Puppy in the New Home

Homecoming

At long last, the day you have all been waiting for, your new puppy will make its grand entrance into your home. Before you bring your companion to its new residence, however, you must plan carefully for its arrival. Keep in mind the puppy will need time to adjust to life with a different owner.

First impressions · First days

First impressions are important, especially from the puppy’s point of view, and these may very well set the pattern of his future relationship with you. You must be consistent in the way you handle your pet so that he learns what is expected of him. He must come to trust and respect you as his keeper and master. Provide him with proper care and attention, and you will be rewarded with a loyal companion for many years. Considering the needs of your puppy and planning ahead will surely make the change from his former home to his new one easier.

When your puppy moves in, the first days are a lot of stress for him. Plan to bring your new pet home in the morning so that by nightfall he will have had some time to become acquainted with you and his new environment. Avoid introducing the pup to the family around holiday time, since all of the extra excitement will only add to the confusion and frighten him. Let the puppy enter your home on day when the routine is normal. Avoid everything in the first time what scares the pup. He even may refuse to eat. So food must be more nutritious and palatable at first time. You should have obtained some of the same food puppy was eating at its first home. Shifting foods now can be a serious mistake and should not be undertaken without legitimate reasons. Dietary changes may bring on bowel upsets and even an increase in stress level for the puppy. Diarrhea may come about because of the stress of the move. If it continues for more than a day, contact your veterinarian.

Other pets in the home

Don’t invite too many people, your puppy has to learn first who is member of “his pack”. And, if there are other dogs or animals around the house, make certain all are properly introduced. If you observe fighting among the animals, or some other problem, you may have to separate all parties until they learn to accept one another. Remember that neglecting your other pets while showering the new puppy with extra attention will only cause animosity and jealousy. Make an effort to pay special attention to the other animals as well.

Holding a puppy

As simple as it sounds, there are several important thing to know about the act of picking up a puppy. Puppies are often squirmy, active youngsters. Be sure to always support the puppy’s rear end with one hand while comfortably cradling its chest with the other hand. This will make the puppy feel secure and keep it from jumping out of your hands. Don’t try to hold more than one puppy at a time. If you want to compare them, have someone else hold one while you hold the other. Don’t lift puppy by the scruff of the neck.

Training your pup

Training for your new puppy begins immediately. It is good to have ready an outdoor area picked out as a urine and feces relief site. You may be able to “salt” this location with some droppings or litter from the puppy’s first home. Immediately upon arriving home, take the puppy to this site and wait until it relieves itself. The smell of urine or droppings should encourage the puppy to do this. When it does, as it generally will, enthusiastically prize the puppy. Always use the same expression, i.e. “pipi”. Soon he will learn – what you mean by that. Puppies at the age of 9 to 12 weeks have to do their business approx. every two hours, especially after sleeping and eating. Of course, the very young puppy has to go outside for his business also at nighttime. Should it happen, that the business was done in your house, don’t punish the pup. If you catch him “just in time” when it is happening, say sharply “NO”, bring him to the relief place and say friendly “pipi”. He will know very soon that your room is definitely a wrong place. Don’t forget prize the puppy every time he did right. You have to set up appropriate place for puppy.

Denning

The greatest aid to allowing your dog to live comfortably under the same roof with you and your family is the cage, crate, or carrier. Utilizing the natural instinct the dog has to be a denning creature will not only be a better way to share living quarters, but it is also better for the dog. Place the create somewhere that is out of the way but not isolated. Pick a spot that will let the puppy see what is going on in the room when it is in the crate, but that doesn’t sit right in the main walking area.

Gentle play

When you first introduce your new puppy to your home, let it have a chance to get acquainted with its new family in its new surroundings. No roughhousing activity with the youngster now, only gentle play. When you play you should end up as the winner – but from time to time puppy also needs success. You decide when the playing time is over – not the puppy. Use the play to do easy training (like the mother in a wolf-pack). Careful – don’t demand too much! The puppy needs a lot of rest.

Watch the pup to see if it needs to make a trip back to the relief area. If it does show any sign of wanting to urinate or defecate, quickly and gently pick it up and head to the relief spot. If you make it in time and the pup uses the area, always prize it lavishly. This is the first step in housebreaking your puppy.

Rest

Keep play times brief with the puppy in the initial days. As it begins to tire, gently move it to the home-scented crate. You want the pup to associate being tired with going to his place of rest. Simply place the little one in the crate, shut the door, and walk away. Your puppy must learn that the crate is place for rest and sleep. This is not just important for the day, but for night as well. The puppy must recognize that when it is placed in the crate at night that it should go to sleep. Without any doubt the first nights will be somewhat problematic. On that eventful first night, try not to give in and let the puppy sleep with you; otherwise, this could become a difficult habit to break. Let him cry and whimper, even if it means a night of restlessness for the entire family. It is important to be gentle with the new puppy to help it get the best possible start in its new home. Don’t be mad at him. Speak to a lonely, crated puppy sparingly, but with a calm and reassuring tone. This will let the pup know that you aren’t far away.

