The first 200 days of owning a puppy

Dr Harry: The first 200 days of owning a puppy

Welcoming a new puppy into your life brings excitement, companionship, and a whole lot of love, but with this comes responsibility. The first 200 days of pet ownership are critical to helping your pup learn valuable skills and behaviours.

There are usually three different responses. Those pups that chase after it are the real extroverts, full of life and ready to go, and often tear aways when young.

These dogs often train well. The next group simply follows the extroverts. They will be fine too, but less of a handful when they are young. The third group won’t react at all. Roll the little ball directly at a puppy who is behaving this way. If the pup remains still, you’ll likely have a quieter dog. If however, the puppy runs away, this may be a timid individual, and while well suited to certain owners, they are much harder to train. I often equate it to driving a vehicle in reverse from Sydney to Melbourne.

Getting home with your puppy

Now you’re home. Everyone wants to cuddle the puppy. Fair enough, but I ask you, do dogs really like being cuddled? Have you seen them cuddle with one another? Not really. They certainly love contact with each other and with us, but the often well intended squeezing as a measure of our love makes some dogs very uncomfortable. 

My number one rule is if young children are going to handle the puppy, then they must sit on the floor. You would be surprised by how many accidents we vets see as a result of a young owner dropping a squirming puppy. Show your love by stroking, and in time use a soft brush as well. Grooming greatly increases the bond between dog and owner. Sleeping quarters are the number one priority. Young pups will like to sleep in a ‘donut’, a round padded bed where they can nestle and feel ‘surrounded’. The first few nights can be a bit daunting. The pup is suddenly alone, in a strange environment without the usual smells and of course its litter mates.

I was told quite young that one should start off in life the way you mean to finish. Guess what, the same rule applies to your new addition. You should make plans, as a family, for the way you’ll manage this ball of mischief. Please stick to them. Dogs like routine, and constantly changing the goal posts makes it hard for the dog to adapt. Food and water bowls should be in the same place, as should the bed. If that bed happens to be yours too, well it might pay to have some sort of cover over the duvet to protect from accidents. 

Make any and all changes gradually, particularly when it comes to diet. Remember too that until the course of vaccinations is complete, your puppy will not be fully protected against all those infectious diseases. Your vet will be able to advise you about heartworm, intestinal worms, and tick and flea control which will vary according to where you live. Make a list of queries to ask your vet when it comes time for your pup’s next vaccination.

Training and rewarding your puppy

This brings me to my real Hobby Horse, and the reason I’ve titled this monologue the first 200 days. It’s all about training, and the principles are just so simple. It’s called positive reinforcement training. Put simply, a dog is highly likely to repeat a certain action if it receives a reward for doing it. In Australia, most trainers use food as a reward. Often overseas a toy can act as the same reward, and  simple toys like a rolled up towel or a ball are the techniques used by so many of our military, customs and border protection dogs. It’s what works best for your dog. 

You start that training the day your pup arrives home. It’s about consistency, patience and perseverance. A lot of this you can practice like sit, stay and drop. 

The techniques are simple, and at puppy preschool, you will pick up the techniques if you haven’t already. Most preschools will take your best friend from 12 weeks of age. Please ensure the puppy trainer has themselves been trained, and possess some certification and experience. This is THE most important start to your puppy’s life journey. It is in the first 200 days that your companion will form just about all the attitudes and traits that it will carry through the rest of its life.

Teaching obedience to your puppy

Previously, I talked about 75% of a dog’s behaviour being inherited from the parents. In those first 200 days, you have the opportunity to mould things. If you are a good trainer you will often correct problems early in the life of your dog. If you do nothing, the status quo will remain or get worse. If you have difficulty with training, you will exaggerate any unwanted behaviours and ‘fix’ them in your dog. 

Your next step is an obedience club, where qualified instructors will help guide you and your dog through the very basics of training. They are great organisations, where the whole family can become involved, and so they should, after all, that thing with the waggly tail is part of the family isn’t it? I’m sure your children go to school, so should your dog! 

Instructors will advise on things like leads, collars and harnesses. They teach walking techniques and handy tools like crate training. As your pup grows into a mature dog, you may be interested to go further into the fields of agility, fly-ball and tracking. The fun you can have with your dog is endless, and the social interactions of like-minded people can make for lifelong friendships. 

There is so much more to say on refining training techniques we could go on and on. Etiqueh, my Belgian Shepherd’s greatest motivation is a ball. It’s her training reward. She came from Sweden at the age of four and travelled out with a much younger dog as company. She was originally owned by a young couple who lived in a small apartment. Life for her was not good. She spent from 6am to 6pm alone in that place. Bored beyond belief, she started to bark. She is still a ‘barker’. She will always be anxious. Will I ever eliminate the problem? I doubt that I will, but control it I do, simply with a hand signal like a policeman on point duty, and my eyes. I only wish she had been mine for those first 200 days, how much more at ease would she be with life.