This is a puppy. It’s cute, adorable and melts your heart into a big gushing blob of love. This puppy however is no different than an infant. It needs certain things to grow up and that starts when they are young. Just like you wouldn’t leave an infant alone, you shouldn’t leave your puppy alone. Infants wear diapers until they learn to use the potty. Puppies have to be taught where to go potty too and anytime they have an accident in the house, it’s YOUR FAULT. Yes, you weren’t paying attention to your puppy’s needs and it had to go and it went. So no more than you would yell at a baby for dropping a load without a diaper on, should you yell at a puppy. Your puppy depends on you for everything, just like an infant does.
This is still a puppy. Once again, you would not leave a toddler alone running about the house, so you shouldn’t let this sweet face fool you. What this puppy learns now and for the next several months will help shape it into an amazing dog or a nightmare of behavior problems. This puppy needs to see other puppies, people, cats, birds, kids, men in hats, with beards. It needs to take rides, go places and experience new and different smells & sights so that it learns not to be afraid. This puppy needs a safe place to be contained when you aren’t home, it needs to know what toys are his and what behaviors are good. You don’t let your toddler put your shoes in it’s mouth, you shouldn’t let your puppy do it either. Is your toddler digging his nails into you or biting you? You teach your toddler that it’s not nice, you need to do the same for your puppy!
Getting bigger, but still a puppy folks! At this time a child that has gone off to kindergarten to learn and you need to do the same with your puppy! Hopefully you were teaching good manners and behavior before now with your puppy. If not what are you waiting for? A child learns the basics in kindergarten and so will your puppy, this foundation that you are laying is SO important. Don’t skip it! This is also NOT the time to leave him alone, just like you wouldn’t leave a child alone! They need parental supervision when they are out and about and they need a safe place when you can’t be with them. Why? Simple it keeps them safe, it keeps them for getting into things they shouldn’t. It keeps you sane!
This handsome young man is now a pre-teen. That means hormones, hard headedness and occasional behavior that makes one think he left his brain out in the yard. If you waited till now to start basic training, shame on you! A child does not come out of the womb and head to middle school and neither should your puppy! Didn’t it occur to you that he needed to learn how to behave in the world? To understand the language you speak? How to listen to you? How to interact with other dogs and people? Didn’t it occur to you that if you had been training him all along that your shoes, walls and furniture would all still be intact? Did it ever cross your mind that if you had been training him he wouldn’t have ripped apart his dog bed and shredded your comforter? A child gets mental and physical exercise in school and these guys need the same thing. A bored pre-teen is a pain in the butt! Lots of toys, exercise and mental stimulation are needed for a happy healthy pup!
This is a goofy, gangly teenager. Just like real teenagers he still needs guidance and educating. He may not always want it, he may even make you think that he doesn’t hear you but he does. All that work you’ve been doing. All that time you’ve been investing will pay off big. What do you mean you haven’t done any training at all? So now you are asking on the internet why your dogs is (insert bad behavior here). You don’t understand why responsible pet owners are angry with you? You don’t understand why they are telling you to get a professional trainer NOW?
Here’s why.
Roughly 5 million companion animals enter into shelters every year. Of that 3.5 million are euthanized. 60% of all dogs that enter into shelters are euthanized. 60%!!! Puppies that aren’t socialized, that aren’t taught good canine behavior can find their lives ended early. Ever wonder what happened to that dog that got dumped off at the shelter because it wasn’t house broken or the one that kept tearing up their owners house? 60%….
That cute puppy is going to grow up, in my case that sweet face looking at you is going to weigh in at over 120 lbs. If I didn’t take him to classes, if I didn’t work with him at home every day, I would be an irresponsible pet owner. If you bring a child into this world you are responsible for that child. The same is true if you bring a puppy or even a dog into your life, you are responsible. They rely on you the same as a child, be a good parent, educate them, love them and make sure that you raise a well behaved canine. Training them is the best way to keep them with you for all their lives and in the end that is what they want most and it’s the least their deserve…
