New Puppy Advice





By Frania Shelley-Grielen. All rights reserved.



Having a new puppy in your life includes all that sweet, warm, funny puppy-hood and all the steps in teaching your little one how to navigate the human world with you. A new puppy client asked me to help. My follow-up advice will benefit all new puppies and owners too: It was wonderful meeting such a sweet, little puppy and seeing how invested you are in her welfare:


Thank you again for allowing me to work with you both. Your puppy and your relationship with her will benefit from clear and consistent communication.




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- Regular walks with your puppy will help socialize her to the big outside world, offer her opportunities to explore it and sniff, aid in house training and teach her to walk on leash. Giving puppy enough time to smell cannot be emphasized enough, let her sniff and sniff and sniff, it's how she "sees" her new world. Avoid choke, prong or head halters which are painful, inhibit learning due to stress and can damage puppy's anatomy. Select Y shaped harnesses instead that attach in the front. Make sure your leash is 4-6 feet long, no extending leashes so puppy can learn to walk with you and no chain link which can be tough on human hands. Vary your walks to offer new environments.


- Your puppy is a baby and does not come to you housebroken. She is still growing and cannot fully control her bodily functions she needs frequent (hourly) walks to eliminate and to learn where you would like her to do her eliminating. We often ask so much more of this canine species than our human babies in this regard-who get to wear diapers for years and then still require extensive potty training! (More on housebreaking tips.)


- Your puppy can learn that biting is a game with her humans and with teething coming on (generally between 4-7 months), if not effectively addressed, this is a game that puppy, much to their confusion will not be allowed to still enjoy when older.


Frequent and regular puppy play groups will develop much needed puppy socialization skills and help to develop bite inhibition with conspecifics (other puppies). For her human interaction in this regard, redirecting your puppy with a one word redirection, offering a toy to bite or chase when she is about to bite or is biting will help if done consistently and repeatedly. (Continue Reading Below)





"Avoid using crates as cages to contain puppies long term and to prevent them from interacting with their environment - if you do not begin to
teach puppy how behave in your home outside of the crate, how can they begin to learn? ."



  • Your puppy needs a large variety of toys to bite and play with at all times. Pay attention to the type of toy she favors and offer puzzle toys, balls to chase (thrown by you), stuffed toys to carry and for comfort, and chew toys. Your puppy will also begin teething so keep thinking chew toys to add to her toy chest and to help ease the pain of new teeth.
  • Offer meals in a puzzle feeder/toy to maximize time spent in meaningful canine endeavors channeling all the right things puppy is meant to chew on.
  • Jumping is a natural behavior to garner attention. Greet puppy by name to acknowledge her and then ask for a sit when you enter a room or she enters one you are in. Always, always praise the response. Make sure she has heard you and has time to process the request first. You can stand if seated should you see her getting ready to jump and ask for that sit or turn partially away if standing. Keep asking and praise, the instant all feet are on the floor. This must be repeated over and over. She can not unlearn a behavior on one trial, especially one which she took so long to learn.
  • Offer praise constantly for all the good, quiet behavior and "put it on command:" tell her "Good Quiet" or "Good Girl" for being just that, "Good Sit" when she is sitting, etc. Your puppy's gentle nature will be impacted seriously by aversive corrections. Avoid fear and displacement behaviors by focusing always and only on positive training methods.
  • Interacting with others: people and dogs, on a walk, dog parks, puppy kindergarten or puppy training classes are key for puppy's socialization around other dogs and people. Learning in a group setting affords social learning, observational learning and utilizes the model rival method for humans and non-humans. Make sure to also learn more about puppy training and behavior. Look for credible sources that are science based and force free to be the most ethical and effective. Steve Mann has a great book on puppy training to start with.
  • Crating because? For house training remember to keep crating to a maximum of an hour- this method utilizes the natural instinct of a dog not to foul their denning area, in the natural environment, the animal would be free to leave at will to eliminate. To build on this for house training, we are encouraged to take baby puppies out every hour or two (about how long they can "hold" it) to allow for relief and train for the locations we would like puppy to choose for voiding on their own.
  • Avoid using crates as cages to contain puppies long term and to prevent them from interacting with their environment - if you do not begin to teach puppy how behave in your home outside of the crate, how can they begin to learn? If no other option, make sure crates are large enough with have extra comfy dog beds and toys to increase appeal and drape a portion of the crate with a sheet to cut down on visual stimulation, be careful with this, makes sure there is adequate airflow -if it seems to exacerbate a negative reaction -stop immediately!
  • Think of an area of the home which has you in it or in sight (no garages or basements!) for a temporary long term confinement area while puppy is growing (your office area or an ex pen in the living room next to you) and add classical music to soothe her. A classical music radio station also offers soothing human voices to the mix.

The right approach to individual training or group training classes will make all the difference in how your puppy learns the canine manners expected of her in this human world. Study after study shows the benefit of using force free, positive methods.


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