You brought home a puppy… now what?

When you get a new puppy it can be super hard to know where to start (we have all been in the position of worrying whether you will be able to the dream dog in your head) and with the right steps you can accomplish great things with your new dog!

Step 1- Teaching a settle- A puppy that learns to settle is a dog that in the future goes with you to family gatherings to take a nap, rests while you need down time, sleeps through the whole night and is calm in the car. One big tool you can use for establishing a calm routine is a crate. Proper crate training can be very beneficial when you need your puppy to have a safe space to go where they wont get into anything and can help with potty training.

Step 2- Steady routine- A steady schedule with a new puppy is going to be a game changer for the puppy to adapt to their new home and learn where to potty. If every morning your puppy is waking up before you, peeing on the floor and then stealing your shoes imagine this alternative. You wake up in the morning, let your puppy out of its crate and go straight outside, they potty come back in and eat breakfast. Then you make your coffee while they play with a toy, right after breakfast play they go out to potty again. You sit down to work on a book, puppy takes a nap and as soon as they wake up back outside to potty. You repeat this for lunch and dinner. They say it takes one month to fully adapt to a routine, that means one month in to having your new puppy they now are potty and crate trained!

Step 3- Socializing- Everyone hears about socializing their new puppy and all the ways to do it, but which one to pick? Lets make it super simple. The best way to socialize your puppy is to bring them to all the places you know they are going to go and make yourself the most exciting thing they have ever seen. For example go to parks, the vet, outside your kids school and play with your puppy! Bring lots of treats, toys and just make a game out of hanging out with you. The point to this is that now every new environment your introduce your puppy to all they care about is you; cars, people, kids, dogs, nothing else matters.

With these three steps you can your the best puppy raising experience you can and soon enough your unstoppable dream dog team!