by Cesar Millan
Eliza at home
THE PUPPY-READY HOME
“When someone is buying a puppy, I always give them lots of information about how to prepare their houses,” says Diana Foster.
When people aren’t prepared, it’s a recipe for disaster. And it’s totally unnecessary. It’s as if a woman were pregnant for nine months; she goes to the hospital to have the baby; she comes home, but there’s nothing ready. There’s no crib. There’s no playpen. There’s no booster seat or diapers. So she just leaves the infant on the floor. That may sound extreme, but there really are people who buy a puppy on a whim and that’s the kind of thing they do. Then they wonder why their house is a wreck and they have all these behavior problems. They blame the dog for being out of control. I make sure I never let one of my German shepherd puppies go to someone who’s not prepared.
Puppy-proofing a home doesn’t have to be a monumental project, especially if you keep your puppy in a confined space for the first few weeks, gradually expanding her territory more and more as she becomes housebroken and starts to feel more at home in your family pack. Finding a secure, limited space in which to keep your puppy—at least during her early months—makes it easier for her to internalize your rules, boundaries, and limitations, gives her a sense of order and structure, and protects your home from accidental destruction. Chris and Johanna Komives prepared an area in their back hallway (with a dog door to the backyard) where they put Eliza’s crate. In our home, all new dogs—including Junior, Blizzard, Angel, and Mr. President—began their residency in their kennels, in our large, well-ventilated garage, with an open door to our side yard and a wall of baby gates as an additional boundary. Of course, our puppies will be staying in that garage with the balanced adult dogs already living there. I don’t ever recommend leaving a young puppy crated alone in a garage or a distant, closed-off room, simply because being so completely isolated from the sounds and smells of a living pack will be very upsetting for her.
Diana Foster recommends that families ignore her German shepherd puppies for the majority of their first days home but put their crates in a far corner of a family room or kitchen, where they can feel a part of the pack even while not engaging in the family’s activities. This teaches them that excitement in the family doesn’t mean they have to respond with excitement, a vital skill for powerful-breed puppies that will grow up to be large, brawny dogs. A mudroom or laundry room just off a kitchen makes an ideal place for this kind of setup. Some people bring their puppy’s kennel into their bedroom to minimize her loneliness for the first few nights, then decide to leave it there indefinitely. The place you choose should be an area of which you are not obsessively house-proud, so if an accident does occur, you won’t lose your temper and blame your puppy for a mistake that is not her “fault.”
Diana Foster’s crate setup for her Thinschmidt German shepherds
I am the world’s biggest fan of baby gates, be they metal, wire, wood, or plastic. I keep lots of them folded up in my garage and use them for a variety of purposes—as barriers, as “map” boundaries to show where I want the dogs to go, and even as behavioral enrichment tools in obstacle courses for the regular challenges I use to fulfill my dogs’ need to work. It’s important to remember, however, that a clever puppy can easily push or leap over a lightweight baby gate. It’s up to you to set an invisible boundary as well as a physical one wherever you choose to keep your dog.
Spot Check
Although you should always be supervising your puppy in the more open areas of your home, as her confidence grows she will be driven to explore most everything in her immediate environment. Accidents can happen, no matter how diligent you are. That’s why it’s important to do a puppy-proofing of each room before your bring your littlest pack member home. Pass through each room, checking for loose wires or electrical cords that might appear all too chewable, and move them out of sight or tape them down. Make sure that the food in your kitchen is put away on high shelves or in sealed containers; make sure your garbage can has a firm lid and is out of reach. Put a latch on any low cabinets containing cleaning products, in both the kitchen and bathroom. Examine your bathroom floors and low shelves and clear them of any human grooming products—soaps, shampoos, shaving lotions, loofahs or sponges—that might prove to be temptations. Keep the toilet bowl down at all times. In our garage I have high shelves, locked cabinets, and sealed plastic containers that house any loose odds and ends I don’t want the dogs to get near.
