1. Your Doggy Education
Before you look for your perfect puppy, you need to know what
sort of dog to look for, where to get it, and when to get it. An
educated choice is generally far better than an impulsive puppy
purchase. Additionally, you need to thoroughly familiarize
yourself with the developmental deadlines; they become urgent
and crucial the day you select your puppy. Take your time to
review this booklet, observe a number of puppy classes, and
then make a thoughtful choice. Your dog's future depends on it.
2. Evaluating Puppy's Progress
Before you select your puppy (usually at eight weeks of age),
you need to know how to select a good breeder and how to
select a good puppy. Specifically, you need to know how to
assess your puppy's behavioral development. By eight weeks of
age, your puppy must have become thoroughly accustomed to
a home physical environment, especially to all sorts of
potentially scary noises; your puppy should already have been
handled by many people, especially men, children, and
strangers; your puppy's errorless housetraining and chewtoytraining
should be underway; and your puppy should already
have a rudimentary understanding of basic manners. At the very
least, your puppy should come, sit, lie down, and roll over when
requested. In other words, in preparation for household living,
the litter of puppies must have been raised indoors and around
people and not in some secluded backyard or fancy kennel.
3. Errorless Housetraining
You need to ensure that an errorless housetraining and
chewtoy-training program is instituted the very first day your
puppy comes home. This is so important during the first
week, when puppies characteristically learn good or bad
habits that set the precedent for weeks, months, and
sometimes years to come.
Be absolutely certain that you fully understand the principles
of long-term and short-term confinement before you bring your
new puppy home. With a long-term and short-term confinement
schedule, housetraining and chewtoy-training are easy,
efficient, and errorless.
During her first few
weeks at home, regular
confinement (with
chewtoys stuffed with
kibble) teaches the
puppy to teach herself to
chew chewtoys, to settle
down calmly and
quietly, and not to
become a recreational
barker. Moreover, shortterm
confinement allows
you to predict when
your puppy needs to
relieve herself, so that
you may take her to the
right spot and reward
her for eliminating
4. Socialization with People
The Critical Period of Socialization ends by three months of
age! This is the crucial developmental stage during which
puppies learn to accept and enjoy the company of other dogs
and people. Thus your puppy needs to be socialized to people
by the time he is twelve weeks old. However, since his series of
puppy immunization injections is incomplete at this point, a
young pup needs to meet people in the safety of his own home.
As a rule of thumb, your puppy needs to have met at least a
hundred different people before he is eight weeks old and then
meet an additional hundred people during his first month at
home. Not only is this easier to do than it might sound, it's also
lots of fun.
5. Bite Inhibition
Bite inhibition
is the single most important lesson a dog must
learn. Adult dogs have teeth and jaws that can hurt and harm.
All animals must learn to inhibit use of their weapons against
their own kind, but domestic animals must learn to be gentle
with all animals, especially people. Domestic dogs must learn
to inhibit their biting toward all animals, especially toward
other dogs and people. The narrow time window for developing
a "soft mouth" begins to close at four-and-a-half months of age,
about the time when the adult canine teeth first show. Providing
your puppy with an ideal forum to learn bite inhibition is the
most pressing reason to enroll him in puppy classes before he is
eighteen weeks old.
6. Preventing Adolescent Problems
To ensure that your well-rounded and well-schooled puppy
remains a mannerly, well-socialized, and friendly dog
throughout adulthood, your dog needs to meet unfamiliar
people and unfamiliar dogs on a regular basis. In other words,
your dog needs to be walked at least once a day. Your puppy
may be taken for rides in the car and to visit friends' houses as
early as you like. Start walking your puppy as soon as your
veterinarian says it’s safe to do so.