I have gotten a couple calls lately from people who got a new puppy from a breeder or adult dog from a shelter and want to start class immediately. I suggest that you do not start your dog in a training class right away. Your dog needs time to decompress and adjust to his or her new environment. This can take a couple days, weeks or even a couple months depending on the dog and their life experience. With puppies you don’t want to wait too long, or you will miss an important socialization window in their development.
Most of the time when people adopt or purchase a new dog, they bring the dog home and immediately begin installing lots of rules. You need to understand that any new dog you bring home will be extremely stressed. If it’s an adult rescued from a shelter, they will have come from a loud and busy shelter environment which is extremely stressful for dogs. If it’s a puppy, your puppy has been ripped away from its family and breeder, everything and everyone it has ever known in its short life, and it is potentially traumatized.
I highly suggest that you provide some management structure but no strict rules. Don’t constantly ask the dog to do skills that it probably doesn’t know how to do because it doesn’t speak English.
This is not an all-inclusive list, but it’s a good start:
- Limit your dog’s space. Too much space for a new dog can be overwhelming and they can get into trouble. For puppies, give them a pen with a crate in it, a comfy bed or a folded towel or blanket that you can wash if it gets soiled, some toys, a potty area (if desired) and water.
Dogs sleep a lot. Puppies can sleep from 15 to 20 hours a day! Adult dogs are more in the 9-to-13+-hour range for sleep. When they do not get enough rest, they can act like cranky toddlers, having temper tantrums and generally getting into trouble. They should get scheduled time in a confined area with an interactive food or chew toy, whether that be a crate or pen, for a nap.
Puppies want to be with their people. If your puppy wanders off and out of sight, I can pretty much guarantee he is going potty in the house or is chewing something you don’t want him to chew.
Please let your new puppy sleep in your bedroom, in a crate, right next to your bed, at least the first couple nights. Imagine what your puppy is going through that first night. She has been taken from the only family she has known. She is used to sleeping in a pile with other puppies for warmth. If you put her in a crate in a different room think about how sad and abandoned she will feel.
I stacked a puppy crate on top of my adult dog crate right next to my bed. When she began whimpering the first night, I could put my fingers through the crate to comfort her. Also having a Snuggle Puppy (search this toy online and be sure to use the heartbeat contraption and heating pack) really helped her the first week.
You can transition the crate out of your room after the first week or two, although I never did. With this set up she slept all night after the first night.
- Reinforce all good behavior all the time. Find things that you can pay your dog for. Don’t be stingy! What I mean by that is not that you need to give large amounts of treats, but rather that you accept any and all even slightly good behavior as reinforceable. Reinforcement can be your dog’s food, treats, play, praise, or anything else your dog finds rewarding. Paying your dog for good behavior “crowds out” many of the behaviors you don’t like. And science tells us that behaviors that are reinforced will be repeated.
I suggest measuring out your dog’s food for the day, taking half of that and putting it in a zip lock bag the night before. Put a pinch of garlic powder and/or a couple slices of stinky salami (or some other stinky additive) and a very wet paper towel, close the bag up and put it in the refrigerator overnight. The moisture from the paper towel will soften many (not all) foods, and the smell from the garlic and salami will permeate the food. You do not have to give the salami to your dog. I refer to this as TURNING KIBBLE INTO TREATS.
For people who feed raw, like myself, you can put your dog’s raw feed in a food tube, feed off a spoon, or use freeze-dried raw dog food for reinforcements. I use a lot of Bixby Rawbble Freeze-Dried Raw Dog Food for training, which comes in very small pieces.
- Dogs should learn that hands give before they take. Do not take anything from your new dog without doing a treat trade. Trade for all sorts of things — things she’s allowed to have and also things she’s not allowed to have. We want her to learn that good things happen when hands come towards her when she has an item of value.
This is particularly important for Golden Retriever puppies or Golden mixes. I see more resource guarding in Golden Retrievers and Golden mixes than I do with any other breed(s). Do the treat trade work when your dog is a puppy to (hopefully) inoculate your pup against resource guarding in the future.
Treat trade a lot with things that they’re allowed to have such as dog toys. After they’ve released the toy give it back to them and let them play with it.
If your new dog picks up a personal item, do a treat trade even though it will reinforce picking up your personal item. Dogs don’t know which stuff is theirs and which is yours in a new environment, so it’s reasonable for them to make mistakes and pick up personal items.
If you only treat trade when they steal something you don’t want them to have, you are teaching them it pays off to steal things that smell like a family member, and that can quickly become an attention seeking behavior. That is why it is important that you treat trade 90% of the time with things that they are allowed to have, and then give the item back to the dog.
Think of treat trading as building a savings account full of trust. You want to maintain a high balance of trust in the bank account. If you take something without doing a treat trade, you are making a deduction from that bank account. Then you must work on treat trading with allowed items so that you can build your balance higher again.
Eventually you may not have to treat trade to get items back if you build that trust at the beginning of your relationship.
- This next tip can really make raising a puppy much easier. Each time your puppy or adult dog picks up a dog toy, praise him and spend one full minute paying attention to and playing with him.
We expect dogs to just play with toys on their own and entertain themselves. There are very few dogs who happily play with toys by themselves on a regular basis. The thing that makes them happiest is when you play with them and their toys. Playing with your dog is a relationship building game. Dogs quickly learn when they’re bored that if they pick up something that smells like one of their people, they get instant attention.
I did this with my puppy and she only ever stole one personal item – she didn’t feel the need to steal because I played with her when she picked up her own toys.
- Do not constantly pick up your new dog. Especially do not pick him up if he is not looking. You wouldn’t like it if someone picked you up when you were sleeping and dogs don’t either. Dogs in general do not like when we lean or loom over them, or reach for their head, neck, or collar. Don’t allow your children to manhandle the dog. Learn how dogs communicate – it’s important!!!
- Keep a spare leash by your front door. If your new dog is free in the house and you go to answer the door, do not open the door unless your dog is on lead. The same goes for putting her in your car or closing her in a crate in a car or new location. New dogs, especially adult dogs from a shelter, may be stressed enough to try and escape given the opportunity. Save your dog’s life by putting her on lead before the door is opened.
My own rescued German Shorthaired Pointer, Nova, took the opportunity to escape on our first walk in a forest preserve. I was putting her back in her crate in the car and had removed her leash. I was about to close the crate door when she took off. It was a very stressful first walk, but after 15 minutes I did get her back. Be careful with all dogs, but especially new dogs.
- Don’t cue your new dog to do a behavior and expect him to do it!!! First of all, he doesn’t speak English or any other language. Second, science tells us that adding cues (formerly referred to as commands) before a dog understands physically how to do the behavior being taught, actually slows learning. First teach your dog how to do the behavior, then add the cue later. Third, it can take dozens if not hundreds of repetitions in many different environments for a dog to truly understand a cue. Fourth, your new dog will likely be too stressed to respond to even a known cue.
The moral of the story is to give your new dog time to decompress (but not too long if you just got a puppy!) and take all the time necessary to build a loving and respectful relationship. It won’t happen overnight, but will happen if you are patient, gentle, kind and respectful – no punishment-based training!
