How to Raise the Perfect Dog (14 page)

BOUNDARIES BEHIND WALLS

Since a recurring theme of this book is “how not to raise Marley,” here’s another telling incident from John Grogan’s poignant and hilarious memoir, describing the very first time he brought their two-month-old Labrador into their small home. “When we got home, I led him inside and unhooked his leash. He began sniffing and didn’t stop until he had sniffed every square inch of the place.”

A cautious new puppy checking out his new crib—sounds like a perfectly reasonable reaction, doesn’t it? What first-time dog owner John didn’t realize was that almost all puppies at eight weeks of age will act polite and tentative while checking out an unfamiliar environment. But a casual introduction like this one sets the precedent for a puppy eventually to believe that he should “own” that entire space. Once a dog starts feeling secure and confident within the confines of his new real estate—especially a fast-growing, powerful, and very-high-energy dog like Marley—problems can multiply with lightning speed. True to form, within a few short weeks, Marley was acting like a drunken rock star hell-bent on trashing a hotel suite: “Every last object in our house that was at knee level or below was knocked asunder by Mar-ley’s wildly wagging weapon. He cleared coffee tables, scattered magazines, knocked framed photographs off shelves, sent beer bottles and wineglasses flying. He even cracked a pane in the French door.”

The Grogans’ decision to let Marley explore his new environment on his own is one of the most common errors I see new puppy owners make. And I’m not alone in observing this. “The very, very worst thing you can do to a puppy when you bring it home is introduce it to your whole house,” Brooke Walker says emphatically. Diana Foster agrees. “He doesn’t need the whole house, and he doesn’t need the whole yard. Those are the owners who will call me a couple of weeks later, complaining, ‘I thought the dog was supposed to be well-behaved. This dog is out of control.’” Unfortunately, some of the most popular puppy-training books on the market advocate letting a new puppy run free, claiming that you “owe” your new puppy her “freedom.” Freedom, in my experience, means something quite different to a puppy than it does to us, or even to an older dog.

Your eight- to ten-week-old puppy has just come from living with her mother, who provided her with specific rules, boundaries, and limitations from day one. Your puppy could romp and play and explore, but there were always limits. She could wrestle, bite, and pounce, but there were always limits. If she had a conscientious breeder, she also learned to feel self-assured within the world of human boundaries. To your puppy, that world of very clear structure has come to represent comfort, safety, and security. Structure gave her harmony, serenity, and a growing sense of self-confidence. If freedom equals peace of mind, then, as it turns out,
structure
actually makes up the foundation of a dog’s freedom.

In contrast to the Grogans’ first day with Marley, consider Chris and Johanna Komives’s first day with Eliza:

When we brought her home, we took her right to the back hall, which we had already set up for her. We had her crate there, her food, and a dog door (but we left it closed until she was crate trained). She stayed in her crate or the backyard for the first week. Then I brought her into the living room on her leash and introduced her to her “place”: a dog bed. She was not allowed to leave her place when she was in the living room. We began teaching her commands right away. She learned sit, stay, down, and go to your place. A week or so later, we showed her the kitchen.

The Komiveses may never write a bestseller about Eliza’s crazy antics, but they still have an intact home and a dog they can confidently take with them anywhere without worrying about destruction or a lawsuit!

Once you cross the threshold of your domain, it’s up to you to supervise and control how your puppy first experiences her new environment. The Komiveses chose a foolproof way of communicating to a puppy the idea that the humans are the ones who control all the space within their walls. To eight- to ten-week-old puppies, the vast-ness of a strange new environment may seem overwhelming and frightening. Having a well-defined space that they know is theirs is actually a comfort to them. If you have followed my instructions so far, you have blocked off a small area—a “safe” area—in which you’ve put your puppy’s crate or bed. Baby gates are great to use as barriers, because the puppy can have you in her scent and sight but still be in a limited area. The Komiveses’ approach involved bringing Eliza through the front door, then walking her immediately to her area.

