Puppy Facts: Navigating Puppyhood
Getting a puppy home is the best feeling, they’re silly, they’re goofy and they’re pure. They’re also quite rambunctious and have a knack for mischief.
Here are a few puppy facts that will help you navigate puppy-hood:
A puppy only has an attention span of about 3-5 minutes when they’re very young.
When starting out training you want to train in bite-sized chunks so they can learn well, and feel confident. Ideally with puppies under 4 months you want to do 3-5 training sessions of 5 minutes a day. A little bit done properly will go a long way. As they get older, they’re attention span goes up to about 12 minutes. Remember, you always want to end a training session before they’re tired out so they’re excited for the next one!
Dogs loose all their baby-teeth at about 6 months old.
Crazy right? It’s true. The reason you want to pay attention to this is because it can effect behavior. They can get more irritable, want to bite stuff more, and you may find teeth when you’re cleaning up! Redirecting their biting to a toy is a good idea. You may also find blood on a playmate when they’re teething, don’t worry, this is a common way they loose teeth.
Puppies should exercise 5 minutes per month their born up to 2x a day.
This means that your puppy if it’s two months old can go on two 10 minute walks up to twice a day or if they’re 3 months old two 15 minute walks a day, for example. You need to be really careful over-exerting puppies because it can hurt their development, and cause serious medical issues late in life. You should not run with your dog until it is about 12 months old. Limiting jumping, and going up and down stairs is prudent.
Puppies need to sleep for 18-20 hours a day.
Young puppies need lots and lots of sleep, and generally people don’t realize quite how much they need! Getting a puppy at first can seem overhwhelming but often people try to do too much with their puppy. Overtired puppies can be a handful and will often act out such as nipping more or other nuisance behaviors. Creating a routine where you take the pup out at the same time every-day, and that it naps for the same time everyday can really set you and your puppy up for success.
