If your household has a new puppy and you are also preparing for a baby, you definitely have a lot of work on your hands. Or maybe things have gone the opposite direction and you have just brought home a baby and you also got a puppy. Either way it is crucial for a puppy to receive great training as early as possible but with a baby in the mix, you need to train your puppy to play well with the other little one. This goes beyond basic obedience training as socialization is also crucial to the mix. Learn more about training a puppy.
If you live in our near The Woodlands, you have the good fortune of being close to the training specialists at Puptown Houston. The reason we recommend professional dog training beginning as early as six weeks old is due to this being an “imprinting age”. During this time your puppy will learn things that will stay with him/her for a lifetime. This is the ideal window for a puppy to learn things like agility, basic obedience commands, house manners, potty training, and most importantly, socialization. Our “doggy day camp” while being trained with positive reinforcement methods and sharing the company of other dogs.
Obedience and Socialization
Believe it or not, basic obedience can help tremendously when a puppy interacts with a baby. Commands like sit, stay, come, and leave it could ensure safety if a puppy gets scared or uneasy from unfamiliar sounds, smells, or movements. After all, human babies can almost be like puppies in their behaviors, which is where socialization comes into the picture as your puppy might very well consider your baby to be another puppy.
Once more, Puptown can help out with this to help teach proper play behavior. We offer unique classes and training to make sure you will have a well-behaved dog. With your permission, our training includes taking your dog to several different places where they will encounter a variety of people, situations, and other animals. Socialization cannot be taught in a ring which is why Puptown exposes dogs to real-world situations as part of their training.
Our expert trainers take puppies and dogs on different “vacations” like to parks, stores, and other dog-friendly areas to teach them how to be polite and well-mannered in a variety of different situations. We believe that learning should be versatile, realistic, and practical rather than taking place entirely in an isolated training ring. We strive to familiarize puppies with a variety of environments and distractions, which can also help in identifying and overcoming any fears of phobias in dogs. This is where one can see the advantage of proper socialization when it comes to a puppy interacting with a baby to prevent a potentially harmful reaction from sudden moves or sounds.
Overcoming Aggression
Another behavior we focus on correcting is food aggression. This is defined as a form of resource guarding in which a dog becomes defensive when eating. In fact, aggression can go beyond the food bowl and extend to toys and other prized possessions. And if a puppy loves a bright, bouncy squeaky toy, there is a chance that a baby could adore it just as much. You can certainly see the potential problem here as a dog defending a prize can elicit anywhere from a mild reaction like a growl to a severe response such as biting. If you see any such behavior, it is critical that behavior be stopped before a very serious situation arises. As Puptown is built around positive reinforcement in correcting undesirable behaviors, we are fully prepared to help your puppy overcome aggression and will do so with great success.
While this behavior is easiest to address in puppies during the imprinting age, we can certainly help dogs of any age overcome this behavioral issue. And we understand the importance of making sure kids are safe around family pooches of all sizes and ages. And it’s not just kids, dogs need to be well-behaved and good canine citizens around other people and animals in general.
Having your dog attack someone or another dog can have devastating results and our goal is to do everything we can to keep this from happening. So if you are ready for a beautifully behaved pup contact us at 832-930-0073 or at info@puptownhouston.com. If you would like a first-hand look at our unique facility drop by 12725 Iouetta Rd., Cypress TX 77449.
