Socialising your puppy

Everyone they meet, everything they see and everywhere they go will be a brand new experience for your puppy.  And it’s your job to make it all as enjoyable as possible so that they learn to be relaxed, confident and friendly.

Introducing new people

You won’t be able to take your puppy for walks until they’ve had all their jabs, but you can introduce them to the car, traffic, your neighbours, your friends, the postman – and even buses and trains, if you can carry them easily.  Inside the house, get the puppy used to loud noises like the washing machine, the phone and the vacuum cleaner.

In all these situations, you need to act confidently and cheerfully.  Don’t force anything if the puppy gets stressed, but give them lots of praise and a little treat each time they respond well.  Tip: ask people to offer their hands with palms up – or your puppy could interpret friendliness for aggression.

If your puppy hasn’t met any children yet, they could be quite a shock.  If you can, start by introducing an older child and ask them not to squeal or make sudden movements.  Let the child give the puppy a treat and stroke them, but don’t let him or her pick up your puppy unless they’re sitting down – just in case the puppy wriggles out of their grasp.  They’ll soon learn to love children, but an adult should always supervise their play.

Meeting other dogs

Once your pup’s vaccinated, take them for a walk to meet other dogs.  This can be daunting for both of you. Don’t worry too much — adult dogs won’t usually snap at puppies. Check with the owner of the other dog, but it’s usually best to leave your dogs to introduce themselves to each other.  After a few seconds’ sniffing, they usually play together happily.  Again, lots of praise and tactical treats will reinforce your puppy’s confidence.  However, a large, bouncing puppy will totally overwhelm a smaller one so it’s usually best to keep them apart until they’re better socialised.

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Settling new puppies with Adaptil

The first few months of your puppy’s life are crucial in terms of its long term social development. Get it right and you should have a happy, healthy, well behaved dog for life. Get it wrong and your dog may struggle to cope with normal day to day situations, for example being left alone or meeting new people.

Bringing a new puppy home can be unsettling as it may be the first time it has been in a new place without its mother or siblings. Initially, puppies may find sleeping alone distressing and many will cry or howl. As hard as it may be, checking on your puppy is not a good idea. While your puppy may initially cry because it is feeling worried or insecure, it will quickly learn that crying gets your attention. Once this behaviour is learnt it can be very hard to put right, often continuing into adulthood.

Your puppy will need to learn to cope with spending time alone (at night or when you are out). Puppies that are not taught to accept periods of solitude, for example due to the owner taking time off while the puppy settles in, many never cope with being left alone.

• Make sure that you take your puppy out to relieve itself as late as you can before you leave or go to bed; also make this the first thing you do when you return or get up in the morning. If you don’t your puppy will get into the habit of wetting or soiling in the house.

• Try to not make too much of a fuss before leaving your puppy alone.

• Consider using a covered crate. This can help nervous puppies feel more secure. Large open spaces may appear daunting.

Using an Adaptil diffuser will help make settling into your new home a positive experience for your new puppy and reduce attention seeking behaviour when it is alone. 24 hours before collecting your new puppy plug in an Adaptil Diffuser. This should be at floor level near to where the puppy will be sleeping and spending time when you are not at home. Make sure the diffuser is out of the puppies reach.

From 6-16 weeks your puppy will begin going through the ‘socialisation stage’. This is the time in a dog’s life where they make up their minds about the world around them. It is important that during this stage (the first 2 months in your home) your puppy learns about different people and places it will meet and how to behave in response to each. This should start at home before the second vaccination. The behaviour it learns now will affect how it behaves for the rest of its life. Puppies must not become overly worried or anxious. Puppies very rarely grow out of anxious behaviour, which is believed to be the root of problems such as separation anxiety, travel fears and aggression in later life. Using Adaptil at this age will prevent a puppy becoming overly anxious in such circumstances, will promote good relaxed behaviour and help it develop into a well behaved family pet.

Adaptil has been proven to help puppies settle into new homes and adapt to the new environments. Fit an Adaptil collar to your puppy when you pick it up from the breeders, this will help it settle more quickly on the journey home. Keep the Adaptil collar fitted continuously for one month, then replace for a further month. Use the Adaptil collar when challenging situations occur throughout your dog’s life.

You should welcome visitors to your home and, if you puppy is confident enough and has had all his vaccinations, visit other people in their homes. This is all part of your puppy’s socialisation. Puppies should learn that meeting new people is enjoyable. However, care must be taken not to overwhelm the puppy. Visitors should be asked to briefly say hello to your puppy, but only play with your puppy once it has calmed down and is behaving appropriately.

If your puppy appears nervous or mistrustful of new people steps should be taken to help it feel more comfortable. You may ask anyone new to quietly give the puppy a treat. However, take care to only reward correct behaviour in this way and to ignore any negative or unwanted behaviour.

