Love, structure, exercise and supervision: Recipe for a happy puppyhood

Rawley starts his first official puppy training class a week from Saturday, but that doesn't mean I haven't been training him.



Puppies are being "trained" from the day they join your family. It's entirely your decision what they learn during that time. In my decades of raising puppies, from birth or from the day I bring them home, I've always taken control of the process from the start.



So when the trainer came to my house for his in-home puppy evaluation, she pretty much made my day by cutting the cost of the program since it was clear to her that I didn't need help with the usual "puppy management" stuff like destructiveness, house-training and "puppy play biting."



I give full credit for the last to Rawley's breeder, Paula Pascoe; he arrived with excellent bite inhibition, and I've just reinforced that with the occasional whimper when his sharp baby teeth touch my skin in play.



But like any puppy, he considers everything a potential toy and every surface a potential toilet. So my solution?



Ex-pens, paying attention, and being proactive.



The only time Rawley is loose in the house right now is when I'm interacting with him. That means following him from room to room, making sure he doesn't potty or get into anything he shouldn't. It means that if I see the slightest hint he's going to squat or chew, I hustle him outside or divert him with a chew toy.



Of course, it also means he's curled up in my lap while I watch television -- cuddle time is quality time.



If I can't actively supervise him, however, he's in one of his ex-pens. I have one set up in the living room, one in the bedroom (pictured) and one in my office. It has plastic-backed pads on the bottom, covered with blankets, surrounded by a four-foot wire fence (which Deerhound owners commonly use to bring our dogs to shows or field trials). It's full of toys, and has a bucket clipped to the wire so it won't tip over.



This way, Rawley's always with me, always part of the family, but he's also safe -- and so are my carpets and furnishings.



And so is Kyrie, my 11-year-old Borzoi, who really doesn't need to be irritated by a free-range puppy while she's trying to sleep.



Now, this program only works because I'm fortunate enough to work out of a home office, and because I have a very flexible schedule most of the time. If Rawley indicates he needs to potty, I can hustle him out at the first whine. This is great, because it reinforces the house-training process: Always go outside. Yes, he's had a couple of accidents in his pen, but every time it was because I wasn't quite quick enough.



And if Rawley's feeling rowdy, I don't just tell him to be quiet. I wrap up what I'm working on as quickly as possible, leash him up, and hit the park.



This puppy-rearing system has the advantage of quickly teaching him the ropes, and creating a tight bond between puppy and owner.



However, as part of Rawley's socialization process, I'm also making sure he knows that being without me, or even entirely alone, isn't a bad thing. I started leaving him for short intervals. I don't say goodbye, I don't make a big deal of saying hi when I get back, and I never re-enter the house if he happens to be whining or crying. (Although Kyrie did once look at me like I was crazy as we stood on the front porch, waiting for a moment of silence so we could go in after our walk.)



And a couple times a week, my trainer and dog walker extraordinaire, Courtney Guntner of San Francisco's The Whole Pet, takes the little guy to his puppy play group for a few hours.



If I didn't work at home, I'd probably do exactly what I already do, but either take Rawley with me to work, as I do now on Thursdays when I'm at the Maddie's Fund offices, or put him in doggy day care, as Gina did during Faith's puppy hellion days while she was still working her PR gig.



It's not really that hard as long as you plan well, but it does require a certain amount of toughness. I'm all over the puppy with love and hugs and play -- duh -- but I also let him know that this is how his life is, and that he has to go along with the program. In fact, I structure both our lives so he has no idea there's any other way to live.



Contrary to a few hand-wringing puppy buyers I've counseled over the years, this doesn't make the puppy feel bad. If you do your job right, it makes him feel confident and secure. Dogs like to know the program; it's how they're wired.



Now, Deerhounds tend to be tractable dogs, and Rawley is the most co-operative puppy I've ever raised. He's making it easy. But even those dogs *cough Lillie cough* who felt the program sucked benefited from it, and were quickly house-trained -- allowing them the very freedom they were craving.



So my advice to puppy moms and dads everywhere: Structure, routine, lots of love, play and attention, and stand tough about keeping the puppy on his schedule and in his pen or crate when he's not being supervised.



It doesn't mean your dog will be perfect any more than you are, but it does mean he'll be comfortable with the routine of your shared life, and safe. It doesn't get much better than that.



Photos: Top: Rawley was napping on my lap when I slid him into my favorite chair and went for the camera. Bottom: Rawley's ex-pen at the foot of my bed.

Comments

[Gina Spadafori]

Uh ... kendo armor?



When I met the handsome young Rawley, I have to admit I wondered if he were unwell. Seriously, Faith was more active at 12 hours of age than he is at 12 weeks.



At 12 months, she has yet to reveal an "off" switch, if she has one.



Have long adored Christie's sighthounds. But honestly? They'd bore me to death to live with one. On the flip side, Christie thinks my dogs suck the oxygen out of the room. Two hours with them is all she can take. McKenzie, who is the most easy-going of my fieldy bunch, had Christie gaping last weekend. "Doesn't she ever stop?" We put in maybe three miles, and McK put in twice that many with the back-and-forth. And she could have gone 'round three times more, but the rest of us ... not.



