Episode #24 The First Few Days

Are you about to bring home a brand new puppy? So exciting! In this podcast Amy talks about what to spend those first few days doing with your new dog. From bonding to potty training, crate training to manners, learn how to get off to the best start possible.

Transcript

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This is the puppy training podcast episode number 24. The first few days home. This podcast is for those looking to train their own dog, whether as a family, companion, service or therapy dog. And I'm here to help you every step of the way. This is the puppy training podcast nine. Your host, Amy Jensen. Hi, everyone. It's beautiful fall weather here in northern Utah. I'm loving the temperatures I'm loving. The color is starting to change. It's been a really good week here. Thanks for listening today. I am flattered by the number of listeners that we have on this podcast, and I thank you all for tuning in today. We're gonna talk about the first few days home with your brand new puppy. I've gotten a few questions this past week on How do I spend that first day or two when I get my new puppy? What should I do? What should I not do? And so I thought it would be fun today on the podcast. Talk about this. But first I want to give you an update on boots. So if you're new to the podcast, boots is our service dog in training he hit 20 weeks this week, and he's now fully vaccinated, which is really exciting news. That means he can walk around in public on his own four paws, no more carrying him. And that's a good thing because he's a whopping £20 now. So that's a been a good thing for me this week. A very momentous occasion, Let's say, and he loves to go places this little puppy. When we head out to the garage to get in the car, he'll run around to his side of the car and wait patiently until I opened the door. And just this past week, he's learned load up. So he jumps in the car all by himself and sits on his seat. So he's learning lots of great things. Another one that he loves is the lap. Q. I've taught him lap, and that means he's puts his paws in your lap and leans on you. It feels really nice, and it's one of those command that he's going to be using for an autistic child who may feel nervous, maybe at the dentist or when she's getting haircut or other things or other places like that. So that's a great Q, and he absolutely adores that one. He loves it when he's asked to do that. I think he's kind of thinking, really. I get to jump in your lap or put my paws upon your lap That's amazing. And he really likes that one. No, all dogs love hugs, but I will say that Boots gives them. He is a puppy that will give you a hug. So if you sit on the ground and you put your arms out for him, he'll come barreling into you and he buries his little head into your stomach and just snuggles right into you. That's kind of his version of a hug, and he loves it. Let's see what else about him he's working on Lay on. So some of you who are in the service dog world or you have puppies that your training to do service work of lay on As a commander, we asked the puppy to lay a crossed a person's body. It's for deep tissue pressure therapy, and we're hoping that Boots grows Seymour and weighs a little bit more to get some of that deep tissue pressure effectiveness. But he loves the lay on command. So far, he's doing really well with it. So yeah, a lot of things that he loves. This week we talked about the lap Q. And lay on load up all of those l commands. It sounds like he just simply loves them. So he's been enjoyed a train. We've really enjoyed having him here. If you'd like to follow more of his journey, follow us on YouTube. You can find that link by going to our website at www dot Baxter and Bella dot com. Then you can learn more, and we'd love to have you follow his training journey. Okay, so what do you do with your puppy on the first couple days home? Maybe some of you have already experienced this, so this might not apply to you. But I know there's lots of you out there who are about to get a puppy. They're almost ready to come home. Or maybe you're a few months out, but you're super excited about it. So the first couple things that I like to do is focus on just the basics. So nothing fluff, nothing fancy. Just let's set a routine. Let's get him on a schedule and most importantly, I worked to build trust. So this puppy is coming from his litter of how you know, however many puppies were with him and his mother and his breeder. And now he's coming all by himself to a new home with new people and new surroundings. No litter mates. Most likely, sometimes there is one, but most likely it's just he's on his own a little bit, and so it's important to build trust in him. He's gonna need to know that you are someone that he can trust for all of his needs. You're going to feed him, you're going to care for him. You're going to give him a nice place to sleep. You're going to take him out to go to the bathroom. So all of these things are gonna be brand new, and it's really, really, really important. I feel like to just kind of spend those first few days building trust. Just get to know him, build a bond with him, build a really good relationship with this puppy until, you know, teach him that he can trust you and that you're somebody that he can rely on. So the other thing that we can work on is to build confidence in our puppy. We want to reward the good and start to shape his behavior. What do I mean by that? So I like to in the first couple days, not tell my puppy really anything. I don't really like to use voice cues. I like to see what he'll do and then what I can reward him for. So what can I capture? What kind of behavior can I get him to do or watch him do? Or he does does on his own. And then I reward it, and you'll notice that the more you reward the behavior that you like, that he just does naturally, the