Congratulations on the new addition to your family!
From the moment you pick your puppy up, your puppy will be learning how to fit into your family. If you take care to ensure that you understand what your puppy wants and needs and how your puppy learns and begin training your puppy as early as possible, then you will be able to raise a happy, well-adjusted and well behaved puppy.
How Dogs Learn
Dogs and puppies are very simple creatures really! There is no 'right or wrong' in their minds, there is just 'safe' and 'not safe' and learning how to best get what they want or need and how to avoid what they don't want.
It can be quite hard for us humans not to want to attribute motivations to our puppy's behaviour that are outside of the safe/not safe, want/don't want mind set, especially when we are frustrated when a puppy isn't behaving how we want it to behave. However, every time your puppy does something you wish it didn't, ask yourself:
- What does he want?
- What does she need?
- Has my puppy accidentally learnt doing what I want isn't safe?
Once you have the answers you can apply them to finding a solution. Here are some common issues that new puppy owners encounter with their puppy and what can be done to alleviate this.
Chewing
Chewing is a very natural instinct (or need) for all dogs. Puppies are teething up until 6 months of age, which we all know is a painful process, chewing can alleviate this pain. Chewing can also provide an outlet for a dog that has not gotten the exercise or mental stimulation it needs. So armed with this and your knowledge of how dogs learn, you can work on ways to give your puppy a safe outlet for its chewing needs and wants:
Provide your puppy with lots of chews, from day one. Make them interesting, pack them with some of your puppy's daily food rations, treats like dried liver or chub so that your puppy will want to chew them and learn that chew toys are safe.
Soak rope toys in water and freeze them. The icey rope will alleviate the discomfort your puppy has from teething, so your puppy learns that chewing these ropes you offer gives them much needed pain relief.
Ensure your puppy has adequate exercise that it needs so that he or she isn't bored and finding other things to chew.
Stuff kongs with some treats that will not easily be extracted, working on getting them out will provide your puppy with the mental stimulation that your puppy both wants and needs. You can also do this by ensuring you have a variety of chew toys and that you don't use the same ones all the time. We buy Webbox Chub (probably not the most nutritional treat) and put that into kongs with some dried food and freeze it - puppies for sale in dubai.
Stag Bars are also brilliant chews for puppies. They are safe (they do not easily splinter) and very long lasting.
Many objects around the home are not safe for your puppy to chew, these include electrical wires, carpet and chair legs and so on. Ensuring that your puppy has the chew toys it needs and not giving it access to things that aren't safe is one of the best ways to ensure that your puppy will learn to chew only on the things that are safe and good for it. Until your puppy has learnt that the best thing to chew is the chews you provide it with, try to remove any objects from your puppy's reach that it may feel are 'suitable alternatives'. If you do find your puppy exploring its chewing needs on something you do not want it to, immediately redirect your puppy to a freshly stuffed chew. Try not to chastise your puppy and ask yourself what your puppy needed or wanted at that time and see if you can use this to ensure it doesn't happen again.
Never give your puppy anything to chew that may resemble something you don't want it to chew. Many people have given their puppy old slippers to chew, but unfortunately no puppy can tell the difference between your designer shoes and an old slipper! Only give your puppy safe chew toys like Kongs which have been purpose built to withstand heavy duty chewing and do ensure that they are not old or starting to break up so your puppy doesn't swallow parts of it.
If you are worried that all these treats will make your puppy fat, then why not weigh out your puppy's daily food ration of kibble and use all of it to stuff chew toys for them?
From the moment you pick your puppy up, your puppy will be learning how to fit into your family. If you take care to ensure that you understand what your puppy wants and needs and how your puppy learns and begin training your puppy as early as possible, then you will be able to raise a happy, well-adjusted and well behaved puppy.
How Dogs Learn
Dogs and puppies are very simple creatures really! There is no 'right or wrong' in their minds, there is just 'safe' and 'not safe' and learning how to best get what they want or need and how to avoid what they don't want.
It can be quite hard for us humans not to want to attribute motivations to our puppy's behaviour that are outside of the safe/not safe, want/don't want mind set, especially when we are frustrated when a puppy isn't behaving how we want it to behave. However, every time your puppy does something you wish it didn't, ask yourself:
- What does he want?
- What does she need?
- Has my puppy accidentally learnt doing what I want isn't safe?
Once you have the answers you can apply them to finding a solution. Here are some common issues that new puppy owners encounter with their puppy and what can be done to alleviate this.
Chewing
Chewing is a very natural instinct (or need) for all dogs. Puppies are teething up until 6 months of age, which we all know is a painful process, chewing can alleviate this pain. Chewing can also provide an outlet for a dog that has not gotten the exercise or mental stimulation it needs. So armed with this and your knowledge of how dogs learn, you can work on ways to give your puppy a safe outlet for its chewing needs and wants:
Provide your puppy with lots of chews, from day one. Make them interesting, pack them with some of your puppy's daily food rations, treats like dried liver or chub so that your puppy will want to chew them and learn that chew toys are safe.
Soak rope toys in water and freeze them. The icey rope will alleviate the discomfort your puppy has from teething, so your puppy learns that chewing these ropes you offer gives them much needed pain relief.
Ensure your puppy has adequate exercise that it needs so that he or she isn't bored and finding other things to chew.
Stuff kongs with some treats that will not easily be extracted, working on getting them out will provide your puppy with the mental stimulation that your puppy both wants and needs. You can also do this by ensuring you have a variety of chew toys and that you don't use the same ones all the time. We buy Webbox Chub (probably not the most nutritional treat) and put that into kongs with some dried food and freeze it - puppies for sale in dubai.
Stag Bars are also brilliant chews for puppies. They are safe (they do not easily splinter) and very long lasting.
Many objects around the home are not safe for your puppy to chew, these include electrical wires, carpet and chair legs and so on. Ensuring that your puppy has the chew toys it needs and not giving it access to things that aren't safe is one of the best ways to ensure that your puppy will learn to chew only on the things that are safe and good for it. Until your puppy has learnt that the best thing to chew is the chews you provide it with, try to remove any objects from your puppy's reach that it may feel are 'suitable alternatives'. If you do find your puppy exploring its chewing needs on something you do not want it to, immediately redirect your puppy to a freshly stuffed chew. Try not to chastise your puppy and ask yourself what your puppy needed or wanted at that time and see if you can use this to ensure it doesn't happen again.
Never give your puppy anything to chew that may resemble something you don't want it to chew. Many people have given their puppy old slippers to chew, but unfortunately no puppy can tell the difference between your designer shoes and an old slipper! Only give your puppy safe chew toys like Kongs which have been purpose built to withstand heavy duty chewing and do ensure that they are not old or starting to break up so your puppy doesn't swallow parts of it.
If you are worried that all these treats will make your puppy fat, then why not weigh out your puppy's daily food ration of kibble and use all of it to stuff chew toys for them?
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