Houseplants are a huge enticement—dogs are attracted to anything natural, so the scent of the soil and leaves will be very inviting to them. Terriers like Angel may instinctually want to dig up your prize two-hundred-dollar fern when you’re not looking, so be sure to remove plants from the floors of any rooms in which you eventually plan to allow your puppy. There are also a few very common house-plants that can be toxic to dogs, including
Aloe vera Lilies
Asparagus fern Mistletoe
Bean plants Philodendron
Cactus Poinsettia
Caladium Potted chrysanthemum
Dumbcane Umbrella plant
Hydrangea Various ivies
Indian rubber plant Weeping fig
Don’t forget your backyard in this process. Like houseplants, several common yard plants and trees are poisonous to your puppy, including
Autumn crocus Lily of the valley
Castor bean Morning glory
Foxglove Nightshade
Hibiscus Oleander
Hyacinth Precatory beans
Japanese yew Trumpet vine
Jerusalem cherry Tulips
Kalanchoe Wisteria
Larkspur
The ASPCA’s excellent website offers a more comprehensive list of toxic and nontoxic plants, as well as tips on how to spot symptoms of poisoning.1
Supplies
In addition to your crate or kennel, you should be prepared with the following items and tools to help both of you adjust to your new life together:
Healthy puppy or dog food approved by your vet
Food and water bowls
Collar and leash
ID tags (also consult with your vet about microchipping)
Grooming supplies: nail clippers, brushes, flea comb, dog shampoo, ear-cleaning pads, toothbrush, and dog toothpaste
Wee-wee pads
Baby gates
Natural-material chew bone (I am a big fan of the bully stick, because rawhide can be rough on a puppy’s digestion)
Vet-approved training treats for rewarding
Plastic bags or scooper for poop
Dog bed or dog cushion
A variety of stimulating play toys
A PRESIDENTIAL PUPPY-PROOFING
When Mr. President was three and a half months old, my wife and I took a trip to Australia for business, then went on to Fiji for a short vacation and spiritual retreat. For the two weeks we would be away, Dog Psychology Center director Adriana Barnes took care of the dogs in my home pack, but our hardworking researcher for this book, Crystal Reel, campaigned fiercely for the opportunity to foster our winsome English bulldog puppy. I believe everyone in my human pack should have the joy of spending time with dogs, even if they don’t own them permanently, and I encourage everybody who works with me to get hands-on experience practicing the principles of calm-assertive leadership that I teach. But since Mr. President is an accomplished chewer, I instructed Crystal to thoroughly puppy-proof her townhouse before the presidential visit.
Crystal reported later:
My puppy-proofing started with the kitchen, because that is where Mr. President would hang out if I couldn’t take him somewhere with me, such as the grocery store or a restaurant—I learned quickly that most people didn’t buy the story that he was my Seeing Eye dog! In the kitchen I had to make sure he couldn’t get into any of the household cleaning chemicals that I keep under the sink. Baby locks and duct tape work great to keep these securely closed.
Next came the pantry cabinets. Bul
ldogs might not have the best sense of smell in the world, but Mr. President quickly figured out that his food was in there. I learned the hard way that he could open my pantry cabinet. I set up a webcam in my kitchen so I could watch Mr. President from my computer at work on the rare days I wasn’t able to bring him into our very dog-friendly offices. There I was, working away, when I saw Mr. President actually open the pantry cabinet and start pulling out the bags of doggie cookies I had placed on the bottom shelf! I was terrified he would eat the plastic bag the cookies came in, so I immediately jumped up from my desk, hopped into my car, and raced back to the west side, a good forty-five-minute drive. Luckily, Mr. President has good taste—he ate all the treats and left the plastic bag—but still I’m glad I had set up the webcam so I knew what he was doing at all times.
I also puppy-proofed the living room and my bedroom by making sure to hide or pick up off the ground any cables or cords he might be able to chew on, as well as shoes and other things I had on the ground that I didn’t want eaten. I then vacuumed everywhere because we have leaves and twigs and such that get tracked in around the front door from outside and I didn’t want him to eat any of those either.
The direction Cesar gave me on puppy-proofing was to keep an eye on his chewing and redirect his energy. He told me bully sticks were best because rawhide can be hard on a puppy’s digestive system. So I made sure to have a lot of bully sticks on hand, and they really did come in handy!
PUPPY-PROOFING CHECKLIST
Keep floors free of loose or small items that could become choking hazards: loose change, pens or pencils, paper clips, jewelry, etc.
Move electrical cords out of the way, tape them down, or cover them with heavy rugs. Purchase plastic outlet covers for open outlets.
Make sure breakable items—curios, lamps, etc.—are safely removed from puppy’s play area.
Set up baby gates to block off access to forbidden areas.
Install childproof locks on low cabinet doors, and remove all cleaning supplies or toxic chemicals to high shelves.
Fence in or cover swimming pools, hot tubs, and other open bodies of water.
Remove potentially poisonous houseplants and outdoor landscaping.
Keep toilet seats down.
Make sure trash can lids are locked and sealed.
BOUNDARIES BEHIND WALLS
Since a recurring theme of this book is “how not to raise Marley,” here’s another telling incident from John Grogan’s poignant and hilarious memoir, describing the very first time he brought their two-month-old Labrador into their small home. “When we got home, I led him inside and unhooked his leash. He began sniffing and didn’t stop until he had sniffed every square inch of the place.”
A cautious new puppy checking out his new crib—sounds like a perfectly reasonable reaction, doesn’t it? What first-time dog owner John didn’t realize was that almost all puppies at eight weeks of age will act polite and tentative while checking out an unfamiliar environment. But a casual introduction like this one sets the precedent for a puppy eventually to believe that he should “own” that entire space. Once a dog starts feeling secure and confident within the confines of his new real estate—especially a fast-growing, powerful, and very-high-energy dog like Marley—problems can multiply with lightning speed. True to form, within a few short weeks, Marley was acting like a drunken rock star hell-bent on trashing a hotel suite: “Every last object in our house that was at knee level or below was knocked asunder by Mar-ley’s wildly wagging weapon. He cleared coffee tables, scattered magazines, knocked framed photographs off shelves, sent beer bottles and wineglasses flying. He even cracked a pane in the French door.”
