Episode #160 Ensuring A Safe & Happy Holiday for Your Puppy

Discover the secrets to a festive season that's joyful for both you and your four-legged companion! As we unwrap the do's and don'ts of holiday puppy care, you'll learn how to navigate the potential dangers that come with the season's celebrations. From keeping harmful foods out of paw's reach to managing the parade of holiday guests, this episode is your guide to creating a secure and happy environment for your pup. We're decking the halls with safety tips and sharing how to involve your furry friend in the merriment without a hitch, ensuring they're part of the family fun.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Puppy Training Podcast, episode 160, ensuring a safe and happy holiday for your puppy. 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. Hey friends, how are you today? I wanted to jump on really quickly and just do a short little podcast on helping you and your dog have a safe and happy holiday.

Speaker 1: 0:38

Holidays are here. They come so quickly every year, I feel like. But I love Christmas time. It's so fun. It brings tons of cheer, gatherings with friends, family, loved ones, all sorts of delightful treats. I cannot tell you how much sugar I've eaten in the last few weeks. It's really not good for me, but it is super fun.

Speaker 1: 0:57

So while it's a time of celebration for us, it can also pose some potential hazards for our dogs, especially playful puppies who are curious. So to help you guys have a safe and joyful holiday, let's consider a few of these guidelines. I'll just run through them quickly today and then you guys can get off and go enjoy your holiday, right, okay? So first let's be aware of hazardous foods. Oftentimes, when we get together, our holiday table has delicious dishes but not all are safe for our dog. So foods like chocolate, nuts, grapes, onions and alcohol are not good for them. They can be toxic. Remind guests to avoid feeding your dog and keep tempting treats out of reach. So clear off those counters. Put things away when you're done decorating the cookies. Wrappers are often falling on the floor, so make sure wrappers are getting picked up and thrown away. Just keeping the kitchen safe for our dogs is great. And then, if guests do want to interact with your puppy, make sure you give them some pet safe food, so the dog's food, or some plain Cheerios or little bits of carrot, something that your dog can have and enjoy.

Speaker 1: 2:01

Alright, number two there's a lot of guests that happen to come, so in and out of the house people are coming going. This can create a little bit of chaos for our dogs and maybe adds a little bit of stress to them and their day. So just recognize that and recognize that even though these people can be fun and exciting, they can also be overwhelming to our dogs. So I like to educate people who are coming to my house, just that my dog has some boundaries and we encourage gentle interactions, right, so let the dog come up to the person. If the dog's walking away and doesn't want to interact, let them walk away. That's okay. They might warm up to the people a little later, so letting the dog do on their own time is helpful. If the dog does want to go say hi, let's help that greeting be positive by luring them into a sit or doing little food scatters so the dog can collect the food, keeping all four paws on the ground while they're greeting new people. So we can set our dogs up for success in how we handle those greetings and interactions. Also, be sure to tell the guests about any house rules, such as we don't feed the dog from the table or when we don't leave doors open. Right, we close doors. We don't leave socks or shoes on the ground. Maybe we put those away, especially with new puppies who are curious, want to grab things and run because they're interesting, just those kinds of things. Just inform the guests of simple house rules, right, they can be very basic.

Speaker 1: 3:23

Number three taming the chaos. So, since we're talking about people coming and going, there's more than just that that creates the chaos, right, like holiday decorations, there's lights, ornaments All of this can be an enticing playground for curious puppies. So we want to secure decorations to prevent accidental ingestion or injuries. Consider puppy-proofing our houses by placing fragile items out of reach. Use pet-friendly decorations, shatterproof bulbs and things like that. Now, most of you have already decorated, so maybe this is for future reference, but you've probably found this Christmas ways to help your puppy have a safe interaction with the decorations. So I've even taken play pens and put them around the tree, or we're gating off the room with the tree in it. But typically, once the puppy spends time playing and training in the space with the tree, they're pretty good at leaving it alone. So again, you can set your dog up for success in how you manage that and teach them good behavior around the tree.

