New Puppy Paralysis
You got a new puppy! After weeks, months, maybe even years of planning, you took the plunge and brought home a perfect little ball of love. Once those warm fuzzy feelings of rainbows and butterflies subside, you might find yourself feeling...overwhelmed? Anxious? Absolutely panicked that you’ve made the wrong choice and terrified that you’ll somehow mess this all up? Guilty about feeling anything negative about your new lovely puppy, who has done nothing wrong? Oh no, we’ve found ourselves falling down a rabbit hole!
Congratulations, this is all normal! Puppies are a lot of work, and you’re not a terrible person for feeling stressed about that. It’s easy for anyone to feel overwhelmed looking at the laundry list of things your puppy needs to learn and experience in order to grow up to be the best dog they can be. Even professionals feel this way! We’re here to give you a list of priorities that us trainers focus on when living and working with new puppies. Take a deep breath, this is all going to be okay, we promise!
1. Teach them how to learn!
So what exactly should you be focusing on with a new puppy? First of all, you can check “obedience” at the door; you’re not going to be needing it! You have plenty of time to refine those sits and stays. Right now, your goal should be simply teaching your puppy that learning is fun and rewarding! We want to use training as an opportunity to bond with our new puppies. Clicker training is a great way to build up optimistic learners who are not afraid to try new things and problem solve with you. Something as simple as a nose target or eye contact can lead to all kinds of advanced behaviors down the road. Keep training sessions short, sweet, and successful so it’s easy to prioritize having fun over getting results. You’re building a lifelong learner!
2. Teach them about Fear Free care!
When puppies are young, they tend to be pretty tolerant of handling because they have not had many negative experiences (hopefully) yet! On top of that, they are easy for us to manhandle due to their size so we can just hold them still and clip those nails, put the harness on, or administer the eye ointment. Here’s the thing, though: every time you do that, your puppy is learning from the experience. They are learning that handling leads to unpleasant feelings and situations, and it only makes sense that you will see them start to avoid those circumstances by fighting or fleeing.
Even if your past pets had strong feelings about going to the vet or groomer (I clearly remember coordinated efforts to trick the family rottweiler into the car for vet visits as a child), the field of Fear Free care has come a long way! Take the time to actively work on handling your puppy before they ever experience an emergency vet visit. This doesn’t just mean petting your puppy or touching their toes; treat these like training sessions. Use your clicker and treats so that your puppy is just as excited about having their ears looked in as they are about rolling over or giving a high five. A dog who is comfortable at the vet and groomer is a dog with a better chance at a long and healthy life.
3. Teach them about their worlds!
Socialization is a HUGE topic. It would be completely unhelpful for us to just say “socialize your puppy” without giving you any actionable steps to take. Let’s start by just defining it: socialization is the process through which animals learn what is safe/normal, and what is unsafe/abnormal. Puppies are in what is called a critical window of socialization starting around 6 weeks of age, and this window begins to close between 12-16 weeks of age. This is an especially sensitive period wherein puppies have a diminished fear response and fairly good recovery, and it’s the best opportunity we have to help shape their views of the world.
It is important to note here that puppies are not blank slates. Maternal experiences, prenatal conditions, neonatal conditions, and genetics all play a role in an individual puppy’s development. Socialization is not a process that can undo any of those other factors or change a puppy’s personality, but when done thoughtfully, it can help a puppy have a better chance at living a behaviorally healthy life.
Novelty
It would be impossible to introduce your puppy to every single person, place, thing, or experience in the course of a few months. There just isn’t enough time for all of the possibilities! Instead, we can try to teach our puppies the concept of novelty. If we go back to our definition of socialization, as an animal is exiting that critical window, the default assumption becomes new=dangerous. This would be a perfectly reasonable frame of mind for a wild animal whose survival is at stake! So for our puppies, we want to do our best to override that.
Teach pattern games like Touch the Goblin or 1-2-3 so your puppy has a predictable way to interact with new things! If they trust the game, they are more likely to trust the new thing.
Make frequent (daily) small changes within the home. Place a sheet over the couch one day, move the dining room chairs on top of the table, shift the angle of a mirror. Change can and should be a normal part of your puppy’s environment.
Introduce things that are neutral, but different! You don’t have to jump right to the noisy vacuum cleaner. Have your puppy interact with some bubble wrap, a muffin tin, a balloon, soap bubbles, anything you can think of!
Watching the World
Your puppy can learn a lot just from watching. Is your pup worried about the commotion at the dog park? That’s okay! You can just observe, feed them treats, and play with them nice and far away so that they can feel safe and leave the experience feeling relaxed and happy. Does your pup slam on the brakes during walks? That’s fine! Take a seat with your pup and allow them to just look on while you feed them treats, pet them, and play with them. Teaching our pups to simply watch people, dogs, animals, cars, etc can be a great way to minimize or prevent issues like reactivity!
Teach your puppy the Look at That game!
Relaxation & Calmness
Puppies are excited about everything. That's one of the reasons we love them so much! Over-excitement and arousal can be an unpleasant feeling for our pups, though, and can lead to some equally unpleasant behaviors down the road. Teaching our puppies how to be calm and calm themselves down is a crucial skill for lifelong harmony in your home. This is perfect for helping reduce reactivity, hyperactivity, and separation distress issues.
Teach your puppy how to use puzzle feeders like snuffle mats, lickimats, and stuffable food toys.
Teach your puppy how to relax on a mat!
Consider Your Norm
Think about the specific parts of your lifestyle and routine that are most important to you. If your puppy will grow up in the country without any hustle and bustle, then it might be more important to teach them about wildlife than city streets. If you plan on taking frequent road trips with your dog, then it should be a priority to teach your puppy how to ride calmly in the car for longer periods of time.
Make a list of activities you would like to do with your puppy when they grow up. What specific sights, sounds, smells, or sensations are involved in those?
Write down, to the best of your knowledge, what a typical daily routine looks like for you. How can you help your pup adjust to that?
Lucky for us, all of these things can be worked on right in the safety and comfort of your home! If you have a new puppy, or are planning on adding one to the family soon, join us in our online Perfect Puppy Priorities class for detailed instructions and guidance on implementing all of these training plans. You can sign up directly online today!