sure his environment is appropriate for a puppy with no self-control, and danger-free. By selecting a veterinarian that you feel comfortable with, you can help ensure that your dog's medical needs will be met.
Selecting a Puppy Food:
I'll bet you thought this part would be easy! What your puppy needs from a dog food will vary according to his size as an adult, and as he grows, his overall activity level as a breed.
•What kind of food should I feed my dog?
•Reading Dog Food Labels
•The Dog Food Database of Ingredients and Analysis
If later on, you feel the need to change your dog's usual food, you will need to make the switch to a different food gradually in order to avoid any gastroinestinal unpleasantness.
Typical Puppy Misbehavior:
Puppies are curious, rambunctious, and full of mischief. What they are not, however, is spiteful. If your puppy seems to be doing things in a vengeful manner (chewing your books and shoes, or urinating in the same spot every single day), there is almost always a solid explanation for it.
•Chewing Everything! Puppy Teething
•Submissive Urination
•Marking in the House
•Digging
•Nipping
Thankfully, there is a wide range of tools and techniques designed to help owners overcome undesirable behavior and shape our puppies into good canine citizens.
•The Crate
•Obedience Classes
•Bitter Apple Chewing Prohibitive Spray
•Proper Socialization
Potty Training Tips:
Unless you can monitor your puppy 24 hours a day, don't expect the house training process to be completed until your puppy is at least 6 months old. It's normal for a young puppy to be a little 'input-output' machine. Since puppies are growing and developing rapidly at this stage, they eat more food, burn up more energy and seem to need to eliminate constantly! They also have not yet developed bowel and bladder control, so they can't 'hold it' as long as adult dogs.
House Training While You Are Away:
Confine your puppy to a small, 'puppy-proofed' room and paper the entire floor. Put his bed, toys and food/water bowls there. At first there will be no rhyme or reason to where your pup eliminates. He will go every where and any where. He will also probably play with the papers, chew on them, and drag them around his little den.
Most puppies do this and you just have to live with it. Don't get upset; just accept it as life with a young puppy. The important thing is that when you get home, clean up the mess and lay down fresh papers. While your puppy is confined, he is developing a habit of eliminating on paper because no matter where he goes, it will be on paper. As time goes on, he will start to show a preferred place to do his business. When this place is well established and the rest of the papers remain clean all day, then gradually reduce the area that is papered.
Start removing the paper that is furthest away from his chosen location. Eventually you will only need to leave a few sheets down in that area only. If he ever misses the paper, then you've reduced the area too soon. Go back to papering a larger area or even the entire room.
Once your puppy is reliably going only on the papers you've left, then you can slowly and gradually move his papers to a location of your choice. Move the papers only an inch a day. If puppy misses the paper again, then you're moving too fast. Go back a few steps and start over. Don't be discouraged if your puppy seems to be making remarkable progress and then suddenly you have to return to papering the entire room. This is normal. There will always be minor set-backs. If you stick with this procedure, your puppy will be paper trained.
House Training When You Are Home:
When you are home but can't attend to your puppy, follow the same procedures described above. However, the more time you spend with your puppy, the quicker he will be house trained. Your objective is to take your puppy to his toilet area every time he needs to eliminate. This should be about once every 45 minutes; just after a play session; just after eating or drinking; and just upon waking.
When he does eliminate in his toilet area, praise and reward him profusely and enthusiastically! Don't use any type of reprimand or punishment for mistakes or accidents. Your puppy is too young to understand and it can set the house training process back drastically.
Don't allow your puppy freedom outside of his room unless you know absolutely for sure that his bladder and bowels are completely empty. When you do let him out, don't let him out of your sight. It is a good idea to have him on leash when he is exploring your home. He can't get into trouble if you are attached to the other end of the leash.
Every 30 minutes return your pup to his toilet area. As your puppy becomes more reliable about using his toilet area and his bowel and bladder control develops, he can begin to spend more time outside his room with you in the rest of your home. Begin by giving him access to one room at a time. Let him eat, sleep and play in this room but only when he can be supervised. When you cannot supervise him, put him back in his room.
Active House Training:
The most important thing you can do to make house training happen as quickly as possible is to reward and praise your puppy every time he goes in the right place. The more times he is rewarded, the quicker he will learn. Therefore it's important that you spend as much time as possible with your pup and give him regular and frequent access to his toilet area.
The Key To Successful House Training:
Consistency and Patience. Never scold or punish your puppy for mistakes and accidents. The older your pup gets, the more he will be able to control his bladder and bowels. Eventually your pup will have enough control that he will be able to "hold it" for longer and longer periods of time. Let your puppy do this on his own time. When training is rushed, problems usually develop. Don't forget, most puppies are not reliably house trained until they are at least 6 months old.
I hope that this you find this information helpful, if you still have questions please feel free to contact me and hopefully I can help, Thanks for looking!
