Puppy is here! What next? - Here’s what to focus on first!

Our ideal scenario is that the puppy is with their mom and siblings until 7 or 8 weeks. At this time, they join your home home and begin to learn that this new home environment is NORMAL. This is hugely important for the dog’s emotional well-being. Many of the rescues that we work with (including my own girl Sienna) grew up in a rural setting with an unknown background.  Intentional socialization and/or exposure to varied environments, people, groups, and interactions as puppies was not part of their first few months. , and therefore are fearful, reactive and have a high-startle. A HUGE benefit of getting a puppy around 8 weeks is that the socialization window is open and things that the puppy is exposed to can enter the “this is regular, normal, no biggie” bank if they have a neutral or positive experience.

This isn’t a rule for every puppy (some are fearful in disposition or from other circumstances). Silas Clark has been with his mom and siblings now for 7 weeks and was picked up, just after turning 7 weeks old. He came to my urban home and we’ll begin working through positive exposures. I’ll share them with you as we go!

Whenever I have puppy clients, I tell them that there are three things that I want them to focus on with their puppy in the first two months. Those things are:

• Potty training

• Crate training/separation training

• Positive socialization and exposure

So in addition to setting up my plan for socialization/exposure, I’m also 

• Taking up all my nice rugs

• Getting a puppy crate that Silas Clark can travel safely in (I’ve got a big wire one at home that he will have only ½ use of until he’s bigger), 

• Talking to my vet about setting up our first appointment.

Nature and nurture both play a role in your dog’s growth and temperament - and taking advantage of natural developmental windows is one way to combine those forces! 

Prepping Your Current Dog to teach your puppy good (not bad) habits

To my clients, I often say, your new dog will be learning both from you (the humans) and from the current dog in the home. Dogs love to learn from other dogs, and will watch one another to see “how to dog,” especially when they are young. If you’re getting a second dog, ask yourself these questions in prep:

• What behaviors does my current dog do that I do not want them to pass on to my puppy?

• What is my current dog afraid of that might teach my puppy to be unnecessarily afraid? 

• What struggles might my current dog have with integrating a puppy? 

• What will I do if I want to separate my puppy from my current dog? Does my current dog have the skill set to settle in a crate, behind a gate or in a room on their own? 

For my girl Sienna Ruth, we are addressing her reactivity in more proactive ways. She’s a fearful/reactive girl who struggles with unfamiliar dogs in close proximity, and at the fences around my property. With distance she can ignore or disengage from the dog, but when she encounters a dog outside a fence, she goes into reactive dog mode - hackles up, growling, leaning, lunging, and barking. She also has occasional leash reactivity if she’s in her UP zone from something else or if the dog surprises her around the corner at close proximity 

Our plan for the 3 weeks before puppy has been:

• Bring treats back on the walk and encourage Sienna to ignore dogs as well as use the treat for looking at a dog and then moving away.

• Adding a standing fence 4-5 feet inside my front yard fence to create a buffer of space between Sienna and dogs passing on the sidewalk. This keeps her 10 feet from the dog passing rather than 5-6 and she can succeed there, not go into fear and leaning, lunging, barking.

• Reducing unsupervised time in the backyard and using both an additional standing fence for more space and some recall practice with “go find it” as a bonus for coming over when I call her (her favorite game).

While 3 weeks will not resolve these issues completely, it will help Sienna and I get into better habits of managing them, so that her new little brother won’t be observing them on a daily basis.