Puppy Preschool Week Two
We can't wait to hear the progress of your puppy over the last week. Hopefully, toilet training is going well and you and your puppy are enjoying happy playtime during the day and plenty of sleep at night.
This week we will talk about nutrition and then get to work on training some essential behaviours for polite pups to know.
Nutrition
Diet and nutrition are incredibly important for raising a healthy dog and in order to give them the best start in life, we recommend feeding a super-premium balanced puppy-formulated diet from a veterinary-recommended brand.
We don't recommend homemade diets because it is difficult to provide a balanced diet with the correct quantities of vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats and carbs. Similarly, our vets are not in favour of the current fashion of raw food feeding. Raw food, no matter what the claim on the packet, carries a significant bacterial risk. Not only is it a health risk for your pet but also holds a significant risk to yourself and small children.
Grain-free diets are popular with humans but there has only ever been one recorded family of dogs ever to be coeliac and they were a group of setters in the 1800s. Grains are proven to be an excellent source of important nutrients and some recent research points towards a link between grain and an otherwise rare kind of heart disease. Grains provide energy for growing pups, vitamin E, Linoleic Acid and are a source of vegetable protein. Additionally, Grains are a good source of fibre and help to create a healthy gut microbiome for your puppy.
We recommend Hills Healthy Development and Hills Vet Essentials Puppy as an excellent balanced diet for growing pups of small to medium breeds up to their first birthday.
Large and giant breeds (adult weight >25kg) need a specific Large Breed Puppy food until they are 15 months old as too rapid growth in these breeds can lead to joint problems.
Food can be kept exciting and does not need to be fed from a bowl
Stimulate your puppy’s curiosity by filling
An empty toilet roll and push in the ends
A kong toy
An empty plastic bottle without a lid
A ball with holes in it
Empty egg cartons
A cardboard box, with extra scrunched-up pieces of paper in it
Or you can scatter biscuits in the backyard or over the floor inside depending on your mess tolerance. This is especially good for puppies and dogs that ‘hoover’ their food. Your recycling is your friend! Get creative!
Harmful Foods
Alcohol
Avocado
Caffeine
Candy
Chives
CHOCOLATE (esp dark chocolate)
Coffee
Corn cobs
Fat trimmings
Fruit pips and seeds
Garlic
GRAPES
Ice cream
Milk – dairy
Mouldy food
Mushrooms
Nuts - macadamias
Onion
Raisins and sultanas
Tomato - leaves and stems
Vitamins for humans (esp iron)
XYLITOL
Training treats work a treat!
Think of treats like currency, a five-year-old child would be far more inclined to do something for $10 than they would for 5 cents.
Give a small piece (about the size of a quarter fingernail) and only release once they are doing the desired behaviour. Mix it up and use various treats of different value, this will keep the training exciting as they won’t know what is coming next, whether it be a boring piece of kibble or an exciting piece of chicken.
Kibble
Dried meat or liver treats
Cooked chicken – you can boil a bunch of chicken at once, chop it into chunks and freeze small portions that can be taken out to be used over a day or two.
Some dogs are not food oriented and may take a little longer to discover what truly motivates them. A little more experimenting with tiny amounts of cheese, peanut butter or the more ‘junk food’ types of treats like schmackos may be required.
Training Principles
Patience and repetition are keys to success.
Puppies have short attention spans and so short training sessions produce the best results. 5 - 10 minutes a day after a play session or walk is the best time to train your puppy.
Dogs communicate through visual cues, unlike humans who communicate through talking. It is good to combine hand signals as well as verbal cues when training.
Often when teaching commands, people will say the command again and again before the behaviour has been learnt. This does not send a clear message to your puppy and may be confusing. Be sure to only say the command and release the treat when your puppy is doing the desired behaviour.
Sit
Sit is one of the best ways to teach your puppy manners.
Asking them to sit for things such as going on/off the lead, before you open a door or while waiting for their food are great exercises.
Tips:
Hold a treat above their nose – not too high that they jump.
Take the treat SLOWLY over the puppy’s head while they sniff the treat, their nose will go up and bottom should go down like a see-saw.
Only release the treat once their bottom touches the ground
Say your command ONCE and also only when the bottom is on the ground.
Allow them to sit, release the treat and say the command once to send a clear and direct message.
Look
Look will help when you start to teach stay. It encourages your puppy to focus.
· Ask the puppy to sit, quietly praise.
· Show the puppy that you have a treat and raise it between your eyes. When the puppy makes eye contact, say ‘look’ and release the treat straight away.
· Progress this one by holding the treat behind your back while asking them to look at you.
· Gradually phase out treats.
Look is very helpful when puppies get distracted during training (or at puppy pre-school while other puppies are playing in front of them!).
Down or Drop
Lying down is useful when encouraging your puppy to settle.
It is also a precursor to roll over and bang (play dead).
Tips:
Get your puppy into a sit position and give a little treat.
Bring a treat in front of their nose so they sniff it and have interest. They may lick the treat but do not release it.
Bring the treat down in front of them to the floor, between their front paws. Sometimes we need to slowly bring the treat forward or back to encourage pup to go down.
Only release the treat once their little tummy is on the floor.
Sometimes a mat helps for cold surfaces
Only say your cue once they are in position.
If their bottom pops up, make them sit and start again!
Mat Training
“On your mat” is a great way to teach your puppy to have alone time and is useful for encouraging them to settle.
The mat should be treated as a puppy ‘zen’ zone and they should not be disturbed or woken up when they take themselves there.
It’s great for when there is a lot of excitement in the house – such as a children’s birthday party for example, and allows them a safe place to go when they need some space.
The mat is also a great spot for them when you are cooking in the kitchen. Puppies and dogs love to hang around your feet while cooking which is a potential hazard when knives are out!
Tips
Pop a treat on the mat so the puppy knows they are rewarded when they go there.
Teach your puppy to lay down or drop on the mat and quietly praise them when they do so.
Treat them from afar when they are on the mat (basically throw treats at them).
Add a cue and point to the mat.
Phase out treats over time.