You’re super excited about your puppy’s arrival
You’ve been nesting and getting your home ready
The day is almost here!
In this video, I want to share some very important care and training tips to help you prepare
as you bring home your first puppy!
Before we start...
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Michele here with How to Train a Dream dog
We are going to begin with the car ride home….
So you’re picking your pup up from the breeder’s or a shelter and you need to get your pup
home safely
Most people think that bringing their pup home on their lap is the best option
I’m here to tell you, not so fast….
Puppies should ride in their crate on the way home.
This is the safest place for them to be and the best place to be in case they get car
sick
Which happens to most puppies under 1 year of age
You see your pup’s equilibrium isn’t fully developed till they are about a year
The car ride can make pup’s queasy and dizzy
Also, keeping them in the crate is like putting a baby in a car seat.
You never know who is going to slam on their breaks in front of you, and we don’t don’t
want them to go flying off your lap
Think about it like this… an average 60 lb adult dog turns into a 2700 pound projectile
when an accident occurs at just 35 miles per hour
This is a whole physics lesson in itself but let’s just say if you don’t let your kids
climb all over the car and into your lap while driving
Don’t give your dog this same unsafe access
We also use the crate because this will be the first time away from their littermates
and mother.
We want to use the car ride effect of lulling them to sleep to our advantage
This makes the first 24 hours go a whole lot smoother if they can fall asleep in their
crate on the ride home.
If you experience crying in the crate you can use a snuggle puppy or a heartbeat dog
to help soothe your pup’s anxiousness
I’ll link this item in the discription below.
Covering the crate will help decrease the stimuli they see as you drive
You can get DAP spray to help calm your anxious pup too
Dog appeasing pheromones are similar to the scent the mother dog naturally gives off to
calm her pups
There’s a spray, a collar and a plugin you can use.
Now when you arrive home you will be excited and apprehensive
What do you do with a new puppy?
Do you show them your whole house?
Do you give them access to the carpeted rooms?
Do you allow them free roam
Nope, Nope, and Nopedity NOPE!
When you arrive home, and before you head in the house, I want you to take your pup
to the potty spot
This will be a spot you’ve established as the place you want your pup to go potty each
time you take them outside.
Now in this video here, I talk all about setting up a puppy pen outdoors to section off where
your pup should go
This helps them stay more focused outside as well since there will be a lot of distractions
that will get them off track
Once your pup has gone potty you can head inside, but you’ll only allow access to
one room right now
I use a baby gate like this to close off access to other rooms
If you give your pup too much space they will likely have an accident
Besides they aren’t trustworthy just yet
A trustworthy pup has earned access to other rooms by proving they haven’t chewed anything
in the first room you gave them access to
And they have stopped having accidents for at least a few weeks in this room
We usually start with the kitchen or the dining room
This is also the place you can set up a puppy pen and a crate
The pen is for playtime and the crate is for naps and bedtime
You’ll want to keep 1 crate on the main floor for easy access especially in the middle
of the night when pup will need to go potty outside.
You can learn more about the puppy schedule from this video here
You’ll discover how frequently your little pup will need to go outside
Now for a more comprehensive puppy potty training schedule and lesson be sure to grab the Free
New Puppy Starter Kit
The link is below.
You’ll also find a potty training chart and some links to important potty training
supplies such as potty bells and accident cleanup supplies
When you take your pup out in the middle of the night you’ll want to limit the number
of lights you turn on so you don’t overstimulate your puppy in the middle of the night
After they go potty, quietly return them to their crate and go back to bed yourself
I still give puppies a little tiny treat when they go potty outside in the middle of the
night
I want to stay consistent with the training process
When your pup arrives they will be a bit overwhelmed so don’t be surprised if they don’t want
to eat their food, take treats, play and run around
It’s common for pups 10 weeks and under to sleep upwards of 18 hrs per day
Let a sleeping puppy lie
You can learn more about these kinds of expectations in this video here
The first day and into the 1st week really are all about establishing good routines and
starting the training games
These are games that we talk about inside 30 days to Puppy Perfection
Games that help with leash and collar skills, impulse control, working on obedience cues
like sit, down, stay, leave it and the come command
Honestly the first week or so will be about leash skills, crate training, and potty training.
Keep in mind your puppy will have no understanding of commands such as leave it, no bite, get
down, or come here
These are the most common cues new puppy owners say to their new pups but to be honest it
all sounds like the Charlie Brown teacher that says WahWah Wahwah Wah Wah
If you’re interested in learning more about better puppy behavior and where I go into
more detail all about this topic you can check out my Free Better Puppy Behavior Workshop
I’ll put the link to that in the comments below too
Now back to bringing home your new puppy
I think the hot topics or the areas where new puppy owners struggle the most are
Potty Training, Crate Training, and Biting
Biting is one of those behaviors everyone wishes would stop but you can expect it to
stick around for a while
Your puppy has a natural urge to bite and chew and it gets stronger during the teething
stage which usually kicks in around 12 weeks and goes until about 6 months.
