So you brought home your brand new puppy with all sorts of plans, to have fun,
do some training, spend lots of time snuggling on the couch,
but did you know that now is a really important time to do some prep work for
other things in your puppy's life? In today's video,
we are going to talk about five crucial puppy care tips that you're going to
want to start with to make sure that your puppy grows into a well-rounded adult
I'm instructor Shannon. This is 11-week old German shepherd puppy, Vimy.
Welcome back to McCann Dogs.
A very common question that we get from our online training students is how do
they prep their dogs for a bath?
And this is something that you want to take with a little bit of a plan and help
your puppy get used to the surface of the bathtub, the feeling of the water,
all of those things.
Now you don't necessarily have to bathe your puppy all of the time,
but we do want to make sure that when they're dirty and stinky and puppies tend
to pee on themselves and roll in things that we have the opportunity to clean
them up. And we don't want them to be concerned about that.
So we're going to take some time to prep for our bath as well.
Now this is my puppy's.
First time in this bathroom, and it sounds very different in here.
It's much more chamber and echo like.
So I'm going to give her an opportunity just to realize that this is a pleasant
place as she comes in.
I've got a couple of goodies before I even think about possibly adding the
bathtub into this.
I am going to give her a couple of cookies just for existing inside this
washroom. Now my puppy has shown me that she's comfortable in here.
She wanted to actually lay down and take a nap. So she's clearly feeling safe.
So now I'm going to add the next step and I'm going to lift her into the tub and
just to help introduce her to the idea that this is a really nice place to
be. I'm actually going to start by feeding her a meal or two in here.
So I've got my bowl. I've got some goodies. And as she's in there,
I'm going to say, here you go. I want a nice place to be.
And I might feed her a couple of breakfasts and a couple of dinners in here
before I even think about adding any water to the situation.
Now I put my puppy away for a little bit of a break.
While I put some water in the tub.
I didn't want her to have to contend with all of the noise from the water
pouring in just yet at this stage of the game that's to come in the future.
And what I'm going to do is now with a little bit of a wetness to the tub,
I'm going to place my puppy in. Yay, good girl. And I can yes.
And feed her from there. If she wants to investigate the water a little bit,
that's fine and dandy. And I might just lure her around in here a little bit.
So she gets used to feeling that water on her feet on the mat and realizes it's
no big deal. And it comes with lots of positive things.
It is really worth your while to take your time with these things,
start with a little bit of water in the tub and build it up slowly.
It is so much easier to introduce things gradually to your puppy than it is to
introduce things all at once,
have them be scared of it and then have to work backwards from that.
So take your time.
If you have to work with a centimeter of water in the bottom of the tub for a
while, that is absolutely fine.
Watch for signs of overwhelm you from your puppy.
If they're trying to get out of the situation, if they're trying to flee,
if their ears are maybe pinning back a little bit,
if they're shaking or looking generally insecure,
you've probably asked for a little bit too much too quickly,
and you want to take a step back from that,
make it easier for your puppy to build confidence in these situations. Now,
when I actually get to the point where I'm starting to bathe my puppy,
what I'm going to do is give him something completely distracting and completely
wonderful. And I like to use peanut butter and one of these lick mats here,
when I first start with the bathing process with my dog,
and I'm just going to take a little bit of peanut butter.
I don't want to give her too too much. Here goes a long way,
and I'm going to rub it on this lick mat.
And then she can go to work investigating that and I can start
using the water to pour over top of her.
I can start introducing the shampoo and all of these things that she's going to
need to get used to in order to smell really good and be a really,
really clean the puppy.
Now, as we're doing this prep work with Emmy,
it's become apparent that she gets a little bit nervous when she hears the noise
of the water falling in the tub.
That seems to be the time where she wants to exit stage left.
So all I'm doing here is I'm sitting and I'm just letting her relax.
I've got the smell of the shampoo that I was going to use on my hands.
