Choosing a Puppy, Part 1

Part 1: Narrowing down the choice

The time has come at last! You’ve decided that you are going to get a puppy for your family. Excitement is running high, ideas are fantastical.

Your older boy sees this new dog as a companion in his muddy adventures. Your younger girl views it as something to love and cuddle, brush and comb. You have fantasies about a dog curled up at your feet when your work is done and you at last hit the armchair. And perhaps your partner thinks of something butch and manly to show off at the pub from time to time.

How on earth can you combine all this into one dog?

The truth is that while different breeds have different mindsets and hard-wired behaviours, the individual dog will have his own ideas.

Just like when you have children you get what you’re given, so with puppies. It doesn’t matter how carefully you choose your puppy, he’s still going to have a mind of his own.

So you’re going to need to do a bit of educating your family so that everyone is not disappointed with the new arrival! Find out what it is they are expecting, and guide them to more realistic expectations.

But choosing the right breed or type in the first place is a huge help!

The right dog for your family

You’ll need to consider these points:

• Size

Critical

The larger the dog the more expensive he’ll be to feed, house, and take to the vet. Small dogs can be more inclined to jump up and scrabble (small child hazard). Very large dogs need very large beds, very large cars, very large floorspace. (Deerhounds traditionally live in castles …)

• Coat-type

Importance depends on your time and housekeeping standards

Double-coated dogs can shed year-round in our heated homes. Fluffy dogs will need a full groom every six weeks or so. (You can easily do this yourself - the groomer’s bills will add up alarmingly.) Long coats get muddy and tangled. Very fine-coated dogs get cold and need a jumper in the winter.

• Gender

Not terribly important

When you’ve decided on your breed or type, you’ll find that either dogs or bitches of that breed match your family better. They have very different characteristics, and of course size can vary a lot between the sexes. If you have an open mind you will have more choice in the litter.

• Original purpose of the breed

Critical

Hunting dogs (e.g. labradors, beagles, spaniels) will go all day long in any weather. Lapdogs (Shih Tsus, Chihuahuas) will expect a lap and as little weather as possible. Sighthounds (e.g. Whippets) want to sprint for ten minutes then sleep for 23 and a half hours. Jack Russell Terriers think they are German Shepherds. If your family is an outdoorsy one all year round, then you can get a dog used to striding over moors and mountain. If going to the shops is a big adventure for you, then something happy to mooch about at home is required. Be very honest about this.

Whatever the breed, familiarise yourself with the genetic health issues pertaining to each breed or type (your Kennel Club should be able to guide you here) and look for breeders who perform the relevant tests. You can never guarantee anything, but you can sure stack the odds in your favour by doing this essential research.

You'll find a handy download about breed characteristics to be aware of here:

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• Age

Absolutely critical

Your pup should be 7-8 weeks when he comes home with you. I would not take a puppy a day older. I’d walk away empty-handed - that’s how important I consider this. And you should not take a puppy younger than 7 weeks, for any reason.

Visit your puppy at least once before you finally decide. 5-6 weeks is a good age to visit.

Your puppy’s primary socialisation window slams shut at 14-16 weeks. You can never get this time back again. Do not listen to any sob stories or cajoling from the breeder of the pups. See written proof of the dog’s age. WALK AWAY if you are not convinced.

• Rearing

Critical

How has this puppy been reared so far? In a shed? in the house? Some dogs will manage to overcome a poor start in life because of the resilience of their personality. Sadly, many never fully recover from a poor start. Family pet puppies should be reared inside the house - in the busiest part of the house. They should have an enriched environment with lots of different things to interact with. Here’s an example of a thoughtful breeder’s set-up for her puppies. These pups have been given the best chance to grow up with no fear and anxiety problems rearing their ugly heads later on.

• Price

Irrelevant

The “running costs” of the dog will very quickly overtake any significance in the cost price. I tend to forget to ask the price till I’ve chosen the puppy. Proper, caring breeders are not looking to fleece you.

Chew over these points till next time, when I’ll give you more detailed advice on how to find your puppy.

You'll need to get your name down for the free e-course on common puppy problems.

Check out Errorless Housetraining page too - this free cheatsheet will get you started fast when the time comes!