Never force interaction as this can have negative effects in the long term and cause problems in later life. If you are concerned, or if your puppy shows any signs of aggression, don’t be afraid to ask fro help. Anxiety-related behaviour problems are relatively easy to resolve with expert help while the puppy is still young. Dogs do not grow out of these issues and it is likely any problems will escalate and be much harder to deal with once the dog had reached maturity.

Adaptil Spray can be used directly on the puppy’s bedding, in the den, in the car etc. It is convenient for brief events such as travelling and introductions to new environments especially outside the home. Adaptil spray should be applied to bedding, the car etc 15 minutes before introducing the puppy. 8-10 pumps of the Adaptil spray will be sufficient and it will last approximately 1.5 to 2 hours. After this time Adaptil spray will need to be re-applied.

During the socialisation process you may need to take your puppy out in the car. To make this a pleasant experience, begin by introducing your puppy to the car whilst stationary and car engine turned off. Play with your puppy and reward him for good behaviour. Make sure the car has a non-slip absorbent bedding to make the journey as comfortable as possible, again reinforcing a pleasant experience in the car. Start by going on short journeys which could be to the end of the road and back again, building these up gradually. Make sure your puppy has settled in the car before driving away. Adaptil spray can also help dogs cope better when travelling in cars. Remember to drive considerately; your puppy will not be used to bumps and corners.

Visiting the vet will become a routine event for you and your puppy, with annual health checks and vaccinations required. Some dogs may need additional visits. These visits need to be as pleasant as possible. Try taking your puppy to the vet when treatment isn’t needed and making a fuss of it while there. This can help reduce the likelihood of your puppy linking the location with a fearful experience. Most practices already use Adaptil in their waiting rooms and consulting rooms, however if you are concerned about how your dog will cope, speak to your vet about using Adaptil in the car and/or during recovery.

Boarding kennels are not recommended for puppies before 6 months of age. After 6 months puppies are less susceptible but may still find new experiences unnerving.

Why feed Wainwrights Puppy Food?

Wainwright’s puppy food provides nutritious ingredients that are gentle on your puppy’s digestion, perfect for your new best friend! We do not use any ingredients known to commonly cause allergies in puppies, and every ingredient that is used is nutritious, delicious and easily digestible. Our Wainwright’s puppy foods are hypoallergenic – formulated without wheat or wheat gluten. We also do not add any beef, dairy, soya or egg products, which can cause allergies in some puppies!

Natural fibre sources are essential for a growing puppy as they are gentle on the digestive tract, and they help to promote intestinal motility and stool quality. The soluble and insoluble fibres in sugar beet pulp allows for a slow rate of passage of the food through the digestive tract to give a good time for absorption of nutrients and also makes your puppy feel fuller for longer! Sugar beet pulp can also help to give the kibble a crunchy texture, and so helping to keep your puppy’s teeth clean too!

Omega 6 and Omega 3 fatty acids provided in this puppy food helps to maintain your puppy’s shiny coat and helps to reduce any flakiness or irritation. These essential fatty acids also help to support healthy brain and vision development.

It contains a full complement of vitamins and minerals which will support your puppy’s health throughout their growing stages. This specially formulated diet also contains anti – oxidants, Vitamin C and Beta Carotene which can help promote a healthy immune system.

Puppy Awareness Week with the Kennel Club September 12th – 18th

Puppy Awareness Week is a worthy campaign with a serious message, raising awareness and improving breeder standards.

In its inaugural year, Puppy Awareness Week, which is being run by the Kennel Club, will educate the public about buying a puppy responsibly, in particular researching the breed and the breeder, and ensuring that it is properly trained.

The Kennel Club also aims to address the problems of puppy farming, a practice that is unfortunately more common in the UK than many people realise. Puppy farmers breed dogs irresponsibly without regard for the health and wellbeing of the puppies or the parents. Without health tests, injections or appropriate care or socialisation, puppy farmers sell to unsuspecting buyers who will then often experience the effects of this such as behavioural problems in the dog or health issues.

The Kennel Club has created a petition to help end puppy farming and hopes to reach 100,000 signatures so that it may be addressed in the House of Commons. Dog lovers are invited to add their support by visiting http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/8557.
Puppy Awareness Week will culminate in PupAid at Stanmer House in Brighton on Sunday 18th September. Puppy Farm Aware badges are available from the Kennel Club website to help raise awareness and money raised will go to the Kennel Club Charitable Trust to help make a difference for dogs.

For further information, please visit www.thekennelclub.org.uk/paw.

Dry food, wet food or mixed feeding?

Choosing from all different foods available can be daunting.  Here’s our Pedigree guide to help you make the best choice for your puppy.