more he'll continue to do it. So here's an example. Let's say that I am in my kitchen preparing dinner and he comes over to the kitchen floor and lays down. I love that. That's a great behavior. In fact, when you have a little puppy, that's a great behavior to start shaping and rewarding so that later on your puppy doesn't want to counter surf. So teaching him to lie down in the kitchen and that food rewards come that way Is it really beneficial when he turns into a teenager? So some of those initial things you can start doing right away and prevent a lot of problems down the road? So again, that's simply just shaping the good behavior that I notice. So if I'm sitting on the couch reading a book and he comes and sits at my feet, I like that. Here's a reward. So m anything that he does well and that I like. I try to capture and reward that again, builds confidence and also build that trust that we're talking about now. A few things about the rewards and the food I know some people stress when they're new. Puppy comes home that the puppy is not eating. They say I have the same food that my breeder sent home, but my puppy's not eating it. Should I switch foods? Should I hand feed him? What do I do? So I want you to not panic if your puppy is, does not have a normal appetite on the first couple days, realize that he's in a transition fase. Typically, that transition phase will last from 1 to 2 weeks. He's not going to not eat for that long, but it might be a couple days before he figures out. You know, his stress levels go down enough that he feels comfortable eating. So don't panic. He's not going to starve himself, but he might be a little finicky those first few days. It's okay. He'll come out of it. Just give him a nice, safe place to be and be positive around him. Build that bond and he'll relax and you'll start to see his little personality come out so you might not see the puppy you're actually getting on the first few weeks I have had that before as well, People saying, Man, that first week he was so calm and so well behaved. And then it's like once he got comfortable in his surroundings, a different puppy emerged. So there is some of that a little bit, but mainly I just don't want you to panic of your puppies, not eating normally. That's okay. He'll figure that out. So another good thing to Dio in the first couple of days is to introduce the crate. So this is important to talk to your breeder and say, Has my puppy ever seen a crate. Does he know what a creep is? Has he ever been in a crate? Does he sleep in a great these air? Really good questions to ask your breeder because there are certain readers out there who are phenomenal and they put your puppy in a crate and they do all of that initial training for you so that when your puppy comes home, he's already used to being alone in a crate at night for several hours. You know, before he gets his potty break. That eliminates a lot of puppy crying on your part. So if you have a breeder that spent that time for you, please send them a thank you note today and tell them how much you appreciate the time that they've invested into your puppy. It really is helpful. But for those of you who don't have that, and that's okay, I understand We want to help your puppy learn that a crate is a good thing. So on those first few days, I'm putting the Cree out in an open area. I'm leaving the door open. I'm lowering my puppy in with a food reward. He goes in, he gets the food reward. He gets to come right back out, and we just do that multiple times. Several times throughout the day he's going in. He's coming right back out. Another helpful thing would be to set up a exercise pen, put the crate inside the pen with a bowl of water and some play toys and leave that create door open so he can go in and out on his own during playtime. That's a great way also to introduce the create. Another thing you can do is to get a Kong line it with peanut butter and put some of his kibble in there. You can even get his kibble wet and mushy and then stuff it inside and freeze it and then top it off with a layer of peanut butter and then put that inside to create with him So he only gets that Kong when he's in the crate. Maybe you shut the door for a minute while he's looking that peanut butter off. Then you open the door and you take the conk out. So again, we're just trying to create a really positive association between the crate, which possibly he's never seen before by giving him something really yummy inside of it. Another option would be to feed him his meals in his Great so you could give him his breakfast and his dinner inside the crate. You can either just Sprinkle on the floor and let him eat it off the floor. You can put the food bowl in there, whatever you prefer, but that's a good way to create that positive association between the crate, because we are going to use the crate a lot for house training purposes and also to teach our puppy to settle himself to entertain himself with appropriate to toys. We do it to protect our home so that he's not creating bad habits by chewing on furniture or rugs or having accidents around our home. So the crate for me is a very valuable tool, and I use it a lot. So those first few days I'm just trying my best to make a really positive place for my puppy, all right, the other thing that I introduced on the first couple days or the caller Emma leash. So the first time you put a collar on a puppy, they might sit in scratch at it or play with a little tag that jingles or the little metal clip that hangs down. It depends on what kind of color you have, but just put it on your puppy and then the best thing to do, I have found, is just getting engaged in play. So put the collar on and then pull out a tug toy or a little ball that he can chase maybe a squeaky toy and get him often playing. Maybe place I'm chasing your house or some hide and seek. Let him follow