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| Bringing Your Puppy Home The Trip Home Use a crate or carrier to bring your Dane puppy home. Put in a couple of old towels in case your puppy gets motion sickness. Be sure you have a collar and leash with you for potty breaks on the way home. I will give you a new and an old toy or blanket to take home with you. When you arrive home, even before you take the puppy in the house, take him to your preferred potty area. You may want to salt the mine by dropping some litter from his first home. This is up to you. Stay with you pup until he relieves himself and then enthusiastically praise. Puppy Proofing Measures 1. Tight squeezes where a puppy could get trapped like behind a stove. 2. Heavy items on tables that could tip over or fall on the puppy. 3. Stairwells,patios,porches,open windows that could lead to a fatal fall. 4.Access to common household items such as household cleansers,air freshiners,poisonous household plants, antifreeze, decon and exposed wiring or extension cords. 5. Small,easy to swallow things that could harm your puppy like tacks,pins,rubber erasers, and children's toys 6. Doors and gates to the outside that a quick puppy could dart through or get caught behind 7. Make sure the puppy is safe before moving the car. Note Great Danes grow rapidly and you may have to update your puppy proofing as your puppy matures. Adjustment Time Much of what your puppy encounters in his new home will be mystifying and bewildering. Until the recent memories of his old family (mother and siblings) begin to fade, he will need a lot of support. It is natural for you to want to show off your new puppy, but give him some time to get to know you and your immediate family before you spring a whole new group of people on him. Go easy on trips for the first few days. Just let your puppy stay home with the family and get into a routine. Establish a schedule with your baby Dane and try to adhere to it. This consistency will help your puppy adjust and help especially children adjust to the puppy. Introduce pre existing pets to your puppy gradually. The last thing your puppy needs is to be swatted by the cat or dominated by the alpha dog. The best way is to introduce them through a screen door or let the older animals go up to your puppy when he is in his crate. As your Dane will probably be the biggest guy in the house, you do not want the puppy frightened. Please remember to give adequate attention to your other pets. It is easy to be so excited about your new addition that you lavish too much affection on your baby and thus creating problems later on. The Doggy Den Canines prefer to have some safe haven to retreat to when things get stressful. The use of a crate will greatly aid you in helping your puppy settle in. It can be an invaluable aid in housebreaking. Always keep your puppy in his crate at night as he could get into serious trouble wandering around the house at night. Helping Your Puppy Settle In Your new puppy is at the peak of his learning abilities and the lessons he is taught now can stay with him the rest of his life. It is up to you to make sure he learns the right lessons. Take your puppy out to relieve himself often, always after a nap, after a play session, after eating and as late in the evening and as early in the morning as possible. Always stay with your puppy and praise,praise,praise him when he does his bussiness. Your puppy should sleep in his crate at least utill he is housebroken. Since I sleep with 7 Great Danes in my bedroom with none in a crate I can not say that they should sleep in a crate their whole lives. This is a personal preference. But a crate is a very good housebreaking tool and the puppy should be in his crate at night until he is totally housebroken. If your puppy whimpers be strong and leave him in his crate. One lesson you do not want your puppy to learn is that it can whimper and whine and get what he wants. This could be very hard to unteach. There are some things that you can do to help your puppy through the first few nights. You can put a hot water bottle wrapped in a towel in the crate. You can put in a toy or blanket from his old home with familiar smells. You can use an old fashioned alarm clock to stimulate his mother's heart beat. You can put a radio next to his crate and turn it on to an all night talk show that gives your puppy the sense he is not alone. Training and Corrections Remember that although your puppy is big he is still very young an can play hard for just a little while. Do not let him overexert himself. When he appears to be tiring put him in his crate to rest. Encourage guests in your home not to interfere with the puppy's training. Explain to your guests that you have established rules for your puppy and that inconsistencies will only confuse him. Your puppy was early neurologically stimulated at age day 3 to day 16 which means that he will fulfill his full potential for training and learning. You must establish dominancy over your puppy. You have bought a dog who may outweigh you. One person should be alpha but all the other humans in the family even the children should be higher than the dog. I hope you have already done this with your other dogs. Your puppy's training has already begun for you by his mother. She did this training by repetition, consistency, timeliness and fairness. If you follow this canine course your training will fit into a pattern your puppy understands. As far as corrections are concerned, Danes are very sensitive and should never be hit. A very firm alpha "NO" is enough to put a full grown Dane graveling on the floor for forgiveness. Never rub the puppy's nose in an accident he will not know what he did and may start to fear you. Formal obedience training should not start till your puppy is 6 months old but you of course will be training your pup all along. |
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