Ask the Expert with Dog Trainer & Behaviourist, Georgina Snow

Welcoming a new puppy into your home is an exciting time. The playful energy, boundless curiosity and unconditional love of a pup brings nothing but happiness to any household (and maybe a little bit of chaos!) However, it’s important to remember that taking on this new bundle of fluff comes with a responsibility to ensure that your furry friend gets the best start in life.

We sat down with Expert Dog Behaviourist & Trainer, Georgina Snow to help you navigate this crucial period and provide you with essential tips around socialisation, puppy pre-school, training and early years care for your pooch.

When you first bring your puppy home it can be hard to know where to start and you can feel a lot of pressure to begin training right away, but actually the most important first step is letting your puppy settle into their new environment and build a relationship with you.

After a few days, you can then start introducing some training. I like to begin with recall, lead skills, crate and toilet training. 5 minutes, a couple of times a day is enough to keep it fun. Nothing is going to be perfect straight away and that is normal (don’t let social media fool you into thinking otherwise!) Remember that they are still a baby and you are both learning how to train together. Outside of training make sure you are giving your puppy mental stimulation, enrichment and play, as these are just as important for giving your puppy outlets for their natural behaviours and further build their bond with you. 

You also want to be socialising your puppy by exposing them to new environments, sounds, objects, cars, people and animals in a safe, positive and controlled way (socialising isn’t just interacting with dogs and people). The socialisation period for puppies is from 3 to 12 weeks, so it actually starts with your breeder and then continues when you bring them home at 8/9 weeks. Puppy preschool can be a great way to help with this, as it offers a safe, positive and monitored environment for your pup to socialise in from 12 weeks of age. Day care also helps puppies to experience differing play styles, build confidence around interacting with other dogs and make best furiends!

Unfortunately the dog training and behaviour industry isn’t currently regulated, which means you do not need qualifications to become a trainer or behaviourist. There are however some great governing bodies that qualified professionals can register to. I’d recommend searching these bodies for accredited trainers and behaviorists:

• The National Institute for Canine Ethics
• The Animal Behaviour and Training Council
• Association of Pet Dog Trainers UK
• The Institute of Modern Dog Trainers
• UK Dog Behaviour & Training Charter

If you work with a dog trainer/behaviourist or attend a puppy class and it doesn’t feel right or you don’t like the way you are being told to interact with your puppy, don’t feel like you need to continue. Find a trainer that aligns with how you want to interact with your puppy. 

All dogs have natural instincts and these needs need to be met. Puppies will chew and mouth and get into things they shouldn’t if left unsupervised and not given an opportunity to meet these needs in an appropriate way.

The first step is to puppy proof your home. If you think your puppy will chew or eat something, chances are they probably will! So make sure you’re putting items like shoes, TV remotes, glasses etc away. If they are always getting a hold of items they shouldn’t, they will rehearse this behaviour. The novelty of these items will wear off eventually and you can bring them back out again. Baby gates, pens and crates can help to corner off safe rooms or areas that they can be when you can’t supervise them.

Puppy-centric enrichment games and activities, like those provided at Bruce’s Doggy Day Care can help to give your puppy outlets for things like chewing, sniffing, foraging, digging etc, and the more appropriate outlets they experience, the less they will seek out for themselves in your home!

Mouthing and play biting is again a normal part of puppyhood… but it still hurts! So here are some tips to help reduce some of the nipping:

• Make sure your puppy is getting between 18-20 hours of sleep a day – when they are overtired they will mouth more. 
• If your puppy is mouthing your hands, put them under your armpits and try to remain cool as a cucumber. This stops you moving them around and raising your voice which can exacerbate the behaviour by causing more excitement or frustration. If they start biting elsewhere, remove yourself from the room for 3 seconds before re-entering again. 
• Don’t use a toy to redirect the mouthing from you as this only creates a behaviour loop of ‘if I nip mum/dad they will play with me!’

Toilet training can be cracked quickly if you put in a solid routine. Once your pup starts to toilet inside regularly it can take a while to re-train them to go outside. My advice would be to:

• Avoid puppy pads if you can, start taking your pup outside from day 1 after every feed, every play, every sleep.
• Corner off a small area in the garden where they can toilet. This stops the distraction of exploring everything when they go outside and the smell will trigger them to toilet quicker.
• Make sure you’re going outside with your puppy and wait with them until they toilet. Come rain or shine, wait it out. It can take a while for them to go but the time spent doing this pays off in the long run as you avoid accidents indoors and you can be there to reward the behaviour with a treat!
• Add a cue word when your dog toilets like “Busy Busy”. This will help when you’re out and about and you need to ask your dog to toilet before a car journey or going to your friend’s house.

The general rule of thumb is that puppies need around 5 minutes of exercise per month of their life. So if they’re 4 months old, they should have around a 20 minute walk a day. Walks aren’t everything however, enrichment based activities are just as important to stimulate your pooch’s mind as well as their body. You can find out more about the importance of doggy enrichment on the Bruce’s website. 

Becoming a dog parent for the first time can be a pretty full-on experience, with so much to learn and understand about your new puppy, but it should be also fun! By following Georgina’s expert advice on socialisation, training, day care and early years care, you’re setting the stage for a well-adjusted, healthy and happy dog. Remember, the time and effort that you invest now will pay off in the form of a loyal and loving companion for years to come!

Letting your puppy greet every person and dog when out on a walk. Ideally we want our dogs to be neutral to people and dogs on walks, that’s what makes it enjoyable for us knowing that they can walk by another dog or person on or off lead without bolting over to them, jumping up or pulling on the lead. Instead choose to reward your pup for walking past dogs and people out and about and save the greetings for people and dogs you know.