Episode #91 New Puppy Parents

Are you getting a puppy soon? Molly, a new puppy parent, joins Amy to talk about getting ready for her new puppy and how The Online Puppy School has helped her in the process. Learn tips for getting started, meeting new people and crate training!

Transcript

Amy: 0:00

This is the puppy training podcast episode number 91 new puppy parents this podcast is designed to help you on your journey of becoming best friends through love and learning as you train your own dog from home, and I'm here to help you every step of the way, this is the puppy training podcast. And I'm your host, Amy Jensen. Right. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the puppy training Podcast. Today we have Molly with us, who is one of our new puppy parents. She's been in our program for a little bit. And she's getting ready to pick up her puppy. So I'm going to let her introduce herself a little bit. Molly, welcome. And thanks for being here today.

Molly: 0:43

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. So like you said, my name is Molly. And my family lives in Denver, Colorado, and we are getting a sheepadoodle puppy, we're picking her up tomorrow. And we are super excited. I also have three human children. And so we're super excited to be adding to the family and excited to work with her. So we have wanted a dog or I have one of those on for a very long time. And the timing just was finally right with ages of my kids and kind of you know, we're really settled in our home and in our environment. And so it just felt right. And I we had never had a family dog, and in adulthood, but I grew up with dogs, I always had one or two dogs growing up. And so I just love the relationship that you build and how much enrichment a dog brings to your family, especially, you know, his kids and all of the things that we can do with her. So, yeah, we're excited to like take her hiking and exploring throughout Colorado.

Amy: 1:52

We are very excited for you to get this new puppy. And thank you for being here today to share with other new puppy parents your experience. I love that you pointed out relationships. That's why I love dogs, too. They're just amazing animals, I think they add so much to a family environment. I've seen it with my kids when they're having a bad day, or they just need somebody to listen to them. They just do so much good. Even though we don't speak quite the same language, you can tell at times how they're feeling by watching their body language. And they know how we are feeling and they respond really well. So I think I'm just so excited for your family to have this upcoming experience.

Molly: 2:29

Yeah, definitely. I remember telling my husband did not grow up with dogs. And I remember telling him one time but like, if I didn't have my dog in high school, dealing with all the drama and be you know, upset Friday night when you didn't get invited to something like just being able to be home and snuggle my dog and know that like the world was okay.

Amy: 2:53

It really really is I had similar stories, I just could always go home and talk to my dog if I needed to. So you told us the big day did you tell us the big day?

Molly: 3:03

The big day is tomorrow. Okay, we're picking her up in the morning. And then we have like an eight hour drive back home. So that will be interesting, but set up the whole back of my SUV to be a little play area and and P area and all of that on our breaks as we drive home. So it'll be interesting is the whole family going or just you? So it's just going to be me and my two older kids. So they're going to come and help me and and make a little adventure out of it.

Amy: 3:35

How fun. Will you share with us a little bit about how you've been preparing for this puppy?

Molly: 3:42

Yeah, so I am a journalist by trade and So research is something I love to do. So I think I've read like four different books about raising puppies and dog psychology and all of that and then I started looking for some online resources to to help us in this transition. And that's how I found Baxter & Bella, and I think we're going to talk later about why I chose Baxter & Bella, but I've been going through puppy school and really just trying to familiarize myself with all of the things to do to set my puppy and our family up for success. I mentioned that I grew up with dogs, but I would not say that they were necessarily the best behaved dogs. They were wonderful family pets, and they were wonderful in our home. But we definitely could not take them anywhere. They were really reactive to things like the doorbell and other people and they got super excited and did not ever stop barking. And so I going into getting a dog. My number one goal has been like to set her up for success and to have a well behaved dog so that we can do all of the things that we want to do with her and not feel like We're just trapped at home.

Amy: 5:02

So why Baxter & Bella, since you mentioned that.

Molly: 5:05

Yeah, so one of the things I loved when I found Baxter & Bella, and I think I just found you guys on a Google search. But, um, I love that you can be super involved in your dog training, I love being hands on, I think that really aids in the relationship with the dog. At least that's what I'm hoping for, I think it's going to be a really great experience for me and my kids. And then I also just love like, after listening to your podcast for a while, I've been to kind of episodes and going through the first few modules in puppy school. I love your approach with dislike that positive reinforcement, setting your dog up for success, and really focusing on that relationship and what you want your dog to do, rather than just kind of seeing maybe the bad behaviors that dogs could naturally have.

