5 Mistakes New Puppy Owners Make

Bringing home a new puppy is an incredible, exciting, overwhelming experience, and many new/first time owners make mistakes they don't even realise they're making. So, to prepare you for your new family member; here are the top 5 mistakes puppy owners make with their new companion.

1: Waiting to Start Training

Many owners believe that when they bring their new pup home at between 8 and 12 weeks old, they're too young for training, and that they should wait until they're older before they start working on the training basics.

However, the first few months of your dog's life are the most crucial when it comes to development and training. Whilst you can absolutely teach an old dog new tricks, the beginning of life is where you want to begin preventing negative behaviours before they develop, as preventing them is infinitely easier than training the behaviour back out later in life. Early on is the time to be putting boundaries in place to prevent behaviours such as resource guarding, reactivity, separation anxiety, and so many more.

But training early on isn't just about preventing behaviours, it's imperative to start building up the good habits, too. These can be things as simple as not jumping up when greeted, all the way to threshold control, but each one is super important when it comes to keeping your dog safe.

Another reason not to wait is that when your dog reaches around 8 months of age, they enter their 'teenage' phase. This means that no matter how well trained they were before, they're going to start pushing boundaries, and asking 'why?' in the only way they can, by completely ignoring you and doing their own thing!

The teenage phase is an incredibly important time if both you life as an owner, and your dog's life as a part of the family unit. It's when you're going to have to work even harder than before to set and reinforce the boundaries that keep order in place. But it's also important to remember that your dog isn't 'misbehaving', no matter how frustrating it gets. It's a natural part of life, just like with human children, they'll push boundaries and irritate the life out of you, but so long as you persevere and don't give up, you'll come out the other side with a well-balanced adult dog.

2: Confusing Socialisation with 'Meeting Everyone'

Everyone knows the importance of your dog meeting other dogs and people while they're young, but what's often overlooked is the importance of doing the exact opposite.

It's also really important for your dog to learn to be indifferent to other dogs. Now, that doesn't mean they can't look at another dog , wag their tail and then look to you wanting to play, but what it does mean is teaching them that it isn't appropriate to run up to, bark at, or impolitely greet other dogs and/or people. This isn't just for the benefit of you and your dog, but other owners and handlers, too. Another dog could be working on their reactivity, and another dog barking at or running up to them or their handler can not only put everyone involved in danger, but also set that dog back hugely, and risk your dog developing behavioural issues from the potential trauma of the situation.

Socialisation isn't just managing our dog's reactions and behaviour around others, though, it's also incredibly important to expose them to different stimuli very early on, and focus on bringing a positive association to anything that is new. Taking them to the local pub for a pint to teach them how to do nothing in a busy setting, being around bikes, cars, wheelchairs, scooters, buses, lorries - the list goes on! - to ensure that they're not frightened by things that they're going to encounter in, daily life. Cats, birds, water: all examples of things that might not be at the forefront of your priorities but are just as important to be desensitized to as the rest of the things on this list. Even the hoover is something that your puppy will need to be socialised with - it's their first time on earth, too!

3: Accidentally Rewarding Bad Behaviour

This one sounds super mean, but it's actually way more common than you'd think. "But Eli, I know what bad behaviour is, how could I ever 'accidentally' reward something I don't want my doing?" I hear you, but it's actually a little more complex than that.

See, dog's don't process comfort or correction the same way we do.

Petting a scared dog to comfort them (whether they're barking or not)

Picking up a barking dog

Playing with a dog that's nipping hands.

These are all examples of rewarding undesired behaviour. See, when we put hands on our dogs (petting, picking up, basically anything us humans would consider comforting) it's reaffirming that their behaviour is correct - to them anyway. So petting a dog that's cowering and /or barking from fear, and saying "it's okay, you don't need to be scared" doesn't help them realise that nothing scary happened, because they can't understand what you're saying.

The same goes for playing with a dog that's nipping hands; it's super cute when you're playing with your new puppy and they're attempting rough and tumble and chewing a little, but trust me, it's not long before those teeth start to hurt. A lot. When you play with your dog despite the nipping, you're teaching that nipping is an acceptable way to play that gets rewarded.

4: Expecting Too Much Too Soon

Many new/first time owners have all these ideas about what their life will be like with a dog:

loose-lead strolls through the woods

Perfectly loyal dog that always comes running back when called

Quiet, cuddly evenings watching telly

And then reality hits. And it's nothing like what they expected.

Arm workouts through muddy fields

Sprinting after your dog whilst apologising to the parent of the child they just hurdled

chewed up skirting boards and holes in the couch

And whist training can help with all of the above issues, it takes time, repetition, and a lot of reward for the littlest steps. There's no need to be embarrassed if your 6 month old cocker spaniel is more interested in what someone dropped on the floor six weeks ago in this specific spot than he is on you begging him to do a sit stay. As long as you're trying, not giving up, and seeking advice where you need it, you're still being a responsible owner and doing what's best for your dog.

5: Over-Exercising Your Puppy

A common myth is that high energy/high drive puppies simply need more exercise than other dogs, but in reality, living by this theory results in overtired, overstimulated puppies that are difficult to manage, and can even lead to health problems and injuries ( and an expensive trip to the vet)

It's important to remember that physical exercise isn't all your dog needs - Mental stimulation is incredibly important too!

Scatter feeding, scent work, Puzzle toys, more complex agility work (like slalom, where they need to think about where they're going), even learning new tricks like high five and spin works your dog's brain and helps to prevent restlessness while also avoiding them being overtired physically.

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