I’m scared I’m Doing everything wrong With My Puppy
We live in a worry society.
I have to say, in some cases I’m scared I’m doing everything wrong with my puppy, and I’m an experienced canine person! I make a living writing about dogs and canine training.
No matter what I write about, someone has to inform me I’m waaaay wrong. I’m killing my puppy, even.
No wonder I get concerned emails from new puppy owners saying things like, “I let my puppy on the couch. have I ruined her?”
¡No! let your puppy on the couch for God’s sake! As long as you don’t mind having your future adult canine on the couch.
Since I got my puppy Remy, here are actual warnings I’ve heard or read:
Don’t take your puppy for walks. You’ll destroy his joints. (Have you lived with a weimaraner?)
Never tell a puppy “No;” that’s aversive and you’ll scare him. (¡DECIR AH!)
Don’t let your puppy play on hard floors; he’ll get hip dysplasia.
Don’t let your puppy climb stairs; he’ll damage his hips.
Don’t give your puppy rawhides. He can’t digest them.
Don’t let your puppy go potty outside until he’s had all his vaccinations; he could get sick and die.
Don’t put flea prevention on your puppy. It’ll give him cancer.
Don’t give your puppy raw food. His immune system isn’t developed and it will kill him. (Said a vet of ours!)
OK … so … what can my puppy do? sit in a pen with pee pads licking himself?
It’s stressful raising a puppy, and these extreme warnings are not helpful, especially for new canine owners.
Here’s my advice:
Don’t believe a word anybody says.
People have been raising dogs for generations. It’s not complicated. If you make mistakes (we all do), you can fix them. Dogs adapt.
Puppies get sick. They get hurt. They misbehave. we all reinforce the wrong things at times.
Está bien.
The truth behind these warnings
For every one of those “warnings,” there are some truths to them. but they are not hard RULES, just things to consider, research and weigh the pros and the cons.
For example, I chose to take my 11-week-old weimaraner puppy for 40-minute walks around the neighborhood on concrete sidewalks. I think that pup would’ve been at the humane society if I couldn’t walk him. He would be uncontrollable.
I tried not to overdo it for his joints, but who knows? I also hoped he wouldn’t get sick (he didn’t).
On the plus side, my puppy was out and about meeting new people and seeing new places. He was exposed to numerous things, built a stronger immune system, built stronger muscles and burned energy so was better behaved.
I don’t have all the answers. I can only do what I think is best for my puppy. That implies he gets rawhides, I tell him NO plenty, I let him use the stairs, I use flea prevention.
These are all decisions I have to make for my own puppy. Your puppy is different, and you will make your own decisions.
We do the best we can!
What puppy or canine challenges are you handling best now?
There’s always something, isn’t there?
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