Bringing a new puppy home is so exciting, they are so cute and fluffy and perfect...until that first night. Or maybe they are perfect the first night, but night number two they give you some trouble. Please know and understand that no matter how much ENS, exposure, potty training, crate training and manners we have worked on, no puppy is going to come home 100% perfect. Below we will provide some questions and answers from our past puppy parents (now adult doggy parents), some challenges they face and what helped them with raising their own puppy. The below should give you ideas, but if you would like to connect with a real person to get some training help click here.
How did you socialize your puppy, do you have any tips, tricks, hints? |
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Reef's Mom: "When I got Reef, it was mid-2020, so there were still a lot of restrictions and minimal interacting with people. I wanted Reef to be as sound proof as possible because our goal was to have him be a therapy dog, so I had him signed up for a puppy kindergarten class right away. He started just after he was 9 weeks old. This really helped him with basic commands and learning how to focus on me with distractions. I also purchased a puppy stroller off of Amazon and took him anywhere and everywhere. I used the Puppy Socialization Guide Valerie sent home and made it a point to mark off something each day. I always had treats with me and tried to ensure all new exposures turned into a positive experience."
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If you could give a new puppy owner some words of advice, what would you tell them? |
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Lily's Mom:
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My puppy doesn't seem food motivated, so how do I train them? |
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Duke's Dad: Every puppy is so different. Some will be food motivated right away, while others might ignore treats that you may think are high value. The trick is, don't give up and keep trying different high value treats. We tried freeze dried meat, Ziwi Peak, deli meat, hot dogs, kong stuffing and so many more. We weren't sure if we would ever find something. Finally, we tried fresh chicken. DING DING DING - we had a winner. Duke apparently has a sophisticated pallet and will only accept fresh chicken. But we were persistent and we found something he would work for.
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My puppy is just screaming in the crate, I thought they were all crate trained already? |
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Duke's Dad: "Crate training wasn't quite what we expected. On Valerie's videos, the puppies all look perfectly crate trained so we assumed that would continue into our house. But what we didn't think about was while they may be sleeping and eating in their crate like a champ, without a peep, they are surrounded by their siblings. When they go home, to their new home, it is a completely different atmosphere, so the puppy is going to have to readjust. With some puppies it takes a day or two, some might be perfect right away and some, like Duke, required some extra TLC.
Don't be afraid to sleep on the floor the first night if needed. I would increase the separation distance slowly. It took Duke 5 nights in the crate before I was able to sleep in my bed again. Sleeping on the floor won't be for everyone, just remember it is a new scary world for the puppy and change can take time. Valerie is here for us as a resource and there are a ton of crate training videos out there too! |
Tips from Duke's Mom |
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