So you got a puppy... The weeks after Christmas Edition..

[sallama]

Hi there!

Every year around this time, r/puppy101 sees an influx of new community members. We generally see a 5-10k rise in views around the holidays and this past year has indeed been interesting as we saw we doubled on Covid.... 1.4mil to 3.5 views. https://subredditstats.com/r/puppy101 has a decent stats to see what I'm talking about.

Whether you got a Christmas Puppy or you decided to get a puppy while under conditions during this pandemic, welcome to our community!

I want to highlight a few things for everyone here...

1. The majority of people who come to this community do so either because they are experiencing some frustrations with their puppy and are looking for help or they're very excited and want a place to share this excitement. This community can provide a place to give and receive support, share resources in tackling challenges, and education on unique puppy behaviors and development.
2. Puppies, especially young puppies are exciting but they're also animals with emotional and physical needs. Just as raising children compromises with development milestones so too do puppies have developmental milestones. It is our job to raise a puppy to be a confident well adjusted adult dog.
3. Bringing a puppy home is stressful. Whether you are a seasoned experienced dog owner or a first time owner, you will encounter stress with even the most well behaved puppy. Your schedule may need to be adjusted. You may have sleepless nights. You will have accidents in the house. You will make mistakes. You may struggle with this stress.
4. Your human children are likely not responsible enough to raise a puppy. They can help, this is a great learning experience for them! As a parent it is your job to teach your children how to properly respect, handle and engage your puppy. If you decided to get your kid a puppy for Christmas, you will need to consider yourself the primary caregiver for this pup.
5. If you are concerned about your pup's health and wellbeing, CALL YOUR VET. As a reminder, we are unable to provide medical advice in this community. Even if you are unsure whether or not you should make an appointment, CALL YOUR VET. Most vet offices welcome clients to call and take advantage of their triage services over the phone. They can provide recommendations on when and if you need to bring your puppy into the vet outside their normal scheduled wellness exams. Many vets will make room in their schedule for urgent appointments. If you're unsure if it's an emergency, CALL YOUR EMERGENCY VET - they can tell you whether or not you should bring your puppy into the ER for immediate care or whether you can wait and schedule with your normal vet the following day. Posts requesting help in diagnosis or treatment for puppy health related issues will be locked or removed by a member of our mod team.

Resources:https://www.thefamilydog.com/stop-the-77/ - this is a fantastic resource for teaching young children about dog behavior and teaching proper boundaries. 77% of dog bites happen with a dog the child is familiar with. When we teach kids about how to raise a puppy and how to respect dogs, we can reduce bite risk.

https://www.reddit.com/r/puppy101/wiki/ - Our community wiki has a lot of great information. This is a wealth of information collected over the years of puppy101's existence and we are frequently adding or revising the information as new topics come up or new information becomes available. If you have suggestions or feedback for the wiki, shoot us a modmail!

Yes, you will see a lot of posts here that aren't all puppy kisses and rainbows - THIS IS A SUPPORT COMMUNITY! Many of us would not be here if we weren't looking for other people who understand or can relate to the challenges of raising a puppy. We are global and we are inclusive. Not every country or culture may do things the same way or have the same access to resources. Some people are just doing the best they can. Yes, sometimes that means making the difficult choice to rehome or return a pup.

So, as we welcome the new Christmas puppies and Covid puppies into our lives, please remember - It's a puppy, not a problem. And as the infamous Bill and Ted have said... BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER! Follow the community rules, remember the person you are replying to is a human being with complex emotions.

 

[anlytcphil]

@sallama I am new to being a doggy parent, thank you for the link on the family dog. Looks like it's exactly what we need to help us with our kids. His a good dog but he needs just as much support as the kids do when it comes to learning how to interact with each other.

I shall go back to lurking now.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@anlytcphil Kids and puppies. Argg. I never anticipated such a struggle. I knew, of course, that my wife and I would have to be the primary care-takers but my kids presence alone causes the stress/excitement level in my pup to jump. If it's just him and me he might be lounging and casually chewing a bully stick or something. The instant the kids come into the room he's bouncing off the walls.

My kids are not really what you'd call 'hyper'. They're actually pretty calm but it doesn't matter. The fact that they are unpredictable, imprecise and excitable is all my puppy needs to go over the top. It doesn't seem trainable in either party - the kids or the pup. I can't get the kids to not be kids and I can't get the pup to not react to kids. They kind of have to grow together. Over a long period of time . .much longer than I originally thought.

 

[anlytcphil]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Our kids are hyper and very jumpy. We ended up getting a assistance dog trainer to come to our house and set us in the right direction. We basically have to not pick the dog up and only play with him on floor level. Lots of getting the dog to sit and positive feedback for watching the kids walk past him and just be in the same room while ignoring them. We have also been training the kids, walk in the house stop waving your feet around, be boring soo boring, don't look at the dog being naughty look at us or the roof anything but the dog. Getting them to tell the dog to sit, and helping them give commands as well. It's not perfect and we need to seperate them out when either gets over tired but it's helping.