Meanwhile, arm yourself with good, force-free puppy-training info. You’d be surprised if I didn’t direct you to my books now, wouldn’t you? So I won’t surprise you. Go to my Books page where you’ll find years of experience with young puppies and their new families distilled into four how-to books, and see how you can get the first two books completely free!

Choosing a Puppy, Part 2

Choosing a Puppy, Part 3

Is your dog or your little puppy throwing up more challenges than you anticipated? Watch our free Workshop and find how to change things fast!

Are you paying your dog MORE for what you don’t want him to do?

We all come across everyday problem behaviours with our dog that may seem difficult to resolve. Owners are often baffled as to how to approach this and have resorted to saying “NO” ever more loudly. With little result.

But quite often, the things we don’t like our dog to do have started, or escalated, because we have our focus on the wrong area.

Dogs do what works

If an action of theirs gets a consequence they like, they’ll do it again. And again. And again and again. If that action gets a poor consequence, or no consequence at all, they’ll give it up and try something else. Sometimes, what you think is going to stop him, actually makes your dog worse. “All this attention and shouting,” he thinks, “I’ll have to do this again!”

Keep in mind that they’ve always got to be doing something. They can’t NOT do anything.

So all we have to do is make sure to reward what we like, immediately and enthusiastically, to get our dog to realise that that is a profitable course of action.

It’s all about choice

We have choice points all day, every day:

• “Will I get up now or hit the snooze button?”

• Coffee or tea?

• Breakfast or none?

• Red jumper or blue jumper?

and so on throughout the day.

Your dog also has choices all day long:

• “Shall I bark at the window or watch quietly?”

• “Will I lie down in the kitchen during cooking, or try to steal food?”

• Jump up at the visitor or sit?

• Chew the chair leg or my toy?

and so on.

Your job is not to TELL your dog what he should be doing, but observe his actions and be sure to throw a party whenever he makes the right choice.

Watch our free Workshop and learn how to communicate effectively with your dog or your new puppy, right from the start!

“But he’ll never choose to sit for visitors!”

And this is where we do intervene, but only to manage the situation to prevent what we don’t want to happen. Putting him on lead and standing on the lead would be a good interim management technique for greeting visitors. Meanwhile your dog learns during training sessions that a Sit is a good choice and will always earn him a reward. This could be treats, a game, or an opportunity to greet that visitor!

If you

Reward what you like,

Ignore what you don’t like, and

Manage what you can’t ignore,

you’ll be on track for developing a responsiveness in your dog that may amaze you!

Here’s what Sophie said after giving this a try for just a couple of weeks:

“Just thought that I would let you know that your brilliant idea of rewarding for the behaviour that we want has helped Odin to become a very calm and patient puppy when it’s our dinner time. He will lie down nicely and play with his toys while we're eating. :) “

No “NOOOOOs”. No “Ah-ahs”. No frustrated nagging. No tellings-off. Just selecting the action she liked and rewarding it solved the problem for Sophie.

So how do I start with this?

I’d like you to pick just one thing that is annoying you about your dog, decide what you’d like him to do instead, then heavily reward him every time he makes the right choice. Don’t make this too hard - keep it simple!  The simpler you make the problem, the faster your dog will work out the solution.

Be sure that all family members are on the same page here! And after a week you should be seeing a vast improvement.

And for extra help, get our free e-mail course on puppy problems.

Tell me in the comments below what you picked, and how it’s going. I shall look forward to seeing just how resourceful you can be!

 

How can I stop my dog jumping up?

This is one of the first questions I’m asked by new dog-owners. Whether they have a brand-new puppy or an older rescue dog, this is the universal cry!

But as you’ve seen in New Puppy? New Rescue Dog? Start here! you’ll do better if you look at it from another angle.

Instead of trying to stop your dog doing something, rather teach him what you’d like him to do instead.

If he has something he can do and knows it will please you, he won’t need to do all the things you find annoying when he would like your attention. Or when he wants to greet you.

Feet on the Floor!

It's natural for a puppy to try to reach your face with a "kiss" - that's how they greet their dam in the nest. When she returns after a hunt, the puppies will all reach up and lick her face and teeth, to prompt her to regurgitate her kill.

