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This is the Puppy Training Podcast Episode #49: New Puppy Rules. This podcast is designed to help you on your journey of becoming best friends through love and learning as you train your own dog from home, and I'm here to help you every step of the way. This is the Puppy Training Podcast, and I'm your host, Amy Jensen.  

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Hello, hello. How are you guys this week? I hope you're doing well. I hope you're staying safe, and I hope you're adjusting to this new way of life. I know at our house we are in our third week of homeschool, and my kids are actually starting to really like it. They've realized they can do their homework in their pajamas. They can eat popcorn while watching class movies, so we have definitely found a few positives. We've had a lot of people join our program in the past few weeks, which we're super excited about, and because of that, I've talked to a lot of people about their new puppies, and I've been over the new puppy rules when a puppy comes to your house, basically what we want to focus on right away. I thought maybe I'd share that on a podcast today and give that information out to everyone, just things that are basic and simple, but that could be established from day one so that your puppy is off to the best start possible. That's what we're gonna go through today.  

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First and foremost, with a brand new puppy, you need to watch your puppy 100% of the time when they're out and about in your home. It doesn't matter if your new puppy just went to the bathroom or hasn't had much to drink yet today. If you're not watching them perfectly, they will have an accident. Either going to the bathroom on the floor or they're gonna chew something that they shouldn't, which will inevitably make you frustrated, angry, disappointed, so during playtime in your home, please watch your puppies as closely as possible, 100% of the time, and remember to take them to potty every 20 to 30 minutes. A brand new puppy, when they're up and playing and running around and there's access to water, could possibly need to go to the bathroom every 20 to 30 minutes, so I just set an old fashioned kitchen timer, or tell my Alexa to set an alarm, reminding me that my puppy might need a potty break. But if you're watching them 100% of the time, you'll also notice their potty signals. They'll start to sniff excessively or turn in small circles, at which point, you could quickly interrupt them by clapping your hands or slapping a wall just enough to get their attention. We don't want to scare them. We just want to surprise them or startle them so that they start to pay attention, and at that point, I would rush them outside. Always go with your puppy to go potty. In the beginning, I recommend putting your puppy on a leash and going outside with them so that you can mark the behavior that you're wanting and reward it with a food reward or praise whatever your puppy thrives on. That reward is important, and whatever motivates your puppy is what we want to reward them with. I use food because food is very motivating to most puppies. If your puppy loves praise more than that or a squeaky toy or playing with you, then absolutely you can use that reward, but going out with them is important because you want to be able to mark that behavior and then reward it so that it gets repeated. Now if your puppies inside the house and starting to circle or starting to sniff excessively and you clap your hands or startle them and you rushed them outside to finish, absolutely we want to praise them and throw a little party for them in the yard that yay, you went outside, we're so happy you did that. It does take some time and some consistency. There's going to be accidents, so just plan for those, but try to avoid them as much as possible and you could do that simply by watching your puppy of 100% of the time, but also going out with your puppy so that you can reward and mark that good behavior outside. Eventually, you can get to the point can just send your dog out to go to the bathroom, but during puppy training, this initial house training experience, I would definitely go outside with your puppy. Keeping them on a leash helps them stay in a small enough area that they can't wander off or get too distracted by the fun things that they can find outside.  

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All right, the next item is something that I like my puppies to do, and I guess you get to choose whether you want your puppy to do this or not, but it's something that you can start right away. I like my puppies to wait at exit doors until I grant them permission or a release cue to walk through the threshold. Every time my puppy comes to a doorway, that's an exit to my home, I expect them to make eye contact with me and wait for me to say 'okay' prior to them crossing through. This includes my front door, my backdoor, and the garage door. I don't really do it for indoor doorways into bedrooms and things like that, mainly just my exit doors, but you really get to choose what that looks like it your house. In the beginning, you're gonna keep your puppy on a short leash just to help him not bolt through the door, and you're gonna plan on using your foot or your body to block him so that they can't run past you prior to you saying that release cue. You're just going to use your body, your leg, to prevent them from darting past. I use a little 'no' or 'uh-uh' just to kind of remind them to back up, and then usually I wait for one or two seconds with those brand new puppies and say 'okay' and then move out of the way so that they can cross through now the reward in this instance is really just getting out of the door. Most of those puppies were gonna be excited to get outside, so that's the reward in this case. But I practice this every time I come to an exit doorway, to the point that my puppies learned to just stop at the threshold. They look up at me, give me their attention, at which point I can say 'okay', and they can cross the doorway.   