If you look at the packaging, you’ll see that most of the foods available are described as complete foods.  This means that they offer all the nutrition your puppy needs.

You’ll also notice that there’s a choice of wet foods (in cans or pouches) and dry foods (in bags).  Which should you choose and why?  Here’s our guide to help you decide:

Dry food: a lot of nutrition in a smaller volume

With its low water content, you can store a lot of food in a small space; a real help if you have a large dog.  Chewing on the different shapes and textures of the kibbles in Pedigree Puppy Complete helps maintain clean, healthy teeth.  Some puppies may be put off dry food to start with, but normally grow to like it with time.  Softening the food in a little warm water can help them make the switch.

Wet food: a satisfying meal for big appetites

A bowl of wet food has half the calories of a bowl of dry food.  So if your puppy loves to eat, feeding wet food means there’s less chance of overeating.  The high moisture content also helps make sure your puppy takes in plenty of fluids, and decreases the risk of urinary tract infections.  Young puppies usually find it easier to chew and swallow wet food, so it’s good for fussy eaters.

Why not mix the two?

Mixing dry and wet food is popular because it combines the benefits: helping to maintain healthy teeth and good urinary tract health.  It’ll also give your puppy more variety and help them accept different types of food later on.

With Pedigree Puppy your dog will always get the right nutritional balance. So feel free to experiment and find out what your puppy prefers.  Just make sure that they always have plenty of fresh drinking water to keep well-hydrated.

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Sibling Puppies

Whatever their breed or gender, siblings present a unique situation for the owners of companion dogs.  Siblings, whether brothers, sisters or opposite sex, tend to be more important to each other than the owner is to each of them.  Joined at the hip, if you like!  Siblings may also become inseparable and sometimes suffer from serious separation anxiety when parted for any reason.  They usually find it hard to concentrate on work if the sibling is present.

Siblings, like any other group of dogs, have a hierarchy, i.e. there is a ‘top dog’ and a ‘subordinate dog’, whether you realise it or not. The interesting factor with most pairs of siblings is that the ‘alpha’ or ‘leader’ is actually the one that may be nervous or apprehensive and will cope less well with separation from its partner.  Whatever the sex of the siblings this pattern seems to remain constant.

As a general rule, it may not be best to buy siblings, especially if they are terriers or bull breeds.  However, it is possible to rear siblings successfully if a few simple guidelines are followed from the outset:

• Choose names that sound very different from each other.

• As soon as you bring your puppies home you must start treating them as individuals.

• When you see the natural hierarchy developing reinforce it by giving the higher-ranking puppy privileges: feed him first; fuss him first; play with him first; take him out first etc. etc. Never try to demote the stronger puppy.

• They must be separated for reasonable periods of time from the earliest possible moment and should be separated within the home for short periods.

• They must frequently be taken outside separately for toileting.

• They should go out separately in the car from time to time.

• They should visit the vet and friends’ houses individually.

• They must be trained on their own. The sibling should not be within sight.

• If at all possible they should go to separate puppy training classes but, if this is not practical, they must be as far apart as can be managed.

• They should be completely ignored when they show fear, especially when alone and especially the higher-ranking puppy.

• They must have their own food bowls and the higher-ranking puppy’s food should be put down just before the sibling’s.

• When calling the puppies always call one at a time and ignore the one who has not been called, even if he arrives!

• If the siblings are the same sex take advice from an expert in canine behaviour before deciding whether or not to neuter either of them. If, as they grow up, serious fighting develops it is essential to neuter only the lower ranking puppy, not both of them.

Puppy Raising Made Easy ISBN is 978-1-906305-28-4 and retails at £9.99.

When do I switch to adult food?

Most puppies complete their most rapid growth period between 3 and 6 months.  However, smaller breeds tend to have a shorter period of growth when compared to large breeds.  Toy, small and medium breeds of dog attain their mature body size by approximately 9 to 12 months of age, while large and giant breeds attain mature adult size when they are between 18 and 24 months old.  Therefore, it is important to take into account your puppy’s breed and thus growth rate when considering the change to adult food.

The change to adult food should occur once the puppy has obtained the mature adult size and development.  However, remember to take in to account any individual differences.  For example, some puppy’s of one breed may develop faster/slower than others.  Don’t forget to introduce new foodstuff to your dog over several days to prevent stomach upset and always ensure there is fresh water available.

Why not pop in to your local Pets at Home so that your dog can have a Nutrition Consultation.  That way you will know that you’re feeding them the best food for them.

Puppy Socialiation & Habituation

A puppy’s ‘socialisation period’ is from the age of four to about 14 weeks.  This is the period when a puppy is most receptive to new experiences, and what he experiences in this time will shape his attitudes and character for the rest of his life.

