First of all, congratulations to all the new pet owners, prepare your home to welcome a lovely dog! Your life is about to change a lot, so it is normal to have expectations and nervousness!
I think that to take good care of a dog, you don’t need to prepare much and it won’t be too difficult. What is more important is the pet owner’s psychological preparation and adjustment, which is often overlooked.
For example, after starting to raise a dog, there will be an additional consideration factor in future life decisions, "I have to work overtime frequently at work recently. How can I help the dog relieve physical strength and energy?", "I want to travel for a week, I don’t know whether to ask my family to take care of it or send it to a hotel?".
In addition, taking care of a dog will inevitably encounter some abnormal conditions, such as soft stools, vomiting, and skin problems. Many times these abnormalities are not caused by poor care, and finding the cause is not necessarily so simple and direct.
At this time, it is more important for pet owners to learn how to face abnormalities and accumulate care experience than to prevent problems and blame themselves.
Although the road to raising a dog is full of many unknowns and challenges, as long as you have the courage to face and keep improving, it is enough.
What a dog needs is never a "perfect parent" who can make it live a hundred years, but a family member who is willing to care about it and enjoy life together.
5 things you need to know before raising a dog!
(I) Prepare supplies
The most basic necessities for dogs are:
- Food (staple food and snacks)
- Clean water
- Comfortable and quiet resting/sleeping place
- Toys (not too many, serious companionship is more important)
- Nail clippers
- Toothbrush and toothpaste
The most important resource is actually free of charge, that is, the time that pet owners spend with them!
(II) Environment arrangement
The main way dogs explore the world is often to bite and gnaw first.
Therefore, please check the environment several times to confirm that there are no items that may cause danger to dogs due to chewing (such as wires, trash cans...), and please also study the items that may cause danger to dogs (such as chocolate, grapes, onions...), and strictly put them away or avoid them.
You can also spend more time on resting and sleeping space. Pet owners often let dogs rest in the living room, but in fact, this is usually the noisiest space in the house, and dogs may not be able to rest quietly because of this (when they hear noise, they will bark outside to warn bad guys not to come).
If you can set up a quieter space and train your dog to rest here, perhaps the dog can rest more peacefully and the unwelcome barking can be reduced as much as possible.
(III) The importance of socialization
If you are raising a puppy, you must know the importance of "socialization". The first 2-12 weeks of a puppy's life is an important and sensitive "golden period of socialization".
During this period, a puppy will learn what things in the environment are always there and safe, and learn not to have excessive anxiety and urgent reactions to these harmless sounds, people and things.
During this period, letting the dog contact different people will also have a better chance of cultivating a second or third caregiver. In the future, if you need to travel or go on a business trip, you will be more able to adapt to being taken care of by others, instead of feeling overly anxious or even losing your appetite because of your absence.
In addition, moderate separation from you is also an important step in socialization.
Dogs should learn, "Mom and Dad will leave my sight and sometimes be alone at home, but it doesn't matter because Mom and Dad will definitely come back!" If you don't train like this, it may cause "separation anxiety" in the dog, and everyone will have a hard time at that time.
(IV) Medical treatment required in the first year
Medical treatment required in the first year is:
- Vaccinations
Core vaccines are usually administered 3-4 times in the first year
- Neutropion
Unless there is a special reason for neutering, it is usually performed at 5-6 months old
- Parasite prevention
It is recommended to prevent fleas, ticks and heartworms every month, and tapeworms and other intestinal parasites 1-2 times a year
(V) Understand their needs from the dog's perspective
When we can only interpret the dog's behavior and needs from a human perspective, it is easy to have many misunderstandings and problems.
For example, when a dog urinates in the wrong place and looks at you with innocent eyes, it is easy for humans to interpret it as "it is guilty, it knows it is intentional", but when we think from the dog's perspective, it may be "it doesn't know what you are angry about because it has long forgotten that it has urinated".
Encourage pet owners to learn to use their dog's brain to think about why some behaviors occur. If this part is difficult, there are many resources to seek help.
Some dog thinking patterns that you may not have thought of:
- Dogs will not want to make you angry or deliberately resist your instructions. Many times, they really don’t know what you want, or they really can’t restrain themselves (so not giving dogs the opportunity to make mistakes is a good way to deal with it)
- Dogs bark outdoors for a reason (deliberately disobeying), they actually want to protect their home and beloved family
- Positive training (praise and rewards) is far more effective than training by beating and scolding
