Planning a new puppy for Christmas? Remember the owners manual

Planning a new puppy for Christmas? Remember the owners manual.

Article/ Doggy Tips by: Katrina Boyd

Dogtech® New South Wales –Northern beaches group training

Christmas Puppies

Well, it’s that time of year, and for a lot of households the discussion on whether to get a new addition to the family has come around again.

Will it be this year a new puppy arrives in the Christmas stocking for the family to enjoy?

Firstly, it is important that you pick the right dog for you and your family; for example, if you work long hours and live in a small apartment, I wouldn’t recommend a high energy dog such as a Jack Russell. Do some research into which breed suits your environment and family set-up.

Remember the Owners manual–attend Puppy Pre-school

Okay, so you have your new puppy. The first thing you should do is enroll into Puppy Pre-school. There are many reasons why puppy school is important: Did you know that your puppy’s imprinting age is between 8 and 16 weeks? This is where your puppy learns what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour. I recommend a lot of off-leash play at puppy school which allows the puppies to teach each other how to play in a polite and socially acceptable way.

Crucial period: If you miss this crucial period in your puppies development, you cannot get it back. Not socializing your puppy may lead to a very confused, insecure dog that will end up with behavioural problems later in life–and as the saying goes, ‘ an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’.

Avoid the most common mistake

One mistake we see often is when people who already have a dog get a second or third dog and do not take the new puppy to Puppy school. The new puppy will play extremely well with the family dogs, but is nervous and anti-social with ‘strange’ dogs in the park or walking by the home.

Dogtech Puppy Pre-schools

At Dogtech, our focus is on helping you manage your puppy by sharing our positive motivation, rewards based training methods with you in a fun & interesting manner. We only use gentle methods to ensure a well balanced, happy pup.

Vaccination requirements: Your puppy will only need her/his first vaccination to attend our Dogtech Puppy school; We ensure that all vaccination papers are sighted prior to commencement of the class, for everyone’s protection.

Home puppy setup

Another way to ensure a well behaved dog is to get all the right information first–such as how to treat your puppy at home.  Many Dogtech Trainers offer a special In-home puppy set-up service . The Dogtech Specialist will visit you in your home whilst your puppy is between 8 and 16 weeks of age and share with you the things you need to know to get the best start in life for you and your new puppy. By completing Puppy School and the In-home puppy set-up course, you will be sure to have the correct information to ensure a happy, secure little puppy.

Owners manual:

Remember, it is important to ensure proper and correct maintenance, not only in the early stages of your dogs life, but also for the 13, 14, or 15 years you will have your dog.

When you buy a new car you follow the servicing requirements in the Owners Manual don’t you? And why do you follow those requirements? To ensure it continues to run well and perform for you day in and day out, correct?

It’s the same with a dog–you must train your dog in the same fashion as you service your car--regularly. Without you, the new leader of the pack, guiding him/her through life with love, discipline, training, and obedience–you are likely to end up with a dog that doesn’t function the way you dreamed.

Be a happy Owner–Not part of the problem!

Each year around 300,000 dogs are put down in Australia–many because their owners simply weren’t prepared and couldn’t cope with minor issues that became major problems with their dog.

Most of these tragedies are avoidable by prospective doggy owners taking the time to research the best type of dog for their situation–and ensuring they get the Owners manual by attending a good training course to learn the basics off living & communicating with our ‘best friends’.

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