Top Tips for Settling Your New Puppy into Your Home
When you have just brought a new puppy into your home, you will no doubt get lost in puppy cuddles and the joys of having a new family member for the first few days. However, you do need to make sure that you are settling your puppy in properly so they can adjust to living with you as quickly as possible. Here are some of the things you can do to properly settle your puppy in.
Make Them a Safe Space
Every puppy needs a safe space where they can go and take a nap and lie down if they feel a little overwhelmed by these new experiences. You might not want to properly commit to crate training, but getting them a crate can still be a fantastic move to help give them a corner of your home that they can relax in.
Reward them whenever they go in there to lie down so they begin to associate it with a nice space to be in. If you have a blanket or toy with the scent of the puppy’s mother on it, this is also a good place to put it. For those households who might have several dogs, try to keep your others out of this space. It is just for the puppy, and you should not confuse them by letting your other dogs mix their scent in with it too.
Start Them on Their Diet
You need to make sure that you start your puppy on their diet as soon as you can. Speak to your vet about what might be the right sort of food for them, and then get them started on their new diet as soon as you have the go-ahead.
There are many types of diet that you could choose for your dog, but many think that a raw diet has several benefits that they can take advantage of. Make sure you check out this raw feeding guide for puppies from Bella & Duke so you can be certain that you are delivering this diet in precisely the right way. It might take a little while to settle the puppy into their diet. Try to set up regular feeding times so you can both begin to work on establishing a routine. Before you know it, they will be eating their new diet happily and you can focus on some of the other aspects of introducing a new dog to your home.
Protect Your Wires
Your puppy needs to learn quickly that there are some things that they just can’t chew. Wires are going to be a major one here – your shoes can always be replaced, but you need to watch for a curious puppy who wants to chew on your laptop charger!
Try to remove as many hanging wires as you can, or block them off so your puppy will not be able to get at them. If you cannot do this, you might want to try putting a taste deterrent on the cords. This will hopefully not taste nice to the puppy, and this can encourage them to stop chewing. Try to nip this in the bud as soon as you can. The older the puppy gets, the more difficult it might be to train them out of it.
Be Strict at Night
If you want your puppy to sleep in a certain place at night, you are going to have to be strict with yourself. Puppies do cry as they are just babies after all, and this can be especially gut-wrenching at 3 AM when you cannot get to sleep.
However, if you do not want your puppy to sleep in your bed with you, you can’t settle them in these early days by allowing them to curl up with you. All that will happen is that you will send mixed messages to your dog, and they will just get confused. You need to make sure that you have boundaries drawn from the beginning, and you need to ensure that you are prepared to stick to them no matter how much that puppy might cry at night.
Enjoy Yourself
Bringing a puppy home is always a special occasion and it is a time that you should fully enjoy. There are several things that you can do to ensure that this settling-in period is as easy for both of you as possible. Introducing your puppy to your home is always going to take time, and you need to make sure that you are prepared to meet their needs. Hopefully, this is going to be the start of a beautiful life for both of you together! Take the time to get to know each other and settle in properly so you can move forward as one household as soon as possible.
