Posts Tagged ‘baby’
How much should I feed my puppy
March 7th, 2010
When I brought home my puppy, this was my first question, how much should I feed my puppy. The breeder told me what she was feeding and what kind, so I knew what to start with, but puppies grow quickly and their dietary requirements change. I think puppies are a lot like children where they need more food and have growth spurts, and the it cuts back some too.
Some puppies will eat and not stop – this is common in the retrievers. There are other puppies that are more finicky and refuse to eat. with smaller dogs, this can be a big cause for concern.
Here are some tips on how I decide how much I should feed my puppy.
1. Read the requirements on the bag
This is a guideline, not a hard fast rule. But it does give you a good range. It will also tell you based on their current weight and how old they are.
2. Watch their stools
Completely soft means too much food or the wrong type of food for your puppy. Hard then soft means slightly too much food.
3. Increase the food slowly.
If you need to increase it, do so slowly, dont just dump an extra cup in the bowl.
If you puppy is acting hungry, he may just be. You will likely need to play with amounts until you find the right balance and remember to increase it until they are done growing. Follow the recommendation of the bag you are feeding, feed a high quality food and always check with your vet if you aren’t sure.
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House Training Schedule
February 22nd, 2010
Check out the House Training App
We brought home our new puppy Blaze this weekend. He is an 8 week old labrador retriever. Every puppy is so different and teaches you new things. Little Blaze loves to drink water, and will drink non stop. Here is how today is going, and what type of house training schedule I am going to keep.
Morning 1 – I got up, filled up a bowl of water and went about my morning making breakfast and lunches for the kids. He went out and pottied, lots of praise. He came in and went #2 on the floor (I saw him sniffing and was trying to locate my jacket because of the rain). That was my fault I didn’t move fast enough. We went out anyway and he went potty again, came in and had 3 accidents back to back. No sniffing this time, just peeing on the floor. Luckily we keep a swiffer wet jet in the kitchen to clean up the mess quickly.
I decided this wasn’t a good pattern. Now I am limiting how much water I put down. Here is our new schedule
Puppy Crate Time
Comes out of the crate – potty
If he pees he gets to play in the kitchen with 1 cup of water available in the bowl. (this is more than he needs but its always better too offer more than less!)
He can play for 20 minutes, we go back out to potty.
If he pees, he gets to stay out, if not, he goes in the crate.
We’ll see how this goes. A few tips on a house training schedule, see how long between potty trips you can go – some puppies can do an hour, and some only 15 minutes. The goal the first week home is to get more peeing outside than inside. Expect them to do a poop sometime after eating (1-3 hours).
Puppy Training Methods
December 10th, 2009
Puppy training is quite simple. Think about what behaviors you want your puppy to have when they are a year, and full grown and start the rules from day one.
Puppy training is all about reinforcing or rewarding what your dog does. Sometimes, a puppy will get reinforced without you even around. If your puppy jumps up on the table and eats a big piece of chicken – the puppy got a reward for jumping up. See how easy that is? The number one rule for puppy training is ALWAYS WATCH YOUR PUPPY. If you aren’t watching you can’t see what they are about to get into. I always tell my puppy training clients to put the puppy on leash and keep that baby with you 100% of the time. If you can’t watch the puppy, put him in his crate for a time with a stuffed kong in order to keep the puppy busy – or if you notice they are going to sleep, its often wise to let them have a nap in their little den.
If you always praised the dog or gave a piece of food ( cheerios are great for puppy training ) for the doing doing good things then the behaviors you liked would increase. Teach sit, loose leash walking and start on stays while your puppy is young. Here are some puppy training rules you have to decide on when starting puppy training.
- Will you let your dog jump on people? If you have a small dog, it might not bother you to let your dog jump – thats a personal decision. If you dont want your dog to jump, puppy training should include never talking to, pushing, or making eye contact with a dog who is jumping.
