Bringing home a new puppy

This is Ebbie

This is Ebbie

My sister lives in California and is feeling ready to invite a dog into her life. She found this little guy, Ebbie. Here’s a link to his rescue organization.

Anyway, as we were talking I told her the advice I tell all new dog owners. And this applies to you whether you are adopting a rescue dog, a rescue puppy, buying a pet store dog/puppy (but you wouldn’t do that now would you?) or buying from a breeder:

First, bring your dog home and give him a walk around your neighborhood. For a small dog it can be a small dog walk – around 30 minutes. For a larger breed, a larger walk, at minimum an hour, better to be longer. Keep the walk controlled meaning the dog should be at your side or behind you. Remind him of his place as often as necessary, either by a gentle tug on the leash and a correction word/sound, or by stopping in your tracks whenever he starts to pull on the leash. If this doesn’t get his attention (more…)

February 26, 2009 • Tags: , • Posted in: dog ownership, essentials, pups • 6 Comments

House Training Your Puppy

For anyone adopting a new puppy, here are my two principles of house training:

1) Keep your puppy nearby (attached by leash is best) for the first few days you get him and EVERY SINGLE TIME he starts sniffing around take him outside to the same spot and give the same command (“go pee”, “go potty outside”, “hurry up” or whatever you want).

2) For the first month or so, after every transition, take your puppy outside (see #1 above). That means after waking, playing, eating, drinking, chewing, coming out of the crate, or snuggling. Do this every single time. I know it sounds terrible and it is true, you do end up taking the puppy out (more…)

How to Introduce Two Dogs

It seems that the adoption process for Annie is going well. She met her potential new pack mate and they got a long swimmingly. This led me to think about my thoughts on introducing dogs to one another and I have advice on how to do it and what not to do. So here it is…

Make sure that both dogs are not wound up so don’t take them out of the crate and put them nose to nose with another dog they’ve never met. Ideally, walk them both together first for as long as you can. If this is going to be a match for life, by all means walk them at least an hour. If it is just an introduction to a new neighborhood friend then a shorter walk will suffice. But you want (more…)

December 27, 2008 • Tags: , , • Posted in: Annie, behavior • 2 Comments