So she gets familiar with that.
And then just going to let her explore a little bit.
I might provide some cookies for backup as well as I make this
little noise. And as I introduced some water,
I'm going to drop some cookies right there in the tub for her,
so that she hears the noise and then sees a cookie appear.
And life becomes a wonderful thing.
And the tub becomes a really nice place to be a look
at that.
And very quickly she's gaining confidence with the noise that the
water's making as it falls into the tub and just taking my time,
helping her through it. Yay.
Good job. Now I'm hanging out.
Here with some puppy snuggles,
so I can talk to you guys a little bit about chewing and chewing is something
that's going to be really important for your dog's overall health,
because it will determine whether or not they have clean enough teeth that you
can ignore them,
or that you will have to do some brushing to make sure that they stay free of
plaque. If you do end up brushing your dog's teeth,
it's important to do it often when you're using a soft bristle toothbrush,
plaque will start to harden within 12 to 24 hours.
So if you're relying solely on brushing your dog's teeth,
you will have to do that frequently to make sure that they don't need too many
vet visits to help with their oral hygiene.
You want to make sure that you spend some time getting your dog used to either a
fingertip toothbrush or a regular style of toothbrush. And always,
if you do use dog toothpaste, make sure it is of the dog variety.
Don't use human toothpaste on dogs.
There are special formulations for dogs to get out there.
Now, if you have.
A dog that's a good shoer.
You won't necessarily need to worry about brushing their teeth,
which is a really, really nice thing.
So depending on what kind of diet you that need might be taken care of in and of
itself, if you have a young puppy that you've brought home,
it's really advantageous for you to introduce them to the more boring choose.
First and foremost,
the last thing we want to do is get them addicted to ballistics right off the
hop, because then it'll be really hard to convince them,
to chew other things that are less interesting.
So ideally your dog can entertain themselves by chewing on Kong's or nylon bones
in your lack of presence.
There are some other things that you can provide for them to chew when you're
there supervising, but in terms of a safe unsupervised chew toy,
those are the only two things that we ever consider leaving our puppies alone
with.
And the caveat of course is that every dog is different and there are still
going to be some dogs that are not safe to be left alone with a nylon bone or a
Kong.
So you might want to consider watching them supervising closely for the first
little bit,
get an idea of their basic chewing style and then go from there and keep an eye
on things as they start to age.
And as they start to get better at going through some of those tools,
we all like petting our puppies.
There's no question their pets and snuggles and all sorts of great things.
Come along with this. It's so fun,
but this is different handling is a very different thing. It's very specific.
It's very targeted.
And we want to make sure that we teach our puppies this as a very
specific point so that they learn it's valuable for us to touch them.
It's not just about the petting.
It's about specifically being able to examine, get in,
pull out burgers, take things out of their mouths.
If there's something stuck between their teeth, et cetera,
we want them used to us being able to touch them so that when we absolutely need
to do something that might help them. As far as their health or safety,
we can do that without any problems whatsoever.
So I have set up a table here so that you guys can see everything.
I don't want you to miss anything.
I want to be able to put my puppy up on an even level,
but she's never seen this set up.
So I'm going to take a moment just to introduce her to this table.
My first action is going to be to lift her onto the table,
give her a couple of really high value treats and then lift her right back off.
So right away she learns, this is a really pleasant place to be. Okay.
Sweet pea. Ready? Oh, what's this? Yay.
Look it's you.
So I've got some cookies here. I'm just going to let her nibble.
I've got her nice and secure making sure she's not going to take a tumble.
And I have something that's got good traction underneath her feet.
So there's good job.
Look at that.
So what I've just done there is my first step to make her comfortable with the
table.
I've said this thing here comes with lots of really good goodies and then it
ends. There's nothing else to worry about. There's no more pressure.
So we started off with some confidence building just with regards to the table
itself. And again, I have something nice and low slip here,
so she's got good traction. I have good control.
