Getting a New Puppy | What to Expect & Do

Hey guys, Dr. Lera here today. I'm here with Raven. Raven is an 11 week old female German shepherd mix. And the purpose of the video today is to talk about if you're going to be gifting a puppy to somebody for the holidays, or if you have just received a puppy for the holidays, some of the things that you should be aware of and some ways that you can prepare or things that you can start working on. Stay tuned and we'll get into that momentarily. All right, guys, so a couple of things that you'll want to take into consideration if you are receiving a puppy or getting a new puppy. So one thing, or gifting a puppy, one thing is you want to first identify the kind of household that the puppy is going to. Is it a household with young people who are active? Is it a household with small children? Is it a household of people who travel a lot? Is it a household of older people? And is it a household with multiple pets, dogs, cats, that kind of stuff? So that's the first thing, one of the first things you'll want to consider. Then based on those factors, you're going to then start taking into consideration what breed to get. And so the, the breeds will play a role. You know, if you have somebody who's super active, loves to run that kind of stuff, then you can get a higher energy dog, like a Belgian Malinois, which is like balls to the wall, you know, on fire all the time kind of dog. And they require a lot of training, they require a lot of energy expenditure. So it's going to be something that would be very, very specific, kind of like also a Jack Russell terrier. Jack Russells have a ton of energy typically. And so it's something that you need to be aware of if you have the, the other thing is also if the people are experienced with having large breed dogs. For my particular family, when I grew up, I had large breed dogs and I was used to large breed dogs. But my wife and I have only had poodle mixes and when she was growing up, she had a beagle and she had a Lhasa Apsu or Shih Tzu and then she also had a Yorkie. So this was, this is her first large breed dog that she's dealing with. So that's something else that you want to take into consideration. We have smaller kids as well. And so, you know, that's something that typically you're, if you're going to be getting a hyper dog, you're probably going to want to get a smaller breed hyper dog for little kids just because they can be intimidating, they can be scary for the little kids. And sometimes you don't want to traumatize the kids. The next thing that you want to take into consideration is when you're getting the dog. If you're going to be bringing the dog home to another dog, in an ideal world, you would be able to go ahead and a. You would get something from the breeder that has the dog smell or the home of the dog has that smell. And so that way your dog at home, like you guys may or may not have seen Ruby and Gingerbread, they got to. Actually, I'll be honest, they did not get that. They did not get that. And that they hate. They hate Raven. The reason. One of the reasons that they probably hate Raven is also because she's bigger than them. She's about 20 pounds, and she's a dog that, you know, even though she's kind of more chill, it's intimidating. She's twice their size and she just wants to play with them, and so it's scary. The other thing that they mentioned that can be helpful when you are bringing a new dog is taking the pack on several walks. So if you bring the dog, when you first bring the dog home, in an ideal scenario, what you would do is you bring the puppy home, or if you're adopting a dog, you would go ahead and bring your current dog. So in my case, Ruby and Ginger, take them out, take them for a walk, and they'll meet each other. The reason for the walk is because it's a neutral territory. It's not Ginger or Ruby's territory. And so they're less likely to be possessive. Everyone's going to be primarily on leash, you know, and so then you'll be able to control the new dog. So that would be something that you'd want to go ahead and give them the opportunity. During that walk, you'll also want to make sure to provide plenty of reinforcement, positive reinforcement, whether that's treats, whether that's a special toy for your dogs, or whether that's just plenty of love. Kind of like what I'm doing on Raven right now. The next thing that you'd want to take into consideration is sleeping arrangements and, you know, respecting the newer dogs in the household. And so you don't want them to feel like they're going to be displaced because of the new dog. And so one of the things that we try to do is we also try to make sure that Raven does follow the rules and she doesn't get out of Hand with Ginger Ruby. In terms of being too rough with them. Does that taste delicious? Yeah. We're gonna leave that alone. Okay. So that's, you know, we monitor them because we don't want the dogs to be traumatized. And we want to make sure, especially with the larger breed dog, that she has manners, because you don't. If you're going to address something, you're going to address it when she's young rather than when she's big. Raven potentially is going to be about 75 to 100 pounds, and so we don't want to have to deal with that. If she happens to be £100, it's going to be a little harder to address. Next thing, making sure that you have plenty of toys with different textures. You know, we have a puppy Nylabone. We went ahead. My wife ordered it from puppy box or pup box. They are not a sponsor. Normally, I do not like things that have no give. Things that are too hard to hit on your kneecaps. We will typically go ahead and say not to give. Yeah. And what. What I literally did. Thank you. What I literally did was I put it in my mouth and I chewed on it to see if it had a little give. And since I had a little give, then I was okay with. With Raven playing with it. Now, some people might be like, oh, well, they're just puppy teeth. You know, it's okay if they break them, they're gonna fall out. No, that's still super painful. So you need to be careful with, you know, what you're giving them. Now, if you look at this particular toy, this toy has multiple textures. It's got this little piece of plastic right here or rubber, which is not super hard, but also not soft. It has this. This little piece over here where she can chew on. It's got this softer part right here, which is kind of round and has a squeaker. I'm not going to squeak it because she may go wild. And then it's got in the legs, it's got this thing where it kind of makes a little bit of a sound. And so that's something where it's a toy that is almost like three toys for them because of the different textures. Okay. The other thing that you'll want to take into consideration is potty training. If you're fortunate enough to have a dog that's already potty trained, when you get them, awesome. Congratulations. We are not that fortunate from that standpoint. You know, with Raven, what we've been doing and what I've told people this when you first get puppies around eight weeks of age, within 15 to 20 minutes after they drink