McKenzie has WORK to do, dammit!



Love the diversity, I really do.

[H. Houlahan]

The only time Rawley is loose in the house right now is when I’m interacting with him. That means following him from room to room, making sure he doesn’t potty or get into anything he shouldn’t.



Aha! The essential difference between a stockdog puppy and a sighthound puppy, condensed into one field mark.



The stockdog puppy follows YOU from room to room. Whether you want her to or not.



My first GSD gave me the wiggums as a pup. Followed me everywhere and would sit and stare at me when I stopped moving. My goldens hadn't done that.



Last night my young ES foster -- raised as a kennel beastie as living evidence in the criminal prosecution of his "breeder" -- took exception to me closing the sewing room door -- I was trying to candle eggs and needed it dark.



Now, the two small bedrooms upstairs in our old farmhouse (now the sewing/guest room and Perfesser Chaos' office) share a closet -- there's no wall between the two closets.



Cole sniffed outside the door for a few seconds, and then I heard him go into PC's office, climb over the boxes and crap, slide open the closet door, climb over the ski boots and trumpet cases and kendo armor and other junk on the floor of the closet, and slide open the door on the sewing room side.



He walked in, stared at what I was doing for a few seconds, then flopped down and went to sleep. No worries, no drama. Mission accomplished.



I didn't even know he knew about the closet connection.



Yes, I totally get how this kind of -- what, loyalty? co-dependence? -- can be a bit too much fullness on the top for many people.



And not all stockdog pups are so sanguine -- others would yip and scratch at the door and get themselves panicky about the separation. Not good candidates to be latchkey dogs.

[C.L.H.]

Yep, I call them "underfoot dogs." And if I hadn't been able to take mine to work with me, I would not have gotten her. I think that's why there are so many stock dogs in rescue.

[Arlene]

I've been fostering rescues for the past 18 months. They've mostly been adolescents who have been seriously undersocialized. There haven't been many housebreaking issues, but this advice also works well for the older dog who hasn't been in a house much. The dogs' level of confidence and general joy increases dramatically once the dogs understand the household routine and various "rules"!

[Mikkel]

Great blog Christie. It sounds like you're doing it right when it comes to setting your puppy up for a lifetime of success. Love Rawley's pic, warms my heart.

[Jill]

I just can't fathom a puppy sitting there while you go to get your camera. Mine never would. I am the pied puppy piper at my house. I get up they all follow. But, yet I have 3 dogs who "suck the oxygen out of the room". And, only two of them are those nutso black dogs that Gina has. And, the other follower is the golden and he does stare at me like those stock dogs. I think he is just trying mind control on me "Walk, walk, walk...."

[brindlegrl]

great piece, christie. rawley sure has the perfect life. i often look over at leo (6 months old tomorrow) and have to remind myself that he's a puppy. deerhounds can be remarkably mellow sometimes. then, of course, they can also be totally insane. he even goes up to bed sometimes before i do, like his predecessor, penny, did when she was almost 13: the opposite of a velcro dog, their classically aloof sighthound behavior.

[H. Houlahan]

I just had my memory jogged about an Irish wolfhound pup I worked with years ago.



Referral from the owners' vet. Puppy is "hyperactive" and "crazy."



First session (in owners' home) and I was looking at a perfectly normal, active, mouthy puppy. If that puppy was, say, a Jack Russell terrier, or a working-bred GSD, that was getting into the sugar bowl when no one was looking. In a wolfhound? My instincts told me sumpin' weren't rite.



The owners had done their homework, chosen a very appropriate breed for their personalities and lifestyle, gone to an impeccable breeder and waited for a pup to be available, and a week after bringing her home, were wondering if they had lost their damned minds.



At the second session they mentioned that Saiorse had been licking and chewing at her front paws -- and indeed, they were raw.



"Well, that's a classic symptom of allergies. But she's far too young for that."



Their vet said the exact same thing. As did the allergist. But it was so classic for allergies ...



Allergy tests showed the pup was allergic to everything. She was three months old. Mold spores, most grains, several meats, dust mites, and every kind of pollen they could test for, including pollens that had not existed on the planet during her time on it. This pup's immune system was deranged and attacking her.



When the prednisone controlled the allergies, they had a normal wolfhound puppy. No more giant JRT on cocoa puffs. (But racehorse-worthy pee accidents, alas.)



The breeder spayed the dam and invoked a wild-card neuter clause in the contracts of all the littermates; she had also sold pups to the kind of people who would not need the clause invoked after receiving such news.



Unfortunately, the immune meltdown was progressive, and after a time, nothing could control it and make her comfortable. Saiorse had a short life, well-loved, but never at home in her own body.



Nowadays, when a pup is drastically breed-inappropriate in his behavior, I look to the medical first. This cuts both ways. The lethargic golden pup DID have a hole in her heart, no matter what her breeder said.

[Original Lori]

My lab/border collie guy must always know where I am. He's usually next to me, but as long as he knows where I am he might venture a room away...maybe. When my mom watches him for me, she swears he settles down much sooner when I leave if I tell him I'll be right back... (I figure it's not lying, since their concept of time is different anyway, right?