The holiday puppy: the first ten days

More puppies come home in the last two weeks of December than in any other two weeks of the year. Most arrive in the middle of a house full of visitors, wrapping paper and a schedule that has nothing to do with a puppy. The first ten days are still the ones that matter most. Here is how we run them, and how to run them when your house is the busiest it will be all year.

Day one to three: the crate and the clock

The crate goes up before the puppy comes through the door, in a quiet room, sized with a divider so there is just enough space to stand and turn. Every meal is fed inside it with the door open, then with the door closed for the length of the meal, then for ten minutes after. The puppy sleeps in it from the first night, next to your bed if it helps, with a trip outside when it cries and no play when it comes back in.

Potty is every hour on the hour while the puppy is awake, plus after every meal, nap and play session. Go out the same door to the same patch of grass on a leash every time, reward within seconds, and come straight back inside. December in Houston is mild enough that this is easy. Nobody is standing in snow.

Day four to seven: the first rules

• No teeth on skin. Every time. A yelp and a turn away, then a toy.
• Four paws on the floor for every greeting, including from the relatives who think jumping is cute.
• Sit before the food bowl goes down, and the bowl goes up if the puppy walks away from it.
• Place on a small bed for one minute while you drink your coffee, building toward five.
• A name that means look at me, said once and paid for every time.

Day eight to ten: the world, carefully

A puppy this age has not finished its vaccines, so the ground in public is off limits until your vet says otherwise. That does not mean staying home. Carry the puppy through a hardware store, sit in the car in a busy parking lot with the windows down, walk it past the Christmas lights on your own street at dusk, and let it meet one calm adult dog you know well. Two new things a day, each one ending before the puppy looks worried. This is the socialization window and it closes fast.

The guest problem

The hardest part of a holiday puppy is not the puppy. It is the fourteen people who each want to pick it up, feed it a piece of ham and let it nip their fingers because it is small. Pick one adult to be the puppy's person for the week. That person controls the crate, the schedule and the rules, and everyone else gets to look. When the house is at its loudest, the puppy is in the crate with a stuffed toy, not in the middle of it.

Get the foundation set before the habits do

Four private sessions for a puppy under four months is the Puppy Development Bundle: $550 in Cypress, $750 in your home. December is when our team books most of them for January. Sit, place, recall, the crate, potty guidance and nipping prevention, taught to you with the puppy in front of us. A puppy that starts in its first month is the easiest dog we ever train.

Written by

Best Dog University Team

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