4 Tips When Bringing Home a New Puppy
Bringing home a new puppy? It’s essential to be mindful of how you introduce them to the people and dogs in your home.
Introducing your new puppy to the people in your life is an important part of their socialization period.
However, there are some critical things we recommend you avoid doing to reduce your puppy's chances of exhibiting distance-creating behaviors and avoiding interactions in the future.
Learn what they are from our Certified Professional Dog Trainers below.
When is a Puppy’s Socialization Period?
According to the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior, puppy socialization is most important during the first three months of life.
During this time, puppies should be exposed to as many new people, animals, stimuli, and environments as can be achieved safely and without causing overstimulation, which can manifest as excessive fear, withdrawal, or avoidance behavior.
However, HOW we choose to expose our puppy to people can shape their opinions of people in general for the rest of their lives.
4 Tips to Properly Introduce Puppies to New Home
A common mistake people make is to confuse the puppy’s excitement and overwhelm with them being “happy.”
As their human, it’s essential that you learn to recognize signals of discomfort to benefit the puppy's development during this critical socialization period.
Below are 4 essential tips we share with people before they bring a puppy home for the first time.
Tip #1 - Give the Puppy Space & Time to Explore
Puppies should be given plenty of space and encouraged to interact with humans and other dogs at their own pace.
While it can be difficult to rein in your excitement, giving puppies time to explore the world around them is crucial to building their confidence.
Let them sniff around, walk around freely, and come to you when they’re ready to play.
Tip #2 - Recognize Subtle Distance-Creating Behaviors
When meeting new people, puppies often tuck their tails, pin their ears back, roll over to show their belly, or piddle to demonstrate that they are not a threat.
However, this doesn’t mean they’re ready to meet these new people.
Be on the lookout for subtle behaviors like pretending that they can't see you, whale eye, displacement sniffing, licking their lips, yawning. Some of these signals are also stress signals. These behaviors can indicate that the puppy is overstimulated and may need a break.
Tip #3 - Respect Their Need for Distance
We don't want puppies to learn that subtle distance-creating behaviors are not respected repeatedly.
Eventually, those puppies will become adult dogs who learn to use more obvious distance-creating behaviors, like barking, growling, and lunging. These behaviors are not as easily ignored and may require more specialized private dog training to unlearn.
So when puppies begin to show subtle distance-creating behaviors, respect them and do your best to create the space they need. This includes separating them from any other dogs in the home and asking the humans to step away from the puppy until they’re ready to play again.
Tip #4 - Avoid Crowing Over a Puppy
Humans can sometimes lose all decorum when they meet puppies.
They want to loom over them, hold them, grab their faces, coo at them, etc. While these behaviors seem harmless and even affectionate to us, puppies don't always share these sentiments.
Allowing people to crowd or indiscriminately handle your puppy may result in distance-creating behaviors to avoid interactions in the future.
So please, for the love of Dog... stop crowding puppies!
Interested in Getting Puppy Training?
Looking for an opportunity to provide your puppy with the kind of socialization that will help them grow into a confident, well-adjusted adult dog?
We offer a 4-week Puppy Preschool at our dog training facility in Portland, OR. So, if you’re local to the area, this is an excellent opportunity to help your puppy learn just that!
Learn more about Puppy Preschool here.
If you’re outside the PDX area, you’ll likely find the Free Puppy Handbook full of valuable insights on bringing your puppy home. Grab your copy below!
Download Our Free Puppy Handbook
Educating yourself on what your puppy needs during their sensitive socialization window is crucial.
Download our puppy handbook to get insight into:
✔️ What to do before bringing your puppy home
✔️ Shopping list for puppies (with links to what to buy!)
✔️ Daily puppy schedule & training foundations
✔️ Tips for socialization, potty training, & mouthing
✔️ How to establish independence
& so much more!