I wish you all the fortune with your puppy and kids.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@anlytcphil Thanks! I did the same with a private trainer except I used 2 different ones and had them collectively come over 15 times, lol. I had the trainer we thought was the best dedicate a session to each of the kids.

It pretty much didn’t help at all. (Edit - it did actually help but not enough to not keep them separated almost all the time). The kids are youngish (6 and 9) and they really struggle with being consistent and remembering all the rules. The dog is high strung and would have no problem tackling me if I made a funny movement. Its finally getting better, though. Pup almost 1.5 years old now. I don’t have to separate them anymore but there are still some minor struggles. Particularly with my 6 year old who can never seem to remember to use commands, hold still, disengage, etc. But it’s not even a daily issue anymore and I can usually call the dog off without having to come over and intervene.

 

[iaian]

@imagebeastmarkbeast I don’t know if this is helpful but it’s what I’ve learned so far when it comes to training & kids.

Training, for any dog, ideally happens in a basic environment free of other distraction. Then you add in one of three Ds: distraction, duration (hold a stay), and distance (will pup listen if you don’t have a treat right over his nose and are a step away? 5ft away? 10? etc.)

Kids are a built in distraction. I have found that if I want my puppy to learn something new I have to initially teach it away from my five kids. Once the puppy has one-on-one focus with me and “gets it” I can attempt the command again with my kids around. They are the distraction so I don’t even have to set up a fake distraction scenario, perfect! Then if I want to practice duration, again, I need to get a moment where we are kid free, and work on adding duration then after pup gets it I can add the kids (distraction) back into the mix and so on, until all three of the Ds are in the mix at once. Then pick a new command and repeat.

Of course, my older kids can help and be calm enough but my toddler and younger grade schooler can’t sit still. Yes, teaching the kids what to do also happens but that doesn’t have to happen all at once while trying to train a command, at least not for now. Maybe after we have some basics down my approach will change, I don’t know.

Not sure if it’s helpful or not. I’ve found so much great advice on this sub and I appreciate when people just share what they do, even the most seemingly obvious things because something it’s not obvious to me. Good luck with the dog (and the kids!)

 

[anlytcphil]

@iaian Yes this. All the things my daughter does with the dog are what we have practiced with him first.

 

[stephenfortenberry]

@imagebeastmarkbeast I feel this so hard right now. I felt like things were getting better - I even took a cute video of my daughter giving commands/clicks/treats to the puppy last week! - but we're kind of back to square one today. This morning, he was laying low, waiting for her to walk by and lunging/growling at her. He was leashed and didn't actually reach her, and I do think there was a flavor of playfulness to it despite the growling, but it has me a little concerned. Luckily I kind of planned for this and have another two weeks off work where I can work with the puppy a lot, but I'm wondering what, specifically, I might be doing wrong. I do feel like our challenges are specific to one room, the family room, where puppy's toys live and we do the majority of the playing. He was similarly a little rougher than normal with me today before the kids even got up - he is usually super gentle with his puppy teething-ness but was tugging on my clothes and growling and even (tmi) tried to hump my arm (who knew 9 week old puppies humped things??? not me!). Anyway, just commiserating.

 

[ernestservant]

@sallama Enjoy the sleepless nights, new owners!

 

[jamie0]

@ernestservant I set my alarm for every 2.5 hrs ATM for nightly potty breaks. My little Jazzy is phenomenal so far, but come on big dog bladder...

 

[mickaela]

@ernestservant I read the post, chuckled and had this exact same thought since my pup is now a mature almost year and a half!

 

[stephenfortenberry]

@ernestservant We got relatively lucky on this one. Sleeps from 9-6 most nights! I wish it was 11-8, but I’ll take it.

 

[jeromecoates]

@stephenfortenberry How old is it? Any tips to make sure a puppy sleeps through the night without incidents?

 

[stephenfortenberry]

@jeromecoates He's 11 weeks now, but he has slept pretty well from the beginning. It might just be a maturity thing? The first two nights, we took him out if he whined to pee. I guess my only "tip" would be making sure they get enough exercise/stimulation/whatever during the day. Oh! My husband does also sometimes take him out to pee when he goes to bed (which is at like 1 most nights) and I get up with him and our human children in the morning. I also stop giving water an hour before bedtime.

 

[crafty]

@sallama I think puppy tax should be a requirement but that’s just me!

 

[sallama]

@crafty There is always r/puppies for your fulfillment.

 

[lonlyman44]

@sallama Boo we want puppies!

 

[crafty]

@sallama V true

 

[bengreenwald]

@sallama I’ve been loving this subreddit. We got a puppy and moved all in one week and it’s been stressful to put it nicely. This has been a safe haven

 

[mymessagetou]

@bengreenwald SAME why did I think moving and adopting a puppy at the same time would be ok?? We are crazy haha I know it'll be worth it in the end though. Good luck to you