So one way to prevent your puppy jumping up is to get down to his level first!

Another regular winner is to focus him on keeping his feet on the floor. If you have a solidly-trained Sit (be honest! That means you say the word Sit just once, and your dog throws his tail-end to the floor as fast as he can) you can ask him to do that before you ever give him any attention.

Dog or Puppy problems? Get your free 8-lesson email course and solve them all painlessly!

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You have to get your word “Sit” in before he jumps, otherwise you’re teaching a neat behaviour sequence of Jump - Sit - Reward. He’ll think he has to jump before he can sit! Not the outcome you want at all.

In fact, you can just stand and wait for him to work out that jumping is not doing the trick and he'll either stand or sit without you having to say a word!

Be sure you don't reward his jumping with cries of "Off! Get down! Ouch!" which he will take to mean "I love this! Keep jumping!"

If your Sit is still a bit wobbly, or you have a young pup who doesn’t know it yet, simply placing a treat on the floor between his feet will get him to look floorwards. He can’t be staring at the floor at the same time as jumping up, so the problem is eliminated.

Similarly, he can’t be sitting at the same time as jumping up. Either way will work to keep your pup’s feet on the floor and off you - without having to admonish or scold him for his enthusiasm.

These methods will work perfectly to focus your dog’s attention on the floor when he’d like to put his paws on you.

But you can’t expect your visitors to do this training for you! They need to be protected from flying paws and playfully snapping jaws. And the quickest and simplest way is to have your dog on a lead before you admit a visitor to your home, and stand on that lead so that it’s loose enough for your dog to sit, stand, or lie down, but not loose enough for him to jump up.

If he’s keeping (more or less) still, he gets the opportunity to say hello to your guest - as long as his feet stay on the floor. Now he’s learning how to greet visitors politely.

Oakley is learning she has no need to jump to greet her owner

 

The quickest way to solve many puppy behaviour problems is simply to ensure that what you don't like cannot happen.

Much more fun to direct your puppy to something you do like, rather than continually nagging him and focussing on what you don’t like.

Once you find this system working for jumping up, you can start to apply it to anything else you’d like to see changed in your pup.

You’ll find lots more helpful hints like these in our free e-course which you will find here.

Is your dog or your little puppy throwing up more challenges than you anticipated? Watch our free Workshop and find how to change things fast!

Errorless Housetraining and Crate Training

Let’s get something out of the way first:

• “It’s cruel to put a puppy in a crate”

• “We do have a crate, but we never shut the door”

• “I don’t want him to see his crate as a punishment”

• “We’re saving money by getting a crate that will fit him when he’s full-grown”

These are common responses I hear when I ask owners if they have a crate for their puppy.

My thoughts:

• Do you think it’s cruel to put a baby in a cot or playpen?

• Would you leave your toddler loose in the house at night without supervision?

• I bet your child’s bed is full of cuddly toys, books, comforters, and he’s happy there

• Do your children look like extras from St.Trinian’s, with their jumpers down to their knees so you can save money?

Get your free guide to Errorless Housetraining and have it all done in a week or two!

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The only way a crate would be cruel would be if your dog were left locked in it all day. The same would hold true for leaving your toddler in a cot or playpen all day! The crate is an excellent help for keeping a puppy safe in his new home, and is your best friend when it comes to housetraining - and to getting a good night’s sleep.

So now we’ve got those misunderstandings cleared up, you’re ready to set off on your Errorless Housetraining - with the crate doing a lot of the work for you!

A Word About Crates

The crate should be safe and secure, and strong enough not to distort in shape. Your first crate doesn’t need to be big and strong enough to restrain an elephant! Don’t put a puppy in a soft fabric crate - it’s too inviting for him to chew and shred it. Do use a custom car-crate for safety in the car. If you have a tunnelling breed, like a whippet or a terrier, provide lots of blankets and bedding he can dig into, like a hamster. If you have a “hot” dog, like a border collie or gundog, just a flat comfy bed will do well.

Exhausted by the whole New Puppy experience? Read

New Puppy!

Biting? No sleep? Puddles?

How to survive the early weeks and still love your puppy!

