Did you miss the previous installments?
Picking a Puppy, Part 1: Timing & Picking a Puppy, Part 2: Meet the Parents, Boy or Girl
Picking a Puppy, Part 2: Meet the Parents, Boy or Girl
Picking a Puppy, Part 3: Personality Testing
Picking a Puppy, Part 4: Buying Long Distance, Socialization
Picking a Puppy, Part 5: Socialization with People, Littermates
The First Vet Visit
The first vet visit should fall within these important weeks, giving you a good chance to let the puppy have a positive experience with the vet, who you hope will be especially warm and gentle with a little pup. If you aren’t happy with how the doctor treats you or the puppy, then this is a good time to find another health provider, before there is a medical emergency. Obviously the puppy fears will be more pronounced in some individuals than others. If you have a puppy who seems to spook and startle at every strange noise or new sight, then it may be worth the time for you to help her overcome some of those fears.
(This ends the Picking a Puppy series of blog posts. Next: Preview the next series: Raising a Great Puppy.)
Raising A Great Puppy
This chapter is an essential tool for anyone getting a puppy of any age — there is so much to plan for and deal with that it can seem overwhelming at times. Puppy-rearing can be fun, but it is also hard, frustrating work. This chapter should help you over the rough spots and clarify the confusing ones.
So many dogs abandoned at shelters are purebred puppies who were once the apple of someone’s eye — until one day those people just couldn’t imagine dealing with the “puppy stuff” for a year or more in order to one day wake up to the dog of their dreams. If there’s an overall wish for this book, it’s to help people really understand everything that goes into sharing our lives with dogs, so that we can all feel part of an amazing interspecies adventure and not just the unwitting recipients of puppy chaos. This chapter is dedicated to explaining what is happening with a young dog every step of the way, and breaking down the huge experience of bringing a puppy into your home into manageable bits.
Even if you already have a dog, or are bringing a mature dog into your life, it can still be pretty interesting to find out what goes into a puppy’s development and how it affects the dog that youngster becomes. In this chapter you will find:
- The Developmental Stages — a detailed description of what is happening in various stages of a puppy’s physical and emotional growth that will enable you to understand and effectively work with your little pooch.
- Puppy Peculiarities — some of the odd little things puppies can do that might alarm or confuse you if you didn’t know about them.
- The Puppy and the Vet — What to expect on the first vet visit, with suggestions about ways to make going to the vet a pleasant experience for all of you. Includes the customary inoculation schedule and the facts you need to know to decide whether you should follow it.
- Puppy Training — Some basics to get you started on the right foot with the pup; common puppy misbehavior and how to deal with it.
Puppy Developmental Stages from Eight Weeks
THE FIRST VET VISIT
The first vet visit should fall within the formative weeks during the fear-imprint period (eight to twelve weeks), which will give you a good chance to let the puppy have a positive experience with the vet, who you hope will be especially warm and gentle with a little pup. If you aren’t happy with how the doctor treats you or the puppy, then this is a good time to find another health provider, before there is a medical emergency.
End of Raising a Great Puppy Preview
Next Installment: BONDING TO PEOPLE: THREE TO FIVE MONTHS (TWELVE TO TWENTY WEEKS)
Copyright © Tracie Hotchner – Originally appeared in The Dog Bible: Everything Your Dog Wants You to Know by Tracie Hotchner
