Socializing Your New Puppy to the World

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So you have a new puppy! And there is so much to do in so little time! What is most important? Surely housetraining and curbing that chewing, and also stopping puppy from jumping up. You definitely want to get started on all that now, because good habits instilled from the start are much easier than [...]

Selecting a Great Puppy Class

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You’ve got a new puppy. You want to do everything right so that you have a well-adjusted and well-behaved adult dog. Your puppy is extremely impressionable. In fact, your puppy is in that critical “socialization” period that will close by approximately 18 weeks of age, the maximum age for puppy classes. That’s only 4.5 months! [...]

OUCH! My puppy keeps biting me and it HURTS!

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Part 1 — WHY Your Puppy Is Biting You So you have an adorable new puppy, sweet, cuddly until….. “OUCH! HEY! My puppy just BIT me!!!!” You may be surprised to know that this is perfectly normal puppy behavior, driven by primitive instincts to get feedback on their mouths. They may jump at you, they [...]

House Training

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One of my most memorable consultations was for a dog that was lifting his leg to urinate in the house. I suggested to the owner that, before I came over, he shine a black light around the house to see where the urine had been deposited. Black lights can detect organic deposits that the naked [...]

Teaching Your Pup To LOVE Being Handled

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The majority of dogs are not born with a desire to be handled by humans. While a puppy might not mind you touching her feet, as an adult she is likely to develop an intolerance of it if she wasn’t taught as a pup that it’s not threatening. Handling a dog can become problematic if [...]