The holidays are finally over! No doubt you’re a little more tired, a little more in debt and maybe you’ve gained a pound of two! The kids are back in school, and you’ve returned to the more familiar daily grind. But what about your dog? Has he picked up a few bad habits during the holidays? Perhaps you have a new family member in a little pip that’s now running amuck all over your house? Fear not…Spring Canine is here to help!
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Training Tip Of The Month
If your dog has developed bad habits, it’s not the end of the world, even thought he may have decided that he thought your new slippers were better off all over your bedroom floor than on your feet. Even we humans develop bad habits too. It’s just a matter of brushing up on your dog’s training.
What ever the bad habit is, return to the basic rules of training: prevent any more practice of the bad habit, and teach the desired habit that you want your dog to have instead. Keep a close eye on your dog so that he doesn’t get any more accidental practice with the bad habit. Decide on what the desired behavior you want is, and be consistent in replacing the bad behavior with the desired behavior.
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If you have just recently acquired a puppy, the time to start training is NOW! It’s never too soon! Dogs begin learning from birth and they will be learning things in your home, whether you want them to or not. Whether you puppy learns what you want him to or not is up to you. Don’t let your puppy do things now that you won’t want him to do later on when he’s going to be larger. For instance, if you have a romping Rottie, you probably won’t want him jumping up all over your furniture or you. So don’t allow him to begin that behavior as a pup, not matter how cute you (or anyone else) think he is; chances are it won’t be too cute in the very near future when you’re looking up at him from the floor and he’s standing on your chest, happily licking your face.
This is also the time to start socializing your puppy. The sooner, the better! The prime socialization period is between eight and 16 weeks. Take him everywhere with you. Ideally you want him to interact with several hundred people during this socialization period. Inadequate socialization now can lead to fearfulness later and aggression associated with that fear. You may even want to take him to the vet just to visit, or maybe the groomers. Lots of groomers are becoming more helpful in this area, by familiarizing your pup with the tools of the trade. You want your pup to get used to being handled by you and other people. Including overall handling, take hold of his face, look at his teeth, clean his ears, take his paws in your hands and handle his nails.
The eight to ten week period is the time for your pup to learn his name and to come to you when called. This will help to insure a good solid recall later on. If you develop a solid recall during this brief period you may be able to maintain the recall ability even after ten weeks of age when he notices that there is a great big world out there to explore. You may find that you’re not as interesting to your pup as you once were; this is normal. The better the early recall, the easier you can work through that.
You can start training classes now, even if your puppy is eight-weeks old. You don’t have to wait until the pup is six-months old to attend a training class. There are puppy kindergarten classes, which help to socialize the pup and get the training process started. Individual lessons as offered by Spring Canine Academy can accelerate the training process faster than a group class setting because of the pup’s high distractibility. It is much easier to teach your puppy good habits now than to fix them when he’s older.
We’ve noticed that for pups born from late November to early March, the fear of thunderstorms is greater than those born during other times of the year. For those puppies, the socialization period of over by the time they first hear a thunderstorm. To help avoid this, buy a thunderstorm CD and play it. You may want to play it when you’re not home, but please make sure that your pup isn’t afraid of it. If he is, lower the volume until he doesn’t react and very gradually increase the volume over a slow period of time. This way, he will become more and more comfortable with the sound of a thunderstorm as the fear goes away.
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Cold weather is no time to let your animals outside for long periods of time; whether they were bred for the colder temperatures or not. Canines at large send really good visual signals that they’re cold; they will curl up in a tight ball and even bury their noses (even the longer-legged dogs), and some will dig holes to crawl inside of. Make sure you have a warm place inside with clean bedding for your dog to sleep on. Some dogs however seem to love to be out in the snow, but they should still be brought in before too long.
You might want to consider purchasing a sweater your dog to wear when outside. Minuet (Kim’s oldest dog) is aging and her fur is thinning; she is currently sporting a lovely wool doggie-sweater, which is lined with soft felt. Also too, for some dogs, it might be a help to get hold of a set of booties for your furry friend! These products are wonderful for aging, or smaller dogs that are not able to handle the cold weather.
We would like to thank our clients who have entrusted us with the training and care of their canine family members throughout the years. And please remember, once you’re a client, you’re always a client and we are always available to answer your questions, no mater how trivial or complicated you may think they are.
Happy New Year from Dan, Kim, and the doggy staff at Spring Canine Academy!