THE FIRST NIGHT HOME

Bedtime, for your new puppy, will be the moment it really sinks in for her that she will no longer have her mother and siblings around for warmth, company, and comfort. In their natural world, puppies always sleep with their mother and siblings. This transition from her pack to yours is a monumental challenge in the process of becoming your perfect pet. It’s where the rubber meets the road.

For a puppy, the next-best thing to having her original pack around is to sleep near or with another dog. If you already have a dog at home, however, you’ll have had to introduce that dog to the new puppy, and determine whether or not the dog is receptive and nurturing. Warning: A dog that growls, ignores, or acts wary around a puppy will need a lot more introductory work from you before she can be left alone with the puppy. It’s also important that any older dog sleeping with a puppy is compatible in size with that puppy, since a very small puppy can easily be suffocated by a well-meaning but heavy larger dog. If you have any doubts at all about this, check with your breeder or your vet.

Junior slept with Daddy from the first night he came home with me. Daddy and Junior were already used to caring for a variety of dogs in various states of mind and stability, and I trusted them absolutely with the welfare of the new puppies. They became grandfather and big brother respectively to the two-month-old yellow Lab puppy, Blizzard, who slept in his own crate but next to the other dogs’ crates in the garage. And since Mr. President and Angel came home with me around the same time, the two of them automatically accepted each other as “stepbrothers” and have been inseparable ever since, always sharing a crate as if they were actually littermates. Thanks to the dogs of my pack, not one of the puppies in this book has ever had trouble adjusting to his new lifestyle. Most likely, however, you don’t have another balanced dog that is ready and willing to take on the role of “nanny” to your puppy. It is up to you to reduce any trauma the pup might have on her first night away from her birth family.

When it comes time for sleep, set up the puppy’s crate, kennel, or bedding in the area where you want her to stay, making sure to line any hard surfaces with newspaper or a towel. A raised bed in the back and papers on the ground will prevent the puppy from having to sleep in her own excrement, should a nocturnal accident happen. If it does, change all the bedding and completely clean and sanitize the crate the next day, so the puppy never smells her own excrement and becomes accustomed to relieving herself in there. Also outfit the crate or bed with an item with the mother’s and siblings’ scent on it; a good, smelly chew toy like a bully stick; and perhaps even a soft dog toy with a simulated “heartbeat” inside it, which can be quite comforting for a puppy.

For the first few days or weeks, make sure the location of the sleeping place is not so far away from you that your puppy can’t smell or sense your presence—staying in a closed garage all by herself might be fine in two or three months’ time, but on night one, it could cause a panic reaction. If you have created a space for your dog in the laundry room or hallway, you can choose to begin the sleeping arrangement or crate training right then and there, but be prepared for a long, restless night. Most puppies will whine, and some will scream, when separated from their packs. To minimize this reaction, make sure your puppy is as tired as possible before her first bedtime. Once she shows signs of slowing down, let her follow you to where her resting place is going to be. Don’t just pick her up and drop her in the crate or on the bed; let her find it herself. Use scent, nose-eyes-ears, or just your presence to attract her to settle down in that place. Provide an inviting toy or treat. By going there on her own steam—especially if led by a treat—she will associate her new “den” area with pleasant relaxation. Remember, you may have created the most luxurious, inviting paradise in the world for her to sleep in, but if you introduce it in a negative way, your puppy will never want to stay there.

If the area is a crate with a door that closes, make sure the puppy is lying down and relaxed before closing it. This may involve quite a bit of patience at first. Use a sound or your energy to disagree with any whining, then wait quietly by the crate next to the puppy until she has thoroughly calmed down. She may begin to nod off on her own (remember, puppies need a lot of sleep—nearly eighteen hours a day during their peak growth period). Then quietly close the crate door and leave the room.