I've got the leash on so that there's no chance she's going to take a spill off
this table.
Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to start the process of getting her used
to me handling her.
And if you think about all the things that you'll want to do with your dog as an
adult in their lives, going for hikes out in the Bush, you know,
having a really nice, enjoyable time, think about things that might happen.
You know, you might have to pull ticks off of them.
You might have to pull burrs out of their coat.
You might have to pull a stick out of their mouth.
I actually had an incident with my my youngest tooler a couple of years ago
where I had to reach in and dislodge a stick from the back of his. I wrote,
I was very, very,
very happy in that moment that I had practice touching his mouth and being able
to get into his mouth while he remained calm. That was a really,
really important thing. So what I'm going to do with my puppy Vimy here,
I'm going to start with some food right on her name.
And the first stages of my handling exercises are simply to associate
food, food with my touch. So as she's nibbling and saying,
what a wonderful thing this cookie is,
I'm just going to reach in and I'm going to rub her ear a little bit.
I'm going to say yes,
and then release the treat so that she knows touching the ear was what earned
her, that reward. Eventually she is going to figure out that that yes,
marker means that she's done something right to earn reward.
Now I want to be really thorough with my puppy and with my touch.
So I'm going to spend a little bit of time on each body part to make sure that
she gets a really clear understanding that positive association. Yes.
But I'm going to make sure that I cover the entire dog.
I don't want to just limit it to one spot.
I'm going to be nice and gentle in my approach to touching mouth just a very
light touch. Yes. And then I'll release the treat. So right now,
what my puppy is learning isn't that my touch is a really, really,
really pleasant thing. It's crucial puppy care tip. We are going to get into it,
prep for grooming and whether or not you choose to do your dog's grooming
yourself. It's completely up to you.
But something that I always like to tell my students to keep in mind is that it
is so it's important that your dog is actually really comfortable with the
process. So regardless of whether you do your own grooming or not,
it's really important that you have a couple of tools in your arsenal so that
you can practice with your puppies and you can help them understand how to
accept grooming and how to be comfortable with different grooming tools. Now,
I've got a couple of things here to show you as examples. And again,
even if you plan to let somebody else do all of your dog's brushing and bathing
and trimming and nails and all of the all of the grooming that you need to do,
it's still really,
really important that you have a pair of nail Clippers so that you can spend
some time practicing handling exercises with your dog and with your puppy
with nail Clippers. And it's important.
You have some sort of a brush and some sort of a comb as well to start to work
through the same sort of things with your dog.
One other thing that I really like to have on board for my puppies when I'm
working through some of their grooming exercises,
is I like to have some sort of a liquid bottle so that I can simulate any sort
of ear medicating.
I can simulate ear cleaner and I can get my puppy used to the idea of that
cleaner coming towards his ear and the noise that the liquid inside makes,
but he can get used to the idea of holding still while that happens,
because it's not something scary for him. And okay,
so the first thing I'm going to do here,
I'm just going to introduce my puppy to that noise as I'm feeding her
cookies.
So there's liquid in here that sloshing around their ears are quite sensitive.
So I don't want her getting worried when some cleaner comes into play,
it's already going to feel foreign enough.
So I want to make sure I've done some work with things like this.
As she's nibbling, she's heard the noise. Now you stole the treat. They're good.
Girly you lucky. Now I'm just going to touch it gently. Yes.
And release the tree.
So basically I'm just spending time getting her used to these different
processes that she's probably going to have to go through in her life.
Now I'm going to introduce my brushes to my puppy and it,
if you're not doing your own grooming work,
it really doesn't matter what type of brushes as long as your dog is comfortable
being touched by objects that are a little bit foreign.
So I might first just let her sniff them a little bit. They're not scary.
They're not anything to worry about.
Then I'm going to get some cookies out and I'm going to start
by gently touching with the back of the brush.
I don't want to start with the bristly edge forward because that might be scary
for her.