you around. But engage him in a in play in some way and he'll forget about the color. And then pretty soon he doesn't even realize its own. The leash. I do some similar training with I pick a nice safe spot in my home where there's no stairs or things that he can get hurt on. But I attached the leash a little, four foot, very thin, lightweight leash to him, and I just let him drag it around. So I clipped the leash on and we just start playing and it's just kind of there, but he's not necessarily focused on it. He's focused on the squeaky toy or the ball or something else, and he's just dragging that leash around. That really helps for when you attacked solution, go for a walk, that he's not really into the leash and biting and chewing on it. He's kind of just used to it being there, but he's not necessarily focused on it. So that's a good thing to D'oh again. We're not trying to overwhelm our puppy, but we are trying to start to shape him into what we want him to be like. And we want the rules to be pretty consistent from the beginning. Okay, I say pretty consistent. I mean, really consistent from the beginning. So jumping is a big one. A lot of people struggle with jumping and their dogs, so sit to say, pleases big on my list. In fact, the day that my puppy comes home, he learns right away that anything he wants, he's gonna have to sit to get it. So to do this, it's pretty simple, really. Let's say he wants your attention. He comes walking over to you. I just take my hand and put it right above his nose. He smelling my fingers. If you put it up high enough. He'll sit down. You can give him a reward if you have one and he'll take it or you can toss a toy for him. After he sits, you can use a squeaky toy to lure him into a sit whatever you want to use as your motivation. But I get him to sit, and then I give them the attention that he's seeking. If he is wanting his food, I asked him to sit before I put the food bull down. Now I don't necessarily use the words it again. The first few days home. I'm not teaching him vocabulary. That's not my focus. My focus is literally shaping the behavior or capturing the behavior that I like or teaching him to do the behavior, but not necessarily what word is associated with it. That comes later. I don't want to overwhelm my puppy, but I do want to start to get those behaviors out of him. So again, the sit to say, Please, any time I can get him into that sit position, I do it and then I give him a good reward for it, so it may be a belly rub. It may be tossing the toy, maybe giving him a CE food it, maybe petting him, whatever it is he's seeking or wanting, I teach him very early on that the CIT means please, another big one that you're going to have to focus on Day one into his potty training. That's gonna take up a lot of your time. In fact, most of your day is probably potty training, playing some great time feeding them their mills. And then we're repeating all of that. So lots of body time, lots of playtime, back and forth, party time, playtime. Some create time in there that's always good. And then some dinner time, obviously a little bit of training, a lot of party and a lot of play, especially with these brand new puppies. So if you haven't had a puppy in a while, it's good to remember that while they're up in playing, they could possibly need to go the bathroom every 20 to 30 minutes. I like to just set one of those old fashioned kitchen timers on my counter. I said it for 20 minutes. When it goes off, I remember Oh, yeah, I need to take the puppy out Let's go see if he needs to go potty. Um, it's a quick way to remind yourself to do it. Number one. But then also, you don't get distracted. I know I get distracted very easily. I have Children in my home. I'm helping them with things or I'm making Mills or I'm helping with homework word, various activities, air going on in my home. And if I don't set that timer, I oftentimes forget. So that's a quick little tip for you to help you remember to take your puppy potty when he needs to go. You know, we talked about a little bit. Establishing the rules. Remember to swap hard for hearts. Your puppy is going to be mouthing and chewing constantly. Their little mouths are always going. They're growing teeth. They are trying to strengthen their jaws. It's natural dog behavior to two, so I provide them with several different types of two toys. Hard ones, soft ones, squeaky ones, different textures. You know, I find things around my home they're able to just two on and play with. It makes sounds and noises empty bottles. I take the caps and the lids, the littering Zoff and any of the paper off, but then they're able to crumple up those water bottles. I find empty jugs, those air fun to kick around cardboard boxes. I even let them investigate some boxes. I once they start doing, um, and ripping them into stretch of pieces, I take them away before it gets. You know that first little bite off. I take it away, but they do like toe investigate new things and new textures. So finding things you have around your home to keep them busy is good. You could also start to establish what they like. What are they interested in? What motivates them, what scares them? Are there any things that come out that they act a little fearful of? And I don't necessarily do anything about it on day one or two or three. I'm just taking notes. I'm really just getting to know my puppy. I want to bond with him. I want to spend time with him. Does he like belly rubs? Does he like me touching his ears? Is he OK with me touching his tell? And I'm just taking notes so that in the coming weeks I know what I need to work on. If my puppy does not like to lay on his back, if he won't roll over on his own or he doesn't like a belly rub or he's, maybe you won't even go into a down for you. Maybe your puppy only sits. These are all things that I like to take note of so that I can know what to