At a certain point, your puppy may wake up in the night and begin whining. This may sound horrific, but it is perfectly normal. With the exception of getting up to take the dog out to urinate (some dogs, like Angel, will already be conditioned to staying in a crate all night; others, like Eliza, will need to be let out every few hours until housebreaking really kicks in), you should not be rushing in to respond to the puppy’s mournful cries. Never comfort a whining puppy. I know, I know. It sounds heartbreaking. And, yes, your puppy is going through some distress at this moment, but it’s important to let her work through it. The only way possible for her to get past that anxiety permanently is to learn to solve the problem for herself. You must allow her the space and dignity of coming out on the other side of her discomforts, even if it makes you feel bad to listen to her. If you run to soothe her every time she cries, she will learn very quickly (a) that she controls you and can summon you by vocalizing, and (b) that you are
agreeing
with her whining because you are positively reinforcing it with comfort, attention, or a treat. You may also be setting the stage to create a nervous, fearful, dependent puppy. Ignoring at this early stage is also vital to prevent the issue of separation anxiety. For now, buy some foam earplugs at the drugstore, have a glass of warm milk before bed, do a little meditation, and repeat to yourself, “This, too, shall pass.” Trust me, it will, before you know it!

To minimize this common first-night trauma, I recommend that people set up their puppy’s crate or bed near or in their bedrooms, for the first few nights after arrival. The first night of whining may still keep you awake—and, no, you
still
can’t respond to it with cooing or comfort—but if the crate is near your bed, you can tap it once and make the sound you want your puppy to associate with a behavior you don’t agree with. This will stop the escalation of the behavior, sometimes long enough for relaxation to set in. If your puppy quiets down for a significant period of time after that, you can reward with praise or even a treat. A bully stick is great for this because it engages the nose and distracts the mind. Only reward a calm state of mind. Then put in your earplugs and ignore.

By the next night, your puppy should have reduced this behavior, or have stopped it entirely. She will begin to find comfort by just being around you or being in the familiar surroundings of her crate. This method also offers the advantage of your puppy’s picking up on your human sleeping patterns and learning to imitate them. If you don’t plan to have your puppy remain in your bedroom indefinitely, three days should be long enough to acclimate her to her new style of living. She may again whine through the night when you move her sleeping place, but if you tire her out and make sure she is relaxed before you put her down for the night, it won’t take long for her to adjust to the new location.

Don’t forget that your own energy and attitude toward your puppy’s sleeping arrangements will have a powerful impact on how she herself views them. If you feel terrible about putting your puppy’s crate in the laundry room and are wracked with guilt that she’ll feel abandoned out there, then your puppy will probably pick up on your negative emotions about the place. Decide on a sleeping arrangement that makes
you
feel that you are providing the best for your puppy, then make sure she is always tired out, relaxed, and submissive before you say good night. This will be your best guarantee for a lifetime of healthy, happy sleeping habits.

CRATE TRAINING

“Crate training is a must,” says Brooke Walker. “No dog ever leaves my house without learning to love a crate.”

Brooke didn’t always feel this way. Before she became a professional breeder, she had bought into the old-school myth that crate training was cruel, that dogs don’t like small spaces, that they always needed the run of the house or yard. It was breeding and living with generations of content, calm miniature schnauzers that changed her mind, because she saw such an enormous difference in the behavior and general level of happiness between her dogs and dogs whose lives did not have such predictable routine. In fact, crate training your puppy is one of the best things you can do for her as well as for yourself. Done correctly, crate training provides your puppy with a ready-made “den”—a place that she can associate with safety, tranquillity, and quiet. Instead of calming herself in a destructive manner when she is alone or when you need her to be at rest, the puppy will learn how to soothe herself by going into her private den and relaxing there.

Crate training also provides a familiar surrounding for traveling in cars or for spending nights at friends’ homes or pet-friendly motels and hotels. Dogs love adventures, and the easier it is for you to bring your dog wherever you travel, the more stimulating new experiences you will provide for her. Crate training helps maintain a calm-submissive mind and helps prevent all the unwanted behaviors that too much so-called freedom—I call it chaos—can inspire.