Puppy season: the eight-week checklist.

April is when the spring litters come home. The first week decides more than most families realize: the crate, the potty routine, the socialization window and the first rules are all easier to set at eight weeks than to fix at eight months.

The checklist

• A crate sized for the puppy now, not the adult, with a divider
• Potty every hour on the hour, after meals, after play and after naps; reward outside within seconds
• Two calm new experiences a day: a surface, a sound, a person in a hat, a car ride
• The first rules from day one: no jumping on people, no teeth on skin, meals in the crate
• A vet visit in week one, and the vaccine schedule that decides where the puppy can go

The Houston part

April puppies grow through their first summer, so the heat rules apply before the puppy is six months old: paws on the pavement test, walks at dawn and dusk from May, and socialization in air-conditioned stores rather than hot parks. Mosquito season is year-round here, so heartworm prevention starts on the vet's schedule and not later.

The Puppy Development Bundle is four private sessions in the first four months, in Cypress or in your home, and April is the month it books up.

Socialization without the dog park

Socialization is not letting the puppy play with every dog it meets. It is calm exposure to the world before the fear period closes at around sixteen weeks: surfaces, sounds, people of every shape, cars, carts, a vacuum, a hat, a child, a calm adult dog that ignores it. A Houston puppy in April can do most of that in a hardware store aisle at ten in the morning, sitting in a cart, watching. The dog park is the wrong place before the vaccines are done and usually the wrong place after; a puppy that gets bowled over by a Lab at twelve weeks can carry that for life.

• Two new things a day, each ending before the puppy is worried
• Carried or in a cart until the vet clears the ground
• Calm adult dogs only, on leash, for the first meetings
• No greetings with strange dogs on the sidewalk; teach walking past instead

The first rules are the easiest rules

An eight-week puppy accepts any rule you set with total consistency, and an eight-month puppy fights the same rule for a month. No jumping, no teeth on skin, meals on place or in the crate, and waiting at the door are four rules that take days to set now and weeks to fix later. The bundle's four sessions are built around exactly this: the crate, the potty routine, the first commands and the greeting rule, in your home or in Cypress, before the habits set. April is when we book most of them.

Written by

Best Dog University Team

Board and train trainers in Cypress, Houston. 16+ years, 900+ dogs. About our team