Your puppy will not be fully protected by his vaccinations until one week after his second injection – this will be 11 weeks at the very earliest, near the end of his socialisation period.

This means that most of your puppy’s socialising must be done whilst he is not fully immunised.  This can be done safely by avoiding contact with strange dogs, or places they may have soiled e.g. streets and parks.  A good solution would be to carry your puppy in these places.

Meeting People
Your puppy needs to meet as many people of as many different ‘shapes and sizes’ as possible e.g. children, senior citizens, people in uniform, people who love dogs and those that are not so keen on dogs.  You must make the meetings as pleasurable as possible for your puppy by encouraging people to give him titbits or play gently with him (so always carry his favourite toy and a bag of his favourite dog treats!)

Meeting Animals
Meeting healthy, vaccinated, friendly adult dogs in a safe environment (e.g. your garden or house) is essential for puppies.  Puppy parties and puppy socialisation classes are excellent for allowing your puppy to interact with other young dogs, giving him some of the experiences he would have acquired from staying with his littermates for longer.

Experiencing Situations
Your puppy needs to be familiarised with anything that he could encounter in adult life.  Examples might include car, bus and train journeys, vacuum cleaners, blenders, things blowing  in the wind and livestock.  Whenever exposing him to something new (e.g. livestock) keep him far enough away (and on a lead) that he doesn’t get frightened or excited, ignore the livestock yourself and engage him in some play or training.

If your puppy becomes fearful or apprehensive at any time, do not fuss him or act sympathetically (this will confuse him and make him more fearful).  Instead, jolly him along with a game or titbit whilst reducing the intensity of the experience.  If, for example it was traffic that scared your puppy then move him away to a distance where he isn’t frightened by it any more.  When you have found a distance that he is happy with, you can slowly take him closer over several sessions always making sure that he isn’t frightened.

Make sure that any bad experiences (e.g. being frightened by traffic, or a child) are covered up with lots of good experiences of the same thing – experiences in this time will stay with your dog for life regardless of whether they are good or bad.

Huw Stacey – Veterinary Surgeon & Behaviourist

Royal Canin: Focus on Health Nutrition

Royal Canin diets provide precise nutritional solutions to your pet’s needs.  Each of our products are based on our extensive knowledge of cats and dogs, gained through years of studies at our own centre, partnerships with leading veterinary schools and universities, and continued input from veterinarians and breeders worldwide. We’re constantly expanding and improving on this knowledge in order to keep providing your pets with food that meets their exact dietary requirements.

Where we lead, others follow
One food doesn’t suit all pets.  At Royal Canin we take into account the age, activity, breed, size and lifestyle of your pet when creating our diets, and we were the first to do so.  In 1980 we were the first to introduce specific diets for large breed puppies, in 1997 we were the first to meet the different nutritional needs of small, medium and large breeds of dog, and in 1999 we launched the first food for a specific breed of cat, formulated for the unique dietary needs of Persians.

All our food is made to the strictest quality requirements to ensure absolute safety.

Because cats and dogs deserve the best nutrition to remain in the best of health, Royal Canin is committed to…

• Selecting the suppliers of raw materials in accordance with very strict specifications

• Testing the quality of the ingredients before they are accepted for use in Royal Canin foods

• Only using meat from animals which are declared fit and healthy for human consumption

• Quality control from the moment the raw materials enter the factory right through to the packaging stage, thanks to systematic measures and analyses at all key stages

• Complete traceability and identification of all ingredients

The importance of the kibble

The very best food, from a nutritional point of view, is worthless if it is not eaten.

At Royal Canin we look at everything from raw materials and formulation, to the size, shape, texture and density of the kibble, and finally the coating, smell and taste of the food, to find the most appealing formulation for our true customers, the cat and dog.

The breed, age, size and sensitivities of cats and dogs are also taken into account when we design kibbles so that they can be developed according to the specific characteristics of the animal they are intended for.

Royal Canin studies every possible parameter of its kibbles and food, to ensure that this food is as palatable as possible to the cats and dogs that eat it.

Puppy food feeding guidelines explained

When introducing a new food to your puppy, it is important to incorporate small amounts into their daily diet over several days. This will prevent stomach upset in your puppy, which is often caused by sudden dietary changes. With growing puppies, a ‘little and often’ approach to feeding is the best method. To do this, divide the total amount of the daily feed (see feeding guide) into three or four for a six month time period. This will provide small meals to your puppy throughout the day. After six months, it would be recommended to re-divide the total amount into two portions. This would be fed in the morning and in the evening.

It is advisory to monitor your puppy at all times whilst they are eating and water should be available at all times throughout the day. It is also important to remember that the feeding guidelines are only a guide and they may need to be altered according to your puppy’s activity level, breed, gender, age and environment.