Most brand new puppies around 8-10 weeks do a little nipping and biting but not nearly
as much as a teething puppy.
I want you to be prepared when this behavior starts or gets worse as there isn’t one
magic thing to make it stop
There are several things we can do to manage the behavior so make sure you watch this video
here all about puppy biting.
And this video here all about stopping nipping
What you’ll end up finding out is that it boils down to your puppy’s energy level
and if they are overstimulated
A puppy with a lot of energy to burn off will bite more
A puppy that is overtired and overstimulated will need a nap or they too will nip and bite
more
Your new puppy will need daily mental and physical exercise
We want to tire out their brain and body appropriately based on their age so they can relax and focus
better
Remember your new puppy will not have very good control over their impulses
This is a skill we need to teach them
For example, your puppy will chase after you and nip or jump on you when they are excited
If you give them attention when they jump you will be reinforcing this behavior and
the behavior will become stronger and stronger
Before I share my last couple of tips with you, be sure to hit that subscribe button
to get notified when next week’s new lesson becomes available
Lets talk about the puppy pen for a minute
At some point you are either going to need to do some household chores or your puppy
is going to get too nippy or bitey but they might not be ready for a nap just yet
You’re going to want to use a indoor puppy pen
This will be the play space your puppy can hang out in while you’re busy or you need
a little time away from your land shark
This is also a great place to keep them safe and learn to be away from you for short periods
of time
Remember your puppy will naturally cry for you and wait for you to return
This is a natural behavior they would do when they wanted their mother to return and feed
them
We need to teach our puppies that this behavior doesn’t work anymore
Our puppies should learn to be away from us for periods of time otherwise they will develop
separation anxiety later in life.
True separation anxiety usually includes trying to escape from the crate, excessively licking
or chewing on themselves, harming themselves or destroying your home in your absence
Most new puppy owners think their puppy is experiencing separation anxiety when they
bark and cry
We don’t call this separation anxiety as it typically hasn’t escalated the activities
I mentioned a moment ago
What your puppy is doing is going through what we call the extinction burst
They need to learn you won’t return every time they bark and cry
This is why it’s so important to start immediately working on crate training and spending some
time away from your puppy
Otherwise, they will become very dependant on you and continually get stressed out in
your absence
The last topic I want to talk about is introducing your new puppy to either a resident dog or
kids
It’s important that if you have another dog in the home that you do a slow introduction
when they puppy arrives
Do not expect them to become instant best friends, it may take several weeks for your
older dog to get used to the puppy
It will be important to make sure both dogs are well exercised before meeting as this
takes some of the tension and pressure off when they have already released some energy
When you allow the dogs to play or interact together be sure to do this in small increments
of time, 10 min at a time to start is ideal
This way neither will get overwhelmed and reactive
Giving the dogs breaks is important
Play should look like an even game of tag back and forth and if one dog is getting pinned
frequently this is not good play
Now if you are introducing your new puppy to the kids…
Make sure to tell the kids ahead of time what to do and where to be when puppy comes in
the home
We don;t want to overwhelm the puppy with high pitched squeals, screams or racing and
running around
Kids should be sitting calmly in a chair or on a stool
We like to have the kids up off the floor so pup doesn’t pounce all over them and
start nipping
The lower to the floor they are the more excited a puppy becomes and this can lead to overstimulation,
nipping, and biting.
Let the kids know they will need to move through the house calmly and quietly as fast movements
and higher-pitched talking and noises actually draw puppy in and the nipping starts
Puppies can get very confused with kids as their body posture often gives conflicting
messages
Arms and hands flailing, lowered body posture such as leaning over, pulling hands away when
puppy attempts to lick or nip can all confuse a puppy
Kids often ask the puppy to perform commands that they just don’t know yet and they tend
to accidentally reinforce the wrong behaviors
Like I mentioned earlier if a puppy jumps and gets attention, even if it’s a kid pushing
a puppy off… this can be seen as reinforcement to a puppy.
Training the puppy and teaching the kids goes hand in hand.
Both kids and puppies will not know what to do or what not to do until they are both taught
these skills.
I hope this video helps you and your puppy start out on the right path, brining a new
puppy home can be super exciting and a little nerve wracking at the same time
Expect setbacks and successes often within the first year of your puppy’s life.
There’s a lot a puppy needs to learn and a new puppy owner too
In the comments below tell me when your new puppy is due to arrive home or if you have
your puppy already how long have they been with you?