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I do crate training in my program, and I believe in giving puppies alone time and having them learn how to settle when they're not with someone and also entertain themselves. In their crates or exercise pens, they're getting toys that are appropriate to chew on, so spending time in there helps them learn what they can chew on and it prevents lots of house training mishaps from your puppy chewing on a sofa leg or a table leg, et cetera. Now when the puppies in a crate or a kennel for the first time, they've never been alone before. That's something that we need to teach them. That's a skill they need to acquire. That first week home, I do help bridge that gap for them, so because they've never been alone before, they've always been with littermates, and now suddenly they're home with us, and we might try putting them in a crate or an exercise pen where they feel alone, I'll sit by the crate. I'll have them go in and out on the first day. I will have them spend super short sessions, maybe one or two minutes while I disappear, and then I come back so I do help bridge that gap for them. But the most important part of this is that if they do start to whine or cry, we don't want to pay attention to it. If I look at them or talk to them, or approach them and let them out then they simply learn, 'Oh, if I cry or wind, then they open up the gate and I get out', so they will continue to cry or whine. Another important point to remember is that intermittent reinforcement makes a behavior really strong. That means if you're rewarding only some of the time, it becomes this gambling game to the puppy, and it's a little bit addictive. Let's say that this puppy cries for 15 minutes and we ignore for the first 14 minutes, and on the 15th minute, we go and open the door for them. They've learned that, 'Oh, that 14 minutes of crying was worth it, so I'm going to do that again and hopefully, I'll get out', and they'll just keep trying and trying because it worked before. Again, in the beginning, that first week really does help your puppy buildup to those longer and longer times. There's no sense in leading a puppy in the crate for a couple of hours on that first day and letting them cry it out if they're just feeling sad or anxious. Let them get past that transition phase, help them feel safe in your home, that they can learn to trust you, do those short crate sessions where they're going in and coming right back out again, and then, you're shutting the door for a minute or two, but you're right back to where they can see you before they've really started to stress out. Doing those initial crate training things really help so that your puppy just learns to love his crate. Also, I'm always giving them something good to do and fun to do while in the crate so that they associate it as a positive place. Then after that first week or two, when your puppy's really settled in and you can see his little personality is blossoming and he's feeling very comfortable in your home, you can go ahead and start to lengthen out those crate times, remembering that important point of, if he does start to cry or whine or bark at you to get out, ignoring it usually is very effective. No eye contact, no talking to them, and most puppies will settle within a few minutes on their own.

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In relation to the crate training and exercise pens, your puppy will either to on everything you wish he wouldn't or what you appropriately provide him with, so giving him toys that are appropriate while he's in the crate and the exercise pen, as well as when he's out in your house playing and you're watching him 100% of the time, make sure that he's not allowed to continue chewing on pillows or bed cover, table legs, sofa legs, et cetera. Replaced, replace, replace. Remember that puppies will sometimes want to sink their teeth into something soft, and sometimes they'll want to sink their teeth into something hard, so I'm often replacing a soft pillow with a rope toy, or I'm replacing a sofa leg with a Benebone or something harder for them to chew. Kongs are wonderful things. I use them a lot with brand new puppies and older dogs. It keeps them busy for more than two minutes at a time, usually 15 to 20 minutes your puppy will be occupied, so those were wonderful toys that you can stuff with treats. There are many other toys out there on the market that are similar, but basically, you're stuffing them full of even their wet kibble and then topping it off with something tasty, like a teaspoon of cream cheese and then that licking gets them going and they get started on eating that food out of the Kong and they learn how to really work that Kong, and it entertains them. Again, give your puppy plenty of things to chew on or else they're going to find things that you wish they wouldn't chew on. 

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Your puppy is required to sit for any type of attention. I have a saying that nothing in life is free and my puppy 'sits-to-say-please'. If my puppy wants attention, I expect to sit first. If my puppy wants me to toss the toy, I have them sit first, and I don't cue them to sit. I just like them to do it automatically, so I'll just wait, and initially, I'll help my puppy get into position using a food lure or a toy lure to help them get into that position, I'll mark yes, the second they sit, and then I'll reward them with something so the puppy learns, 'if I want something and I sit, I get it really quickly'.

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Two more quick tips. First, I like to teach my puppy a marker word. We mentioned that when we were talking about the go potty outside, but I use a yes. Some people use a clicker. Some people will click their tongue. Basically, you just want to pick a short sound that will let your puppy know the second they do something right and I start this game right away so that my puppy starts to learn very quickly through that one little word what I'm wanting and that he gets rewards for it, so any time I say yes, my puppy knows that something good is coming, so he tries to do things that I'm thinking of or wanting him to do simply so that he can get that next yes, and get that next reward. That's a great thing to start from day one with your puppy is just loading that marker.

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Finally, make sure that your puppies getting time to play and rest during the day. Puppies need downtime. If they go, Go, go, go, go, they usually just turn into little biting machines and they get more wild and ramped up, so give your puppy regular nap times throughout the day. If you have children in your home who are always wanting to pick up the puppy or carry them around or get them to do things all day long, please be sure that they understand the puppy needs sleep, and the puppy will be happier and much more pleasant to be around when they do have that downtime. The crate is wonderful, exercise pens are wonderful that first week home when they are a little anxious and nervous, you're welcome to just snuggle them on the sofa with you, whatever you choose to do or keep them right by you, if you use the crate, maybe just put the crate right next to you, but do give them that downtime and instruct your children to let them rest and let them have naps and when they wake up, then we can have some structured playtime.

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All right, that's it for today, you guys. Hopefully, those few tips helped you, especially those with brand new puppies or who are welcoming brand new puppies shortly into their homes. I hope you have a wonderful week, happy training, and I'll talk to you next week. If you have a question about anything you heard on this podcast or any other puppy training question, visit my site BaxterandBella.com to contact me.