Socializing

Socialization is essential for BRT puppy. Socializing a puppy literally means introducing it to new things and people in a nonthreatening manner. This socialization process makes the difference in whether an animal will be wild or tame and comfortable around humans or afraid of them. All the stories about dogs being born in the wild or wild wolves becoming like lapdogs after meeting just the right human are just stories. Animals begin to learn early as a part of basic survival. It is generally true that a dog that has not bonded with humans before it is 12 weeks old is not likely to ever do so. When the dog in question is one of the most powerful canine athletes on earth, the matter of socialization takes on even greater significance.

Scents

BRT puppies are like little learning sponges soaking up information from their earliest sentient moments. Because dogs use their sense of smell even more than their sense of hearing and their hearing more than their sense of sight, the first human scents that comes their way will be registered while the pups are still blind sucklings. What they hear, in terms of tones rather than actual words, will become part of their inventory of threatening or nonthreatening stimuli.

The right kind of socialization will introduce the puppies to different types of people: males, females, children, older people, and people from other ethnic groups than the breeder. In this way, the mental and acceptance horizons of a very young puppy are broadened to include many different humans. The puppy learns that humans, as a group, pose no threat. Some breeds become thoroughly socialized more easily than others, but most experts agree that the canine that becomes the best companion or pet is the one that receive the best socialization. Socialization can also take place between the puppy and other dogs, cats, and other animals that the dog may encounter in its life. Some of the herding or herd protection breeds are exposed to the smells and sounds of sheep very early in the pup’s lives, which helps to forge a bond the dog will have its entire life. Without appropriate, gentle, thorough socialization, a dog will never reach its potential as a pet or companion. Unsocialized BRT could be among the worst dogs to own.

Building trust

Your puppy will not just automatically know the things you will want it to know any more than a human infant would be able to function without someone to guide and teach it. No one in the pup’s new home should be harsh or severe on a pup during this time. The puppy needs to learn its first lessons in its new home in a warm, trusting, and supportive environment. Remember that your puppy wants nothing more than to please you, thus he is anxious to learn the behavior that is required of him. Prize and encouragement will elicit far better results than punishment or scolding. Consistency is vital here as in every area of pet ownership. BRTs are quite intelligent and remember much more than you think they will. If a little puppy is allowed on the couch, the same dog as an adult will expect to be allowed on the couch. It is not allowed as an adult to do what it did as a puppy, it will stubbornly remember this as something inconsistent.

Setting limits

Dogs, like most children, are great limit tryers. They will want to see how far they can go this time with an activity that was not clearly stopped last time. A puppy must be gently, but firmly taught the behaviors that you will expect of it as an adult. A lot of potentially great dogs in many breeds have been almost ruined by inconsistent behavior from their humans. Don’t do this to your BRT! Dogs are not able to think like humans. Very often dog owners do the mistake to punish their pet at the wrong time, that means a while after the situation occurred. Swallow down your anger. Only if you catch pup “just in time” you can punish him, because otherwise the dog will not associate what he has done with your punishment. If your dog ran away don’t punish him when he comes back. He would associate the coming back with your punishment and run away from you when you call him. A sharp “NO” correctly said and not yelled is enough to keep puppy away from forbidden things. If you have to punish him, because he chewed the fifth time your phone wire and also ignores your “NO”, grab him at the scruff of the neck and say sharply “NO”. If he’s staying away from the cable, prize him. In general you should always prize your dog if he’s doing right.

BRT is naturally more fixed to one person. Yet he should be able to tolerate of another people. The puppy should not react too friendly to “strangers” but also not very shy. Growls or bites the puppy (don’t mix up with nibbling i.e. at your fingers) always, he should be punished in the described way.

“Stand still”

Put your puppy – if possible once a day – on the table and say “STAND STILL” to him, but secure the puppy in the beginning with your hands. First a few seconds will be enough. You can increase the time later. Brush carefully his back and touch different parts of body. Commend him always when he’s doing right and also give him his preferred tidbit whilst on the table. Thus, visit a vet, trimming and grooming will never be a problem.

Yelling

Never yell at your puppy, he can hear much better than you and he heard your command already (at the first time). If you yell at him he wants to get all commands in the future yelled. Yelling is only for emergency situations! Never hit your puppy. He will loose the trust in you. Long before your pup is old enough to begin serious obedience work, he can be helped by a program of planned puppy training. You will accomplish much and risk nothing by studying the obedience book, and then teaching your pup, according to its instructions, all he can learn, omitting any corrections until he is six months old or until he tells you with a show of guilt that he knows he disobeyed. This policy will prevent any possibility of corrections being made too soon.

During the first formative weeks of your relationship with your new puppy, keep the youngster close to you. The crate is an appropriate place to confine a puppy or dog when you can’t supervise it, but it should never become a substitute for the vitally important human interaction the youngster needs. Your puppy will learn a lot by being with you and this will being the all-important training phase of the young dog’s life.