Puppies. They’re excellent, and a lot of effort! As amazing and fun as it is to bring home a puppy and start creating a meaningful, lasting bond, raising a puppy can be difficult and emotionally tiring for you as a guardian, so let’s take a look at some common puppyhood problems for young puppies.
Sleep. Puppies under 16 weeks of age need up to 20 hours of sleep a day, which is something they can resist. Puppies often need help from their guardians to get proper rest throughout the day, and can become overtired without an adequate amount of sleep, which can make their behaviour more challenging. More zoomies, more destruction, and more biting. It’s super important to teach them how to rest.
Biting. Puppies explore the world with their mouths and have just come from a litter where they played with their siblings by biting so it’s only natural that they want to do the same to you. Puppies will bite you in play, and as mentioned above this can be even worse when they’re overtired. It’s very important to ignore the biting behaviour, and redirect the biting onto a toy.
Adolescence. You know hormonal teenagers? Imagine that, but it’s your dog. This topic deserves an entire post of its own as this stage of puppyhood can prove even more challenging than the early puppy stage. Watch this space for a post on Puppy Adolescence!
Raising a puppy is hard work and comes with its challenges so getting professional advice to support you through that journey is a wonderful thing to do, both for you as a guardian and for your pup. If you have a puppy and would like support in your journey raising them then drop me an email and I’ll get in touch.