PLYMOUTH DOG TRAINING CLUB
Kennel Club Registered
Founded 1957
President – The Lord Mayor of Plymouth
Puppy Socialisation Class
WEEK SIX
Puppy’s name: ………………………………………………………
Playtime, Winning Games and Possession of Toys
Play is a very important part of your puppy’s development and it is through play that your puppy will learn about its strengths and weaknesses. Your puppy must never learn it is mentally or physically stronger than you or any member of your family. The games your puppy will enjoy and consider the most important include:
Children should only be allowed to play games of strength with the puppy once it has been taught the rules of play by an adult. Children can have a positive effect on the overall development of a puppy, providing they are taught the correct way to behave. A few golden rules will ensure that both puppy and child grow up with respect for one another.
Don’t allow any child to:
Excitable and enthusiastic children can easily overexcite a puppy, resulting in rough play. The child will come off worse in any exchange of this type of behaviour. These situations can be controlled or avoided by separating the puppy at certain times of the day, eg breakfast time and when children get ready for school and bed.
Toys
With correct control and a suitable toy, tug of war games can be great fun as well as beneficial to the puppy’s development. It is important that the puppy never learns it has an automatic right to maintain possession of a toy or that it is permissible to snatch a toy from the handler. The aim of the game is to teach the puppy to take and release the toy on command.
Avoid gathering up the toys and placing them neatly in a box near the bed area, as this will allow your puppy to consider them as possessions. Rotating the toys will keep the puppy interested and will prevent it looking for new and exciting things to play with or chew, such as furniture, shoes and children’s toys.
Feeding Order
Although it can be convenient to feed your puppy before the family eats, it will confirm to the puppy that it is more important than the rest of the group, which you do not want. Make sure the puppy learns to wait patiently until the family has finished their meal, before it is offered any food.
Puppy Class – Help Sheet
Practise all the course exercises little and often throughout the coming months. Always be fun and unpredictable in your training.
Kennel Club Registered
Founded 1957
President – The Lord Mayor of Plymouth
Puppy Socialisation Class
WEEK SIX
Puppy’s name: ………………………………………………………
Playtime, Winning Games and Possession of Toys
Play is a very important part of your puppy’s development and it is through play that your puppy will learn about its strengths and weaknesses. Your puppy must never learn it is mentally or physically stronger than you or any member of your family. The games your puppy will enjoy and consider the most important include:
- Tug of war games of physical and mental strength
- Chase related games, teasing / flaunting toys or stolen articles
Children should only be allowed to play games of strength with the puppy once it has been taught the rules of play by an adult. Children can have a positive effect on the overall development of a puppy, providing they are taught the correct way to behave. A few golden rules will ensure that both puppy and child grow up with respect for one another.
Don’t allow any child to:
- Pester the puppy when it is resting or sleeping
- Walk the puppy unsupervised
- Pick the puppy up; if they want to stroke or cuddle it they must sit on the floor
- Feed the puppy titbits or take food/bones away from the puppy
Excitable and enthusiastic children can easily overexcite a puppy, resulting in rough play. The child will come off worse in any exchange of this type of behaviour. These situations can be controlled or avoided by separating the puppy at certain times of the day, eg breakfast time and when children get ready for school and bed.
Toys
With correct control and a suitable toy, tug of war games can be great fun as well as beneficial to the puppy’s development. It is important that the puppy never learns it has an automatic right to maintain possession of a toy or that it is permissible to snatch a toy from the handler. The aim of the game is to teach the puppy to take and release the toy on command.
Avoid gathering up the toys and placing them neatly in a box near the bed area, as this will allow your puppy to consider them as possessions. Rotating the toys will keep the puppy interested and will prevent it looking for new and exciting things to play with or chew, such as furniture, shoes and children’s toys.
Feeding Order
Although it can be convenient to feed your puppy before the family eats, it will confirm to the puppy that it is more important than the rest of the group, which you do not want. Make sure the puppy learns to wait patiently until the family has finished their meal, before it is offered any food.
Puppy Class – Help Sheet
Practise all the course exercises little and often throughout the coming months. Always be fun and unpredictable in your training.
- Keep up the recall. Introduce new distractions in order to proof your puppy through any situation. Be creative, for example try calling your puppy through people in a park, children running around, etc.
- Teaching your puppy tricks is a great way of exercising their mind and body; it also helps to reinforce the bond between you and your puppy.
- Keep proofing your puppy’s positions, as with the recalls, practise little and often and try to do them in different places for example try doing the positions in a car park or outside a school.
- Start to also proof your stays. Once your puppy has learned the cue “stay” then you can start to increase the distance and duration. Once they have learnt this then you can start to introduce distractions like you are with your recalls and positions.
- Keep up the handling exercises.
- Keep practising the “leave” and “take it” commands.
- Keep up with your puppy’s lead work exercise.