Amy: 6:03

I think it's really important to recognize these puppies are not robots. I think sometimes people go into this experience, like I'm going to have the best trained dog and they do a little more like a programming procedure where I love building the relationship with a dog first. And I agree that you know, that's the best thing we can do to begin with, is build that relationship because then the training comes. But we start with that relationship. So good job for preparing and getting in early, we're so excited to have you and to be helping you in our program. We look forward to meeting your cute little puppy soon. So as you've been preparing, I'm curious how you're feeling at this point.

Molly: 6:41

Yeah, so we I'm feeling super excited. And I'm feeling pretty prepared. Like I definitely can see. You know, when issues come up, like biting, I have that in the back of my head. Oh, okay, I need to offer something else and distract them. Um, but I'm also feeling a little overwhelmed. I feel like there's so much to work on. And I'm a little nervous about like, missing things or knowing, like, what to work on, when and how to really make sure that we're getting everything in in like that critical early stage. So super excited, a little overwhelmed.

Amy: 7:22

Yeah, somebody yesterday, actually one of my clients is emailing me and said, I feel a little bit like a firehose is coming at me. I laughed a little bit, because that is true. I mean, there's just so much information. And so it is helpful to get in early so that you're not feeling completely overwhelmed. I think overwhelmed is just a normal process that everyone feels a little bit of. But let's help you through that. So I know you had a few questions on that we go through those questions next. How do I pick what to work on in any given training session? I would start by focusing on the relationship number one, learning your puppy's body language, and then building patience and impulse control, we want your puppy to learn waiting for things is good, it's hard because they don't know that they want to get something they want as fast as they can get it. So that's where we get some of that barking for attention or jumping on you are now the new to try to get that next reward faster. And the more you get to know your dog, the more you know how long they can work, how long they want to work, you can tell when they're done. And recognizing those cues that they're going to give you helps, you know, okay, we can do about 30 seconds of training. And then we need to have a little recess and play. And so those kinds of things I would encourage you to start first is get to know your dog start to recognize the body language and what they're trying to communicate to you. So anything you can do to just help them wait for something and then wait one second longer, and then wait two seconds longer is where I would start and focus, sit, we'll come down, we'll come stay, we'll come. But for now, let's focus on you know, attention, motivation, and just getting to know your puppy.

Molly: 9:05

Hopefully, it'll just kind of come up like when she does start nipping or, you know, different things will present themselves to work on. But yeah, I think it sounds like focusing on the patients and really engaging with her will help a lot to set the foundation for training.

Amy: 9:26

You're learning some of the games that we've taught you, you're learning some of the concepts and so that's gonna be more like a tool belt for you that as you mentioned, when these things surface, then you can pull from what you already know to say, Oh, that would be a good time for this game or, Hey, let's play this game, especially with your kids in the house. It's really nice to structure their interactions with the dog and so having them know a few games as well that they can just immediately say, Hey, we're going to play this game so that the puppy has structure and they have structure you'll find that it goes much better.

Molly: 9:58

Good. Yeah, they are really excited about it.

Amy: 10:00

Andthat one is so fun and it progresses pretty quickly to the rest of the house. I mean, you start small in one room. But it's fun to watch these puppies get all excited to, you know, say Where's Emma and Baxter likes to tear through the house to try to find her. So the both of them love it, the dog loves it, the kids love it. It's a win win for mom, too. So that'll be fun. Well, are there any other questions you have for me out of the gates?

Molly: 10:25

Yeah, so we one of the things that I have been trying to think about a lot is that we have a lot of friends and neighbors who are so excited to kind of meet the puppy. And I'm kind of wondering like, when we should introduce visitors like do we want to wait until she has a little bit better manners, and she'll be able to do you know, the calm as they approach? Or does it not matter so much, and they can just come meet her when she's super fun and bubbly and peppy?