focus on when the training really starts. But again, these first couple days are really just get to know him. Find out what motivates him. That motivation is key for training, so we can't really start training until we figure out what motivates him. And that might take us several days, just like I mentioned earlier with his food. He might take several days to really start eating things. So as you start to figure out that hierarchy of rewards that he likes, I have people make a list of his most favorite treats down to his least favorite, and we use everything in between. But it might take a few days for him to want to even try some of these things, so give him time. Don't stress about it, but do start to take notes either mental notes or write them down on a note pad somewhere that you can refer to them so that in the coming weeks, as training does start that you'll know where what to do and what to focus on. That really does help. And again his personality will start to shine through. And within that first week or two, you'll really start to get an idea of who your puppy is and what he likes to do. And just his little funny quirks about him, things that you'll enjoy about him. So you build that bond. It goes such a long way in training toe. Have a bond with your puppy. So spend the time with him. Maybe take a few days off of work. If it's possible for you, take some time off to really just be there. Build that trust, build that confidence that you know you are someone that he can rely on. That helps immensely with the crate training as well. If your puppies never been in a crate, if you think about it, he's now separated from all of his little puppy litter mates, and he's in this crate by himself, where he's probably never been in a small space by himself. So it does take some time to build that trust that you're coming back to open the door, and that's why we always start with. He goes in, he comes right back out. He goes in, he comes right back out. Maybe he goes in for a minute and choose a Kong, and then he comes right back out. So we want to make that a positive association, but also build that trust in him that you will come back and open the door and he gets to come out. He's not going to be in there for endless amounts of time and then realized looking ahead. You guys, that puppy's learn super quickly, and they mature much faster than humans. So I know that it feels like a brand new baby when you first bring that puppy home. It's a lot of work. Sometimes you don't get very much sleep, so is very similar in those ways. But I want you to realize that about 5 to 9 months and it depends on your puppy and your breed of puppy, but they'll be a teenager. So even though that puppy comes home and you feel like it's a brand new baby. It's actually more like a toddler at that point a child. And so it does need to know rules of your home, and you can start to help them learn the behaviors that are acceptable and are not acceptable. That goes back to that. Sit to say Please thing you know, I wouldn't let my new puppy jump all over me. I like to pretend that my new puppies and £80 dog and if I don't want my £80 dog to do it, I don't want my brand new puppy to do it, so I help him learn those rules. From Day one. It's much easier than trying to undo a habit that's been created leader. So, yeah, start to shape him into what you expect from him by sitting to say, Please, no jumping is not allowed things like that. But you've really got to come up with those rules before your puppy comes home, so that when they do come home, you kind of know what you're looking for. And then when he gives it to you or he offers it to you can reward it, and once you capture and reward it, I guarantee it's getting it repeated. All right, so that's kind of the first few days in a nutshell. But you guys enjoy it. Take that time to really just enjoy the puppy. The puppy is going to be fun. He's going to be cute. He grows up so quickly and you're going to be in the coming days to hired, and it's going to be a lot of work. I'm not going to sugarcoat that for you. So take those first few days to really, just if you can relax and enjoy the puppy, get to know him takes a mental notes of maybe things that are specific to your puppy that you notice and then you'll be well on your way as training starts in a couple weeks, you can start training that first week, but really don't stress about it. I don't want you stressed about. My puppy has to learn. Sit down comes day by day seven. You don't have to do that. Your puppy will be fine. And just take that first week to really get to know one another. If you guys want help with this in my program, I have an online puppy training school. It's called Baxter Bella's Puppy Prep. I have less than 1.1 that I have basically outlined your first week. So that very first lesson we spent an entire week on less than one. Most of the other lessons, or just a day here, a day there. But this lesson, 1.1 we've designed to really help you get through that first week. These are the things that we focus on. These are the things that you can kind of let go until later on. We're very thorough in that. So if you feel like you need some more ideas or more help, feel free to check that out. All of you who are in my program, you can go back and check that out. What less than 1.1 has several videos in it and several little sections that you can read through to help you on that first become. I know it's a little bit chaotic. There's a lot of excitement and energy around your puppy coming home, so live it up. Enjoy him. Have fun with him. Build that bond and the training will start soon. Don't you worry. All right. You guys have a wonderful week. Happy training, and I'll talk to you next week. If you have a question about anything you've heard on this podcast or any other puppy training questions, visit my sight Baxter and Bella dot com to contact me.