Janet Menzies - From Puppy to Perfect: A Proven, Practical Guide to Training and Caring for Your New Puppy

Effective training forms a puppys future

A while ago my Dad, a hospital doctor (now retired), was lucky enough to be allowed to buy a really fantastic bit of medical kit for the operating suite. The money had been raised and everybody was very excited. Eventually the high-tech equipment arrived all the way from Japan and my Dad was put in charge of opening the box. Pretty quickly he had all the bits out and more or less assembled and was starting to press buttons when he noticed a sheet of paper printed in various different languages. English was the top of the list, and he read: In case of extreme emergency, consult instructions. My Dad confessed: Those Japanese must know surgeons very well; it would certainly take an extreme emergency for me to bother to read the instructions.

Its not just surgeons. When you get your new mobile phone or tablet, what do you do? Start clicking. Manufacturers of tech devices know this, and design them to pander to our impatience. Its called intuitive operation which basically means you can get started straight away and dont need to bother to read the instructions unless theres an extreme emergency of course!

It is different with dogs. Nature did not design puppies to have intuitive operation. Just about the only things puppies do automatically are poo and chew. As a townie and a career girl, I didnt have an opportunity to get my first puppy until I was in my thirties. I must admit that in many respects I am my fathers daughter, so it didnt occur to me for a moment to read the instructions before the arrival of the pup or even until an extreme emergency arose. So I was left searching around for a decent puppy care handbook, with the said pup already eating her way through the kitchen wall.

I like to think that Im not the only person in the world to rush ahead and buy a gorgeous little bundle of pup without bothering about the instruction booklet. So Im guessing there will be plenty of you reading this now with the book or tablet in one hand while trying to rescue the pup from inside the sofa with the other hand. So Part One is designed to get you started right away. It is a survival guide which will get you through the first few weeks of puppy management. All your pressing puppy problems will be answered step by step, with simple, direct answers.

You will discover easy to follow routines for toilet training, feeding, playing, and also for teaching your children how to handle a pup. Having already made all the mistakes in the book when I first started with dogs, this book has the answers to those mistakes! I can also reassure you that success is rapid. Im now on my fifth generation of breeding my line of cocker spaniels, and Im glad to say that every litter has been better and more enjoyable than the last.

In the book you will see lots of photos of one of my latest pups, Fizz, who was growing up while I was planning From Puppy to Perfect. She spent most of her first summer glamping on the lawn in full Glastonbury style. Training her along the lines I will be describing was a total joy, and as I write this, shes now getting ready to go into competitions.

Once you and pup have survived the first few weeks, you will have a moment to step back and think about your longer term plan for owning and training your first puppy to become a perfect companion. So Part Two gives an insight into the big picture of dog ownership. We will be looking especially at the human part of the dogfamily partnership because, as you will discover, your puppy ends up teaching you just as much as you train him! If you are one of those sensible people who has bought the book before the pup, there is plenty of useful advice on the different types and personalities of dog. This is great when it comes to choosing your dog, and also comes in very handy if the pup is already in place to let you know what to expect from the different breeds as they grow up.

With the puppy now settled, and you briefed with a plan for the future, its time to move on to Part Three, which is a detailed guide on how to look after and introduce play-training for the puppy from now, up to about six months old. Then