Top Tips for success with your new terrier puppy.

When you make the choice to get a terrier, you join an elite group of slightly unhinged yet completely brilliant humans willing to allow a level of chaos in to their life in exchange for intelligent, empathetic, fun and loyal little dogs.  Strap in for fun ride!

Setting up the home for success

Getting it right with a puppy often comes down to good management as much if not more than good training. If you can prevent tricky behaviour issues before they even start you can save yourself and your new family member years of stress. On that note, don’t give your pup too much freedom at home before they are ready. We are a huge fan of pens here at Terrier school. Enough space for your pup to move around and interact with toys and the like, but somewhere safe for them when you aren’t able to give them your full attention. So golden rule number one, supervised  or away in a safe, suitable penned area.

Top Tip - Put your pen somewhere in the main part of the family home. Get your puppy used to being settled around day to day family life without getting involved.

 Dealing with puppy biting

One of the biggest struggles every new puppy owner struggles with is biting. It’s common in most breeds but can be very overwhelming with terriers who basically want to bite for a living. Here are my top strategies to prevent your arms turning in to pin cushions 

•  try to prevent I before it starts by making sure you actively provide and start little play sessions with your pup during the day so they get that bite need met
•  Watch them for being overtired, gently remove them to their pen if they loose control and become a bit feral
•  Leave a thin puppy line on them all the time so you can remove them from things like biting furniture without having to get the hands in their and make it all in to a big game
•  Try not to let the biting turn in to their favourite hobby by jumping and leaping about when they do get stuck in. Gently remove them or redirect on to something more appropriate than you.
•  Give them plenty of safe a puppy legal chewing toys for teething

Getting socialisation right

 Don’t make the mistake of thinking that socialisation is taking your puppy out to meet every dog and every person to make sure they stay friendly. That often backfires and creates a reactive and frustrated little ball of barking. When it comes to Terriers you want to strike a balance between then getting good, well modelled interactions with socially stable adult dogs and learning that not every dog or person is their business. Introduce them to the life that you want them to lead as an adult in small manageable doses creating the same emotions and set up you want for both your futures.

Basic Training

Teaching basic behaviours like sits and downs is great fun and well worth doing. You’ll start to build a great relationship with your new dog and start to bond with them in a way that matters. So go ahead and teach stuff! Just keep your sessions short and fun, with lots of positive reward. Focus in recall and some basic loose lead walking if you need something to work on because with those two skills you can pretty much navigate all of life with a new puppy.

Meeting needs

 Building in tug play and scent work from an early age with your Terrier will help you reduce frustration and manage arousal. Adding little bits of control on to the play with manners and being able to let go of toys can make all the difference, rather than trying to teach an overly frustrated adolescent dog the same skills because they are now out of control. Just some simple finding of food and toys in to their daily routine can be a great way to use that puppy brain and build a calm confident dog.

Routine for success

 Keeping you puppy in a routine is one of the best ways to make your life easy. It ensures enough rest and keeps things predictable for your pup. Here’s how I recommend structuring your day - 

Sleep - Toileting - (Meal) Play/socialisation/training - Calm time to wind down - Sleep

Run that little routine through a few times a day and you’ll be on to a winner!