With the holidays comes a season of gift giving, and for some this may include receiving a furry friend. While exciting at first, it can be challenging to navigate life with a new puppy.
Hannah Sotropa of the Toronto Humane Society shared some expert tips on CTV's Your Morning for new dog owners looking to become expert pet parents.
SETTING BATHROOM RULES
House training a puppy can seem daunting, said Sotropa, but if the right approach is taken there isn't need to worry. She says it's important to understand a new puppy doesn't poop inside the home out of bad behaviour but because they have yet to learn the appropriate place to use the bathroom or aren't being let out frequently.
"A great rule of thumb for new pet owners is that if you do have an animal who is four months in age, add one and that's typically the number of hours they can hold their bladder for, so around five hours if you have a four-month-old dog," Sotropa said Monday.
While supervision during their bathroom break is important, Sotropa said new pets need silence and space to do their business so they're able to focus on the task. Instead of constantly commanding them to use the bathroom, minimize the attention and focus on the reward when they're done.
"When they do go, you want to make sure that you really encourage [them], so you're really treating, rewarding and being consistent with your praise," she said.
PREVENTING JUMPING AND BARKING
The attention of a new jumping puppy can be cute, but Sotropa says it can pose as a problem once they get older and possibly bigger.
To avoid your new pet from jumping or barking it's important to ignore them and only reward them once they've calmed down.
"The biggest thing that you can do with the puppy who's jumping is to turn your back, so you want to ignore, ignore, ignore. If they're barking at you, avoid giving eye contact; by turning your back and avoiding eye contact you're removing their incentive, which is to get your attention," she said.
Sotropa says once the puppy learns they will be rewarded and given attention when they're being polite and quiet, they'll be less prone to jumping and barking to get the response they want.
SEPARATION ANXIETY
As many people return to the workforce and their daily routines at the start of the new year, leaving your pet at home can cause separation anxiety for them if the proper steps aren't taken to make sure they build their own independence first.
Separation anxiety in dogs is when they become overly attached to their owners and develop extreme anxiety when they're not around, causing them to lash out through destroying the home, pooping in the wrong area or barking and whining.
Sotropa says it's imperative to create these skills in the first years of a pet's life so in the future they'll be less stressed and more independent. Giving them personal time in a designated area like a crate could help with this, she explains.
"Practicing alone time away from your pet by crate training is a great way to do so where they have a safe space they can seek comfort in and they're more likely to resort to a healthy coping mechanism in their crate than they are if they don't," she said.
In the event you need to leave them home alone, Sotropa says it's important to show and ease them into your departing routine so they don't feel abandoned if they notice you putting on your shoes or grabbing your keys to leave them.
"We all have departure cues whether it's grabbing a toothbrush, jacket, keys or wallet that indicate it's time for us to go and so making those possible triggers, where the anxiety might already be building early on, as desensitized as possible will set you up for success," she said.
