Reis Canine Academy - Addie Reis KPA CTP

10/29/2021

10/27/2021

Puppies - how much freedom should we give them?

When we first brought Monster into our house, we had expectations for him. However, he had no idea what these expectations were.

We didn’t want him chewing our sofas. We didn’t want him annoying our other dogs. We didn’t want him chasing and annoying any of our other animals. We didn’t want him using us or our clothes as tug toys. We didn’t want him sh****ng in the kitchen. We wanted him to chill when we were chilling. We wanted him to become independent and cope with us not always being there.

All of these expectations do not come naturally for puppies. They don’t understand our rules. We can only expect them to behave like puppies and all the things we usually don’t want them to do, they want to do.

We set up an area for him. A place where he couldn’t do anything ‘wrong’. If we weren’t with him, that’s where he went. For the first 3 days he had almost zero freedom. We were constantly supervising him. After a week he became more comfortable alone and ‘asking’ to go out to the toilet. After two weeks he would actively chews his toys to chew on as opposed to us or the sofas. And now after almost 3 weeks he’s choosing to settle on his bed when we aren’t interacting with him.

He now spends very little time in his area (unless he takes himself there which he does regularly for naps - it’s open for him to go or leave). He has access to the deck and the garden. He’s out with us in the evening and with our other dogs. We still supervise him as he’s still under 10 weeks but he’s a very easy guy to have about the place.

He hasn’t had the opportunity to develop bad habits. He’s had lots of opportunities to develop the ‘good’ habits. This now allows him the freedom we want our dogs to have.

The biggest mistake new puppy owners make, is they give their pup too much freedom too soon, which helps them develop the bad habits and then remove that freedom as they get older (because they are so ‘naughty’). This will then be a big chase for behavioural issues down the line.

Do the opposite. Give less freedom early on and as the good habits develop, allow them more and more freedom as they start to learn what is expected of them.

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