Newly becoming a puppy parent can be one of the most amazing things to happen to your life. However, just like parenting human babies, parenting puppies needs a lot of effort and work. The puppy also needs time to get used to its new environment, you need to get used to their habits and most importantly, you need to learn how to teach them to be around people and in general get fully integrated into your family.
Parenting puppies can take a lot out of you; there needs to be a lot of time invested in making them feel at home and in addition to that you need to make sure that you have abundance of patience to deal with their behavior.
Every puppy, depending on the breed, temperament, the home environment and the people around will behave in different ways so it is really about knowing what works for your puppy in particular. So, sometimes there might be some things that you are doing which might not be the best thing for your puppy. Let’s take a look at some common mistakes that you might be making/might make, so you can avoid them in the future!
- Delaying basic training – Puppies as young as eight weeks old are perfectly capable of learning basic commands and making sense of training. The more you delay the training thinking they might not understand it, the harder it becomes to train them at the later stages of their life. By 7-8 weeks they start having the ability to understand basic commands like sit, stand, come and drop. However, while teaching them make sure you are not repeating the commands several times, this might make them learn to follow the command after you have repeated yourself several times instead of doing it the first time around.
- No restrictions on feeding – It is very important to make it clear to your puppy that their eating habits need to be according to a schedule. This way they will not be agitated throughout the day thinking they might get food. In addition to this, it is way easier for you to gauge their excretory habits if you keep a schedule for their eating habits.
- Excess independence – Puppies are very curious creatures especially when they are introduced to a new environment. They are also not aware how most things and objects work so they are in danger of hurting themselves. Which is why as much as you should let them discover and be comfortable, you cannot leave them unattended for long and you cannot
- Not socializing them – The key to making sure your puppy grows up healthy, happy and well-adjusted to the surroundings and people in general is socializing. It is important to make them socialize with other dogs, puppies and people other than your immediate family and friends. This way, they get to take time and adjust to the world and reduce anti-social and/or aggressive behavior when they are posed with social situations
- Not establishing a routine – Dogs thrive on routine. It also helps you maintain a good lifestyle because you will focussed on making sure your dog’s needs are met on time. It reduces a great deal of stress and anxiety in puppies if they just know when they are going to eat, sleep, exercise or excrete. Not establishing a routine might also cause behavioral issues as they will be constantly ridden with uncertainty with respect to their own activities.
Parenting can be hard but you always have PawSpace to assist you with all your needs and give you constant support. It is only human to go wrong sometimes so it is entirely okay to not be the perfect parent to your puppy all the time, the key is to learn and grow!