So I'm going to take a little bit of time first just to touch with the back of
the yes. Oh, you're such a good girl.
Cookies on her nose. Yes. Very nice. And a letter eat.
So again, all she is doing here is getting lovely,
yummy treats and having a good time as she learns that something touching her is
nothing she needs to be concerned about. Yes. Good. Girly. Next up,
we are going to talk about nail trimming.
And this is by far one of the hardest grooming tasks that you will
have with your puppy.
Lots of times people are a little bit unnerved about trimming their dog's nails
themselves. You can certainly get yourself used to it.
It becomes much easier as you work through it. However,
if you're not comfortable with the process, that's okay.
You do not have to do your dog's nails yourself.
You can get a vet tech or a groomer to help you with that task. But again,
as we mentioned,
it is so important that your pop is comfortable with the process.
So even if you never plan to clip a toenail in your life,
you still want to invest in a pair of Clippers so that you can help your puppy
get used to it because you're going to want to do some of this work at home.
So again, I'm starting with the food right on my puppy's nose.
And all I'm going to do is get her used to me,
handling her paws to begin with yes. And then reward. Now,
as I'm spending time with that exercise,
I'm also going to take my nail trimmers and I'm going to get her used to that
touch. Yes.
So good girl. Good for you. Now she pulled her foot.
Away a little bit on that first one.
So I simply made the touch a little bit quicker and got the reward in a little
bit quicker. Yes. Good job.
Very nice. You're a very clever girl.
I'm going to do one more here. Yes and release,
and then what I'm going to do with my puppy is give her a little mental break so
that I'm not continually coming at her with that thing that she's doing great.
She's not finding it stressful, but if I overdo it, she might.
So I always want to err, on the side of caution,
I like to keep my handling and my grooming prep sessions really short with my
puppies to build on success.
The next crucial puppy care tip we are going to talk about is that prep
training. And I want my puppy to be really,
really comfortable going to the vet and all of the things that are going to
ensue there.
So part of that is doing the table training that we talked about in the last
crucial care tip. In addition,
I want to try to simulate a weigh scale because I know that this is one of the
activities.
I do a lot with my puppies in order to prep them for vet visits.
What I've got here is a little bit of a rubberized sort of
cupboard liner. And it's going to simulate my weigh scale with my puppy here.
So I'm going to wake her up.
In your guarantee. Yay. Good for you. All I'm going to do is lure her onto it.
I might play around with Loring a sick yes. Quit job.
Maybe keep her there for a second or two and then tell her okay.
And walk her up. Big. Good job. Good girl.
I might do that again.
Yes. Good girl. Okay, good. Excellent.
So is getting her used to that new surface,
being something that she doesn't need to worry about and getting her accustomed
to maybe hanging out in there for a moment or two good job. Hi,
there's a couple of other things that I'm going to want to do to help my puppy
prep for the vet as well.
And I've got a simple household spoon here that I'm going to use to press into
different areas of her body as I'm creating that nice positive association that
will help her not worry about these things when they happen in real life at the
vet clinic. So I've got my cookies right on her nose again.
And I'm just going to use my spoon to gently touch the back of her shoulder
blades where there might be a vaccination.
Yes. Good girl. You are so smart. Isn't that fun? And I'm.
Going to use it. I might use this as something to get her used to the vet,
looking in the ear. I might use my face to sure that she's comfortable.
With this and try not to yell in her ear. Yes. Good girl. I.
Want to make sure that she's used to anything that might happen in that vet
clinic. Now we talked briefly today about nail trimming,
but if you'd like a more in depth tutorial on everything that you need to know
to prep your dog for nail trims and how to trim nails properly click this card,
there's a lot to puppy training.
And if you would like support and answers to your daily questions,
as well as a guided program,
to help you through check out our Puppy Essentials program for puppies under
five months of age, you'll find the link in the description below on that note.
I'm Shannon. This is Vimy. Happy training.