Speaker 1: 4:19

Number four teach your puppy some basic manners and behaviors that will help during the Christmas holiday. So, for example, on Christmas morning we're going to be unwrapping presents. I could do a couple of things to set my puppy up for success in that moment. Number one I want to have a crate handy so that, if needed, I can just set my puppy in the crate with a nice good chew that they love to entertain them while we're opening presents. The second option would be I could have them in a play pen close by so they can run around a little bit more and have some toys that they can play with. A food puzzle toy is an excellent toy to put in that pen with them that can move around and they get to interact with in order to get the food to fall out. Number three is I could have a little dog bed and I could teach my puppy to go lay on the mat and then I can drop intermittent pieces of food. So every so often, I'm dropping a little piece of food for them so that they stay on the mat, and I can do that while we're opening presents and I can teach my dog. This is what I want you to do while this is happening.

Speaker 1: 5:12

Okay, so there's three options for you. Again, you might use all three. Your puppy might be able to stay on the mat for a few minutes, and then they're going to get tired of that, bored of that, right, because they're puppies and they have short attention spans. Then you can simply put them in the pen, or you could put them in the crate and they can still be in that room celebrating with you. So we want to make sure that all of this stays positive and that we're rewarding our puppy for good behavior and then we're managing that, recognizing. Okay, this puppy's not going to stay on the mat for a super long period of time because of their short patience and attention span, right? So I want to you know, while they're doing great, end it and then put them in the pen with a super yummy food puzzle toy, or put them in their crate with a yummy chew so that they're happy in these spaces.

Speaker 1: 5:56

Talking about crates, let's make sure that we're using them for naps and downtime. So number five is please try to keep to some sort of schedule and routine with your puppies. They really will appreciate that. So, even though the holiday hustle's going on, puppies will need a break from the excitement. So make sure that we use that crate or the pen or a bedroom a spare bedroom possibly as a safe and comfortable space for your puppy to be in and chill out in. I like to turn on a fan or turn on some Christmas music, something that creates a little bit of white noise, so that they can fall asleep and have a really good nap session. Once they are well rested, you'll see a much happier puppy, okay, so they'll be less biting, less mouthing, less jumping, less frustration on your puppy's part. If they're getting those naps, they just need to recharge away from the chaos. So make sure that crate is cozy with familiar bedding and toys, creating a positive association with this resting area, all right.

Speaker 1: 6:53

Number six is positive reinforcement for good behavior. So, amidst all that's happening, still try to reward the good behavior that you notice your puppy doing without even being asked right. A lot of times our puppy will just come to us and sit, because we taught them that basic sit to say please. So if they want something, they find us, they sit, please. Try to notice that. Even though there's a little bit more going on in your life during the holidays, they come, they sit to say please. We reward that and then help them find a new activity, like let's play with a toy for a few minutes. Give them that two to three minutes of undivided attention and then they're more likely to go settle with it.

Speaker 1: 7:32

You so just making sure, I would say on the hour, that your puppy's getting five minutes of really good attention and play. You'll see again a less frustrated, more happy, appropriate in their play type of puppy. Does that make sense? So you're not going to see all of the crazy behavior. They're getting the attention they need. They're getting the outlet to move and to run and to play, but also to use their brains through training sessions. And again, it can just be short, five minutes on the hour. Let your puppy get some really good undivided play time with you and they'll be happier throughout the holiday.

Speaker 1: 8:05

So, all right, that's it for today. I know it's kind of short and sweet, but a few reminders as you go through the next week from Christmas to New Year's, and hopefully a few helpful tips to just make it a little better for you guys. We sure appreciate you here at Baxter and Bella and the awesome year that it's been in 2023. And we look forward to continue to helping you in 2024. Happy holidays. If you have a question about anything you heard on this podcast or any other puppy training question, visit my site, baxterandbellacom, to contact me.