The Grogans’ decision to let Marley explore his new environment on his own is one of the most common errors I see new puppy owners make. And I’m not alone in observing this. “The very, very worst thing you can do to a puppy when you bring it home is introduce it to your whole house,” Brooke Walker says emphatically. Diana Foster agrees. “He doesn’t need the whole house, and he doesn’t need the whole yard. Those are the owners who will call me a couple of weeks later, complaining, ‘I thought the dog was supposed to be well-behaved. This dog is out of control.’” Unfortunately, some of the most popular puppy-training books on the market advocate letting a new puppy run free, claiming that you “owe” your new puppy her “freedom.” Freedom, in my experience, means something quite different to a puppy than it does to us, or even to an older dog.
Your eight- to ten-week-old puppy has just come from living with her mother, who provided her with specific rules, boundaries, and limitations from day one. Your puppy could romp and play and explore, but there were always limits. She could wrestle, bite, and pounce, but there were always limits. If she had a conscientious breeder, she also learned to feel self-assured within the world of human boundaries. To your puppy, that world of very clear structure has come to represent comfort, safety, and security. Structure gave her harmony, serenity, and a growing sense of self-confidence. If freedom equals peace of mind, then, as it turns out, structure actually makes up the foundation of a dog’s freedom.
In contrast to the Grogans’ first day with Marley, consider Chris and Johanna Komives’s first day with Eliza:
When we brought her home, we took her right to the back hall, which we had already set up for her. We had her crate there, her food, and a dog door (but we left it closed until she was crate trained). She stayed in her crate or the backyard for the first week. Then I brought her into the living room on her leash and introduced her to her “place”: a dog bed. She was not allowed to leave her place when she was in the living room. We began teaching her commands right away. She learned sit, stay, down, and go to your place. A week or so later, we showed her the kitchen.
The Komiveses may never write a bestseller about Eliza’s crazy antics, but they still have an intact home and a dog they can confidently take with them anywhere without worrying about destruction or a lawsuit!
Once you cross the threshold of your domain, it’s up to you to supervise and control how your puppy first experiences her new environment. The Komiveses chose a foolproof way of communicating to a puppy the idea that the humans are the ones who control all the space within their walls. To eight- to ten-week-old puppies, the vast-ness of a strange new environment may seem overwhelming and frightening. Having a well-defined space that they know is theirs is actually a comfort to them. If you have followed my instructions so far, you have blocked off a small area—a “safe” area—in which you’ve put your puppy’s crate or bed. Baby gates are great to use as barriers, because the puppy can have you in her scent and sight but still be in a limited area. The Komiveses’ approach involved bringing Eliza through the front door, then walking her immediately to her area.
THE FIRST NIGHT HOME
Bedtime, for your new puppy, will be the moment it really sinks in for her that she will no longer have her mother and siblings around for warmth, company, and comfort. In their natural world, puppies always sleep with their mother and siblings. This transition from her pack to yours is a monumental challenge in the process of becoming your perfect pet. It’s where the rubber meets the road.
For a puppy, the next-best thing to having her original pack around is to sleep near or with another dog. If you already have a dog at home, however, you’ll have had to introduce that dog to the new puppy, and determine whether or not the dog is receptive and nurturing. Warning: A dog that growls, ignores, or acts wary around a puppy will need a lot more introductory work from you before she can be left alone with the puppy. It’s also important that any older dog sleeping with a puppy is compatible in size with that puppy, since a very small puppy can easily be suffocated by a well-meaning but heavy larger dog. If you have any doubts at all about this, check with your breeder or your vet.
Junior slept with Daddy from the first night he came home with me. Daddy and Junior were already used to caring for a variety of dogs in various states of mind and stability, and I tru
sted them absolutely with the welfare of the new puppies. They became grandfather and big brother respectively to the two-month-old yellow Lab puppy, Blizzard, who slept in his own crate but next to the other dogs’ crates in the garage. And since Mr. President and Angel came home with me around the same time, the two of them automatically accepted each other as “stepbrothers” and have been inseparable ever since, always sharing a crate as if they were actually littermates. Thanks to the dogs of my pack, not one of the puppies in this book has ever had trouble adjusting to his new lifestyle. Most likely, however, you don’t have another balanced dog that is ready and willing to take on the role of “nanny” to your puppy. It is up to you to reduce any trauma the pup might have on her first night away from her birth family.
When it comes time for sleep, set up the puppy’s crate, kennel, or bedding in the area where you want her to stay, making sure to line any hard surfaces with newspaper or a towel. A raised bed in the back and papers on the ground will prevent the puppy from having to sleep in her own excrement, should a nocturnal accident happen. If it does, change all the bedding and completely clean and sanitize the crate the next day, so the puppy never smells her own excrement and becomes accustomed to relieving herself in there. Also outfit the crate or bed with an item with the mother’s and siblings’ scent on it; a good, smelly chew toy like a bully stick; and perhaps even a soft dog toy with a simulated “heartbeat” inside it, which can be quite comforting for a puppy.