- Will you let your dog on the furniture? If not, dont let them up there during puppy training.
- Do you want your dog to whine in their crate? If not, never open a crate for a whining puppy.
- Will you let your puppy chew on your hands? If not, never let it happen during puppy training! Pull your hand away and ignore your puppy for 30 seconds.
You see, when you are puppy training, you have to evaluate each individual behavior and think – this is cute now, but will this be so cute in a year? When your puppy is full grown? They are only small for a very short time!
New Baby and Dogs
December 9th, 2009
When I got pregnant with my son, I didn’t realize how my first babies (my two dogs) were going to lose their place in life. I figured once I had the baby my dogs would have a little transition, but we’d be back to normal doing our daily walks, obedience classes, and our fun times that we had. Boy was I in for a surpise! Hopefully this article will help those of you expecting get your dogs ready so the transition happens with as little stress as possible.
Take advantage of your tiredness!
Most women feel the exhaustion of pregnancy early on. This is a great time to cut out ALL that exercise for your dog. Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t exercise your dog, but I am saying that its time to start getting OUT of the routine. You simply don’t know how you are going to feel when the baby comes and you don’t know if you will be able to do walks or run with your pup like you used to. Try to think of activities you can engage in after the baby comes. For example, you know that for at least 4-6 weeks after you have the baby you simply will NOT be allowed to exercise. So maybe its time for someone else to walk your dog if you have that option, or perhaps you can start throwing a toy in the yard. Read this article on exercise for your dog.
Rules Rules Rules
Think of what rules you might change with the baby and start changing them now. For example, if your dog was allowed to jump on the bed you might want to reconsider that rule. Maybe teach your dog to sit before jumping until you release him, or asking him to not get on the bed at all. Why? Imagine you are changing your babies diaper on your bed, or laying your baby down while you do something, then last thing you want is your dog jumping up on the bed and perhaps hurting your precious newborn.
Eating time
Another idea to lessen the stress is to start varying when you feed your dog. I know first hand that with a newborn things happen and that normal 7am feeding for the dogs just might not happen until 10am. For a while after my first son came the dogs would be going crazy wanting breakfast. After a while they learned not to expect it until I started moving their bowls. It helped since sometimes I would sleep in, and other times we’d be up bright and early.
The bottom line is to remember, that even though you have a new baby coming, it doesn’t mean your dog will never have your attention, it’ll just be different. Your dog will adjust and feel just as loved, and will come to find that this new little person will bring a lot more joy and fun to the house too
New Puppy : How to socialize
January 4th, 2009
Whenever I talk about socialization, many people always assume I mean with other dogs and people. Socialize actually means introducing to something new. With young puppies the old theory was to keep them in the house until they were 6 months old. Then it became don’t take them out until they are fully vaccinated at 4 months.
We now know that is not true, and its a mistake. The fear period begins around 16 weeks of age,so the most important time to socialize is from 10-16 weeks. Does this mean you should take your dog to the dog park to play? Absolutely not! But here are some new puppy socialization ideas that are safe.
Sitting outside a coffee shop on a Saturday morning. Its buzzing with different types of people and kids. In order to make this productive, bring some of your dogs food and of course a hungry puppy. As people walk by, offer a piece of food for brave behavior. Even if that means laying down and looking at them. Don’t worry about keeping your pups attention, that isn’t the goal here. If people want to pet your puppy, ask them to give him a piece of food first, followed by some good old fashioned puppy loving.
If you need to stand on your puppies leash so he doesn’t jump, that’s ok. Try not to correct your puppy for anything, just manage his behavior so he is good. Prevention is the key!
Another great place to go is outside a grocery store. Think of all those noises, cars, grocery carts,big bags…its socialization heaven. Try to venture out to a few different places a week, keeping safety in mind.
Happy puppy training!
Posted in New Puppy | 
Tags: baby, classes, dog training, puppy, puppy training, school | 
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