Patrica B. McConnell - The Puppy Primer

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Copyright 2010 by Patricia McConnell

McConnell Publishing Ltd.
Black Earth, Wisconsin

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ISBN # 1-891767-13-5

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www.PatriciaMcConnell.com

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

To Lassie, always a puppy
and to
Kato, a guy with a great sense of humor

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Good Puppy Owner! Goooood Puppy Owner! How clever of you to start now on your puppys education! You should feel good because you are caring and committed enough to take responsibility for your new dogs welfare. As you know, theres more to your puppys well-being than physical health; your dogs behavior will influence the quality of life of everyone in the family for years to come, whether they have two legs or four.

The Puppy Primer is designed as a six-week training program to start you and your puppy off on the right paw. Each chapter includes Special Topics (Housetraining and Crate Training for example), New Exercises (like the steps of Come, Sit and Down training) and Practice Makes Perfect, (the second or third steps of an exercise, so that your pup can begin to master the behavior.)

Inside this book youll learn how to humanely and effectively teach your pup how to pay attention, to follow the house rules and to be a joy to live with. Youll learn how positive reinforcement makes training fast and fun. Along the way youll expand your ability to teach your dog good habits (rather than just correcting bad ones), and manage the home environment such that its easy for your puppy to do the right thing.

While your pup is maturing, remember, Lassies are made, not born. Your dog didnt come into the world with the ability to understand English or to know the social conventions of our culture. By the same token, you were not born instinctively knowing how to train a dog.

Dog training involves skills that anyone can learn, if they are willing to invest the time and energy. The person who trained the television star Lassie had to master those abilities just like the rest of us! We all start from the same place.

We are delighted that you chose to begin this journey with us! We hope that raising your pup involves the whole familydog training works best if everyone is consistent in what is communicated. Youll get the most out of this book by reading it one chapter at a time and working for one week on the exercises in each chapter before moving on. However, dont hesitate to use the book in the way that works best for youperhaps looking into a special topic that youd like to know more about right away. Ideally, go through an exercise when you can get up right away and practice what youve read. Most importantly, have fun! Training can and should be equally fun for you and your dogisnt that why you got a dog in the first place, to add happiness and joy to your life? So read on, and look forward to creating a great relationship with your new best friend.

[Note: Rather than calling your puppy an it, or using the awkward s/he, we have elected to alternate between he and she in the text. We are grateful that there are only two sexes!]

1
FIRST THINGS FIRST

One of the most important things you can do to help your puppy grow up to be a friendly, confident, dog is to socialize your puppy now. Socialization, as the term is commonly used, means giving your pup careful, positive exposure to all of the things that he might encounter as an adult dog. In your pups case, that includes other dogs and the full range of people that he might encounter, from young, bouncy children to someone in a wheelchair. Depending on your circumstances, you might add cats, horses, birds or ferrets to the list.

If a puppy isnt exposed to a variety of people and dogs when young, he might not be friendly or confident with them as an adult. Fear in puppies is often exhibited as aggression in adult dogs, so now is the time to create positive experiences with individuals outside of the family. However, take note of the how to information below: socialization incorrectly done (which is regrettably a common practice) can cause more harm than good.

ENVIRONMENTAL STIMULATION Your pup also needs to experience a range of environments, from rides in the car, visits to neighbors, and walks in the country. This type of environmental stimulation can actually change the way your pups brain is structured, and allows him to be more flexible about changes when hes grown up. Dogs who have had limited exposure to a variety of environments are more likely to be stressed when you move, go on vacation or add to the family, so its important to take this aspect of raising your puppy seriously. Of course, there is also a genetic aspect to your dogs responses, but its always a good idea to do what you can to help him grow up to be well adjusted by exposing him to positive experiences in a range of environments.

To accomplish this, take your pup out and about without taking her places where shell be scared by too much activity or noise. Teach her to ride in the car, to visit the vets office (a great place to give treats in the lobby and then drive home!) or to the groomers shop. Visit a friends house, go camping and explore the woods, or sleep out in a friends backyard tent. Let your puppy walk on shiny floors, grass, pavement, dirt and gravel. In general, go to a wide variety of places, but again, be sure not to take her to places where she might get overwhelmed by too much noise or movement.

WHEN TO SOCIALIZE YOUR PUP Now is the right time! A puppys brain is not fully formed until the age of five months. However, there is a critical or sensitive period of socialization from 3 to 12-14 weeks of age that is especially important. This is the age range in which pups are most influenced by meeting potential members of the pack.

Our experience suggests that social interactions continue to be especially important during the first year of a dogs life, especially during the sensitive period mentioned above and in early adolescence (5-9 months in most dogs). Guard against stopping socialization too early: its not good enough to have lots of company the first weeks of your dogs life, and then live the life of a hermit for the next year. Socialization and environmental stimulation are ongoing processes. Ideally, positive social encounters should continue throughout your dogs life, so you should never stop socializing, but pay special attention to it in the early stages of your dogs development when it can do the most good.

HOW TO SOCIALIZE YOUR NEW DOG The most important thing to keep in mind is that you are conditioning your dog to enjoy strangers, other dogs and new environments. That means it is up to you to manage the situation so that your pup is not overwhelmed or traumatized. The most common mistake that owners make is to socialize their dog by taking him into an environment that is simply too frightening. A sensitive period in your puppys life means just that, and negative experiences can have just as profound an effect as positive ones.

Young puppies, even those who are older than 14 weeks, should be exposed to positive interactions with people and other dogs.