For total success with your puppy housetraining, much faster than you might expect, you’re going to take advantage of two important facts about puppies:

1. They need to sleep a minimum of 17 hours a day

Seventeen hours is what adult dogs need. So a puppy will obviously need more. It’s a lot more sleep than many new owners allow their puppy, and they’re amazed to find that a lot of minor irritations and things they considered problem behaviours can be resolved by simply ensuring sufficient downtime. All that sleep needs to take place in your pup’s crate. So when it’s time for a rest (after maybe one hour of activity) you take your puppy to bed, shut the crate door, and leave him to settle. Half-cover the crate with a blanket so it’s a cosy den. You can feed all your dog’s meals in his crate so he’s always happy to go there, and when you leave him, give him a food-toy or something he can safely chew.

2. A well-reared puppy will not soil his bed

This is why you want to get a crate that is the right size for him now. If you must get a giant crate for your little puppy, block off the greater part of it with the custom divider or cardboard boxes. It doesn’t matter if your puppy shreds the boxes - we want his sleeping area just big enough for him to lie down, stand up, and turn round. Just as our beds just fit us for sleeping. Always leave chew toys so he has something to amuse him as he nods off. Classical music playing on the radio is calming to many dogs.

The Early Days

When you bring your new puppy or your new rescue dog home, you needn’t expect perfect behaviour from the get-go. There is a honeymoon period to work through - you want to build a terrific relationship with your new family member, and you don’t want that relationship marred by barking commands at your dog, or telling him off for some transgression of which he has no idea!

As Housetraining, along with Socialisation and Familiarisation, are the key things to focus on at this early stage, you want to make it as painless as possible for both of you. So that means getting it right from the start.

Your puppy is going to need to wee and poo. A lot. Your job is simply to make sure it all happens where you want it to - i.e. outside. You need to be taking him out, on a lead, much more often than you think! Every half hour is a good rule of thumb, and more often if your little puppy is active and playing.

You need to keep him on lead until he’s done his business, then you can let him off to explore the garden and play with you. If you take him out without a lead, he’s more likely to bounce about chasing butterflies and sniffing leaves, so that when you get bored and bring him back in, he still has a full bladder or bowels. Keeping him on lead focusses his attention on what he needs to do.

Your puppy will gradually earn his freedom in the house as he shows that he can perform immediately when you take him outside.

People are sometimes baffled that their puppy is still not housetrained - they tell me they leave the door open for him all the time. This is why he’s not done yet! He will continue to pee wherever he happens to be. Sometimes that’s outside and you’re happy, and sometimes it’s inside, and you’re not. How baffling for him! You need to show him that he goes outside for this purpose, and he won’t learn if he can wander in and out, chasing those butterflies, whenever he wants.

No newspaper please

Another wrong turning people may take - especially if they’ve been taking their advice from uninformed friends or the local pet shop - is to use paper pads for their puppy to eliminate on. How is this puppy going to learn that this should take place outside?

I have known people who live in high-rise flats - where it would be impossible to race down the stairs with a puppy every few minutes! - successfully use an indoor toiletting arrangement. But this needs to be a particular, clearly-bordered area (like a giant tea-tray) in a specific place - perhaps the bathroom, or on a balcony. This puppy will also need to be taught to use the great outdoors too when on walks.

I expect my pups to be clean and dry by night at 7-9 weeks, and by day at 8-12 weeks. A puppy who is still not housetrained at 17 weeks is one who has developed habits which you will now have to change.

How much easier to start off doing it right and not letting these poor habits develop!

Get my Cheat Sheet for Errorless Housetraining and focus entirely on this for a couple of weeks. You’ll be surprised how quickly it will work for you!

For help with lots of the other issues facing a new dog-owner, get our free e-course which takes you step-by-step through the everyday problems you may have with your puppy - and gives you force-free solutions which are effective, and fun!

Want some help with building this unbreakable relationship? Watch our free Workshop on Getting your Dog to Listen, and you may be surprised how much this short video will teach you!

Check other post that might help your brilliant dogs:

I have a new puppy: will I ever get any sleep again?

How much time does your dog spend sleeping?

How much does your dog sleep?

I love my dog AND I love my sleep!

Puppy Crate training demystified