The learning curve


Our two species have grown and evolved together over time. Whilst your puppy retains some echoes of his wolf ancestry, he will be very much a modern dog. And although his natural instincts may govern a lot of his early development, he also has a huge capacity to learn.

With every day that passes, your puppy’s newly learned behaviours will have an increasing influence on his daily activities. Just like small children, puppies have little self-control or sense of danger, and life with a puppy can be hard work. But it should also be fun. Your puppy should fit in with your life, not the other way around.


Understanding how your puppy learns, and how you can influence that process, is the focus of our next chapter. Within that understanding lies the key to a happy and enjoyable relationship with your dog. By the time you have finished The Happy Puppy Handbook, you will know how to make your puppy feel at home, how to get him to sleep at night, and how to avoid him crying excessively. You will also know how to feed him and house-train him and how to keep him healthy.

But most importantly, you will know how to ensure that he grows up well adjusted and well equipped to live in harmony with all the other inhabitants of our crazy, chaotic and cluttered human world.



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Arriving home

At last. You have made it home with your precious new bundle. You pull into the drive and switch off the engine.  What now? The very first thing you need to do is take the puppy straight to his outdoor toilet area so that he can have a wee. Offer him a drink of water and make yourself comfortable. It may take him a while to decide that it’s okay to wee in this new place. Puppies vary in how they react to being placed on the ground in a strange place. Some are like little clockwork toys – you put them on the ground and off they go. Others will be more hesitant, and a few will freeze with fear. If your puppy seems worried, get right down on the ground with him, let him know that you are there for him and let him climb on your lap if he wants to, while he surveys this new world. He will want to stay near you but he will soon begin to sniff about and hopefully will decide to do a wee. Once he has emptied his bladder, you can take him indoors, but it is a good idea to set an alarm ...
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SUMMARY

• Prepare your puppy’s den, and put up baby gates and a playpen in the garden. • Take someone with you to collect your puppy. • Take a travel kit in case of carsickness. • Check numbers match on registration and pedigree certificates. • Take your puppy home travelling in the footwell of the car, pressed up against your passenger’s legs. • Put him in his toilet area as soon as you arrive home and every half-hour afterwards.
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What to expect on the journey home

The chances are that your puppy has never been in a car before. He has also never been away from the home where he was born and where he feels safe. If you put your puppy in a crate in the back of your car and drive home with him shut in there, one or all of the following three things may happen. He will scream very loudly most of the way. He will be sick. He will empty his bowels.  This reinforces your position as pack leader and is just good manners! This is simply because the puppy is stressed and feels abandoned. He may be perfectly safe in the crate in the event of an accident, but your driving is likely to be adversely affected by the noise and the smell. All in all, it is not a very good start to his new life. For this reason, when I collect a puppy, I always take an adult passenger with me, or get someone else to drive. Then the puppy can sit in the footwell on the passenger side of the car. Pressed up against someone’s legs, he will feel safe and won’t scream with fear. I...
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