If your family has recently adopted a puppy, the best thing to do is think about his training right away. That doesn’t mean just teaching him where to “do his business”, but also giving him some rules so that he will grow up to be happy and sociable.
Puppies learn quickly, but it’s important to teach them a few basic rules of behaviour right from the start. A dog learns by association, so reward him if he does something good, thus encouraging him to repeat his behaviour. The reward or praise must be linked to the action, so they must be given straight away
In general, the puppy must understand as early on as possible which things are his toys and which things must never be bitten, like the table legs, the sofa or the cushions. You will probably have seen your puppy roaming around the house with one of your slippers in his mouth.
As soon as you catch him doing that, all you need is to say a simple “NO”, loudly and firmly, while waving one of his toys in order to attract his attention. This is called the exchange game and it almost always works, because Fido is very jealous of his own things. Avoid chasing him all over the house to get your slipper back, or he will think you’re playing with him and your shoes will never be left alone again.
It is also important that when you leave home to go to work or to run some errands, you leave him a basket full of toys suited to his age, from soft and chewy puppy toys to strong toys and those made of rope, useful for strengthening the mouth muscles and for massaging the gums.
However, if your dog relentlessly destroys everything when he is left alone at home, this is a symptom of his state of unrest, due to separation anxiety, which turns into destructive behaviour. We will be talking about this soon, so carry on following our blog and if you want to share your suggestions with us, please drop us a line!