Amy: 10:56

I think we can do a little of both. So, one, I would recommend letting her acclimate to your family first. So maybe that first day, she gets to know you guys a little bit. And then if you want to bring some friends or neighbors over in smaller groups, I would you know, that'll help to not overwhelm her as if you have a few verses, you know, five to 10, letter them one on one. And the best way to honestly do it is to just invite them into your house and ask them to just sit on your floor and keep their kind of hands to themselves, and let that puppy just come up to them on her own. So let her come up and explore and sniff and learn about them. And if she wants to climb in their lap, great. If she doesn't, I would just kind of let her wander so you can carry on a normal conversation with them and have a good time. But there's not a lot of movement, there's not a lot of chaos, it's just more of a nice, calm, sit on the floor setting and then the puppy gets to explore as she feels safe to do so.

Molly: 11:52

Great, that seems super doable.

Amy: 11:55

Most of your friends and neighbors will be happy to cooperate, you know, you just kind of explained, hey, we're gonna play a little game, and it's called sit on the floor. We turn everything into a game here.

Molly: 12:04

Perfect. Perfect. So um, I have gone through the crate training videos. And that's something totally new to me, our dogs never had crate. But I think it's fantastic. And I'm really excited about everything that that means for our life with our dog. So we are, I'm actually in my like little office downstairs. And that's probably where she's going to sleep like permanently long term. And we do have a bed in here. So I thought it might be best for me to do like all those first nights down here with her instead of like bringing her up into our bedroom and then having to eventually move her down here. But I'm kind of wondering like in the videos, you have, you recommend, okay, she starts on the bed, and then she's side of the bed, then she's by the door, then she's outside of the door? How do I do that? If she's gonna stay in this room permanently? Like, do I fully move myself out? Or, you know, what should that look like?

Amy: 13:06

Yeah, really great questions. And I love your concept of you know, you stay in the room where she is, that's totally fine. I think you're awesome for doing that me personally, I want my bed. So that's great to do it this way. And I would start with her in the crate, probably right up on that bed with you. If needed, she might be fine next to the next you on the floor, you can play around with that a little bit, but they just don't know how to be alone. They haven't been alone yet. And so that first night home can be kind of rough. And we want to help them feel safe. So at the beginning probably put that crate just as you would if you were in your own bedroom up on that bed with you. And then the next transition would be let's move that crate off the bed. So it's on the ground a few nights later, you could probably move that crate maybe just further from you from your bed. So that there you're increasing the distance over time from where she is to where you are, I would say after a few nights, she's most likely going her stress levels will come down and she'll start to sleep longer. The first night, sometimes they wake up pretty often just because they are somewhat stressed and anxious about where they are. So as the night's progress, they start to relax more and more and you'll start to see larger chunks of sleep. And once she's you know off the bed and she's maybe a little distance away from you, and then she's sleeping through the night you can leave the room and she'll be just fine still in that room. So I would go with the same concept of right next to you off the bed and then maybe further from the bed so that you have increased that distance away from you. And once you're seeing that she's sleeping six to eight hours. She'll be fine on her own. Okay, great. All right. Well, anything that you have learned in the prep that you were surprised by I'm just curious.

Molly: 14:44

I think the increased training was definitely the thing that has surprised me the most and not necessarily surprised but was just something that I didn't know much about. And definitely like that. It's so not only benefit For us to not have the puppy running around, but it's also like a really nice space for them to feel safe and in their own environments and like their own little den. Just that was surprising to me. It's great.

Amy: 15:15

Yes, you're going to use that a lot. And it's just like their little bedroom. We help them love it. They like we teach them to go in on their own. And they start to realize, oh, that's where all the good things happen. I get all my favorite tools in there, I get my meals in there. We play games from there. And it really is a space that they can just go and relax and learn to settle themselves. That's a huge theme for new puppies, is they need to know how to do that. And crates are a great way to help them do that. Well Molly, I am so excited for you and your family. I'll expect pictures tomorrow. If you don't mind notes to us, we love to see your new puppies come home. And if you have any questions tomorrow, feel free to reach out to us. You can send questions to ask the trainer via email. You can also schedule live help either a phone call or a video session. And we are just excited for you guys.

Molly: 16:08

Yeah, thank you so much. I'm much less nervous after having gone through puppy school and all of your free resources to have been so helpful. So I'm super grateful.

Amy: 16:18

We are just happy that you have found us and that we can work together and we look forward to doing this for the next little while with you. So thanks for being here today.

Molly: 16:27

Thank you.

Amy: 16:29

If you have a question about anything you heard on this podcast or any other Puppy Training question, visit my site Baxter & bella.com to contact me.