Bringing Your New Puppy Home
Children and puppies are wonderful combinations, but many children are bitten each year due to their behavior toward the puppy and lack of understanding of puppy training. This causes many dogs to be put into another home or taken to the pounds, when simple training on both parts will encourage many years of friendship. Also, an overly active child can cause physical and emotional damage to a small dog if the child is not properly trained to respect and handle the dog correctly. An important thing to remember is that almost all dogs will not bite unless they are provoked by a trigger: poking, prodding, being hit, or having the favorite food bowl played with during feeding time. These are things that need to be avoided to ensure a happy future.
Getting Puppies Off On The Right Foot
When the puppy makes its first entrance into the home with children, it should already have had their socialization period begun, since two weeks of age or when their ears and eyes opened. This process began with their siblings and owner, and especially their mother. If your puppy was never socialized and you have children, you are in trouble and should take this puppy back to the breeder immediately, as many problems will develop over time. However, eventually all puppies leave this safe haven, and go into a new home with many new avenues to explore. One of these avenues is meeting children they do not know, the perfect way to continue this socialization period and puppy training.
Fearful Behavior In Puppies
It is completely normal for a new puppy to act fearful in some situations, especially in a new home. But socialization and puppy training in the new home is the most important aspect of their lives, and eventually this fear will leave if you treat the puppy in an appropriate fashion. Call him or her to you and talk in a normal voice. Reassure it that things are okay without rewarding it for being fearful. Puppies and children are different in how they respond to fear: we cuddle children and reassure them, while puppies think cuddling when fearful encourages the behavior more. They think this fearful attitude is something that is expected from them by you, so they stay fearful in response to your rewarding behavior.
Children and Puppies
Children are perfect to socialize all puppies, if they have been taught correctly to treat the puppy gently and with respect. They need to be taught not to approach the puppy when it is eating or drinking, or to treat it unkindly. The puppy’s attitude toward the children in the home will extend to its attitude of children out of the home or coming into the home.
Teach the children to remain calm and peaceful around the new puppy by explaining that at the beginning any fast movements or yelling will frighten the puppy. This will make it fearful of the children, and it will run from them. This will later cause problems during puppy training as the dog will have already learned some behaviors that will make training more challenging.
Children, Puppies and Supervision
Another thing to remember is, if very young children are in the home, it is suggested not to leave the new puppy and them unsupervised together. This is asking for problems as neither the child or the puppy has been trained to tolerant of each other yet, which takes time and patience. Toddlers are a major issue with new puppies, as they are very curious about everything and anything! They want to touch and to explore; yet they lack the coordination to do it gracefully. They can hurt the puppy by falling on it, making it afraid, or physically damaging the puppy. Dog crates and baby gates are excellent for times when you cannot be in the room to supervise.
Bringing your puppy or puppies home for the first time is a matter of preparation, puppy training and child training. By having a positive and stress free first few days your new puppy will settle into the home very quickly, ready for more advanced puppy training routines in the future.
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