water, they're gonna have to pee. And so what we do is we go ahead and we control the water. That means that I am aware of when Raven gets water, and then I pick it up. After she's done drinking it, I pick it up and then I go ahead and I set a timer. And after that timer goes off, I take her out, I check to see if she pees. If she does, great. If she doesn't, then I'm watching her like a hawk because I really want her to know where it is she pees. The other thing that you're going to want to do is you're going to want to be aware. So she's already starting to break this up. So we'll go ahead. I'm going to give this to E. And that's going to be something next that I'll talk about. You're going to want to take them to the same exact spot every single time. Let's see what you got in here. We're going to take them to the same spot. I'm going to toss this. There we go. Thank you. We're going to. You're going to take them to the same spot. And the reason you want to take them to the same spot almost every time is because once they get to that spot, they're like, oh yeah, I pee here, or oh yeah, I poop here. And initially, I think what I've noticed with Raven is typically it's about 10 minutes that I give her because sometimes she'll go out there, she'll just kind of get distracted. She'll. She'll go into like our bushes and that kind of stuff and just play and start chewing on the bushes. And eventually within that 10 minute window, even sometimes at the very end of the 10 minutes, she goes and she either poops or she pees. And so that's something to be aware of, just to have some patience. Because if you don't have that patience or the person that you're bringing the dog to doesn't have that kind of patience for training them outside, it's going to be a little frustrating, especially if you have a bigger dog. The. The next thing is, normally when we first got Raven, I think I was waking up about two or three times the a night for the first few nights. Then by about 10 to 11 weeks, she was able to make it about six hours, six or seven hours without peeing. You know, she does not sleep in A crate, although we have the crate at home. And she is definitely. We put food in there, we put toys in there. So she will go in there. Now, occasionally, it is something that we do want to train her to just because we want to have the ability to be able to use it. Some people will say to let them cry it out. I was kind of weak about it, and I didn't let her cry it out. We also have kids, so it makes it a little bit more challenging because once the kids are sleeping, then if the puppy's trying to cry, then they wake up the kid. So we live in not a perfect world, per se. And so, you know, I just want to be as honest and as real as possible. The next thing is the training. Sit command is going to be probably the most important command that you're going to learn first, or they're going to learn first, rather. And it is something that's going to be crucial for feeding them. It's going to be crucial for interrupting their patterns. So that's going to be the first thing that you're going to want to teach them. The other thing that I typically tell people is make sure that you look into pet insurance. We have a video on pet insurance, and that's something that's crucial. I have pet insurance for her even though I own my hospital, because stuff can get expensive. Even. Even if you own the hospital, I can't do everything. I gotta hire people in. And it's something. At the end of the day, I don't want to make a financial decision, I want to make a medical decision. And I want to know what the best thing for my pet is, and that's what I want to do. So that being said, the other thing that people will ask is, oh, can I take them for walks around my neighborhood? Can I take them to the doggy, to the dog park? That kind of stuff. So it's all going to depend on. In regards to your neighborhood, I'll be honest. We do take Raven for walks around the neighborhood. And what I like to say is I like to give percentages. So if you're in a neighborhood where everyone pretty much takes care of their dogs and there isn't a lot of traffic through your neighborhood, I would anticipate that you're probably going to be looking at maybe a 5 to 10% risk of your dog catching something. If you take your dog to a place like, let's say, Lincoln Road, where people bring their dogs, sometimes people bring their dogs that they don't take care of their dogs. Then your risk starts to go up. So it's something that you have to take into consideration when you decide to take your dogs to those places or not take your dogs to those places. Last but not least, one of the things that I figured I might mention in terms of potty training. So we recently went away and we had Raven stay at a puppy hotel and, or a doggy hotel and when she came home, the potty training had gone in the toilet. And so that's something to be aware of. It's not their fault. You know, if you, if you're gonna take them to a puppy hotel, make sure that you go ahead and ask them, you know, will they be able to help them or work with them on the potty training. If not, then at least you know what you're gonna be coming home to and what you'll need to work on. That being said, I hope this video was something that was helpful. One of the last things now that I'm thinking of as of right now is food. Keep the food consistent. For the first few weeks, we were lucky to have the breeder that we got Raven from that was feeding them a high quality food. Sometimes people might get their dogs and they may not be on the highest quality food. I wouldn't recommend a shift immediately, I would wait a few weeks. Especially once your polys you insurance policy has become effective. Because if they do end up developing any signs like vomiting, diarrhea, lack of appetite and you need to bring your dog to the vet and you've switched the diet and your policy has not become effective and it's in the waiting period that will now be considered pre existing, either forever or for at least 180 days. As long as they go symptom and treatment free. If they end up having any sort of symptoms during that time frame, it is something that can, can be considered pre existing, which is really annoying. The last thing that you'll notice that I'm doing right now is I'm touching Raven's ears, I'm touching her face. You want to be able to go into their mouths, you want to be able to touch their feet, you want to touch them around their butt. And one of the things, one of the first things that I did, honestly when I was deciding which puppy we were going to take home was this is going so smooth. But in all honesty, when I picked her up like this, she went ahead and she did fantastic. Right now, for whatever reason, she's not going so smooth and the guy behind the camera is covering his face. But I'LL I'll be sincere. Every time that I take her out to pee I pick her up like that every single time and she sits still. So that is one thing that I did did to see how she would react and it gave me an idea of kind of confidence and also an idea of whether or not she was going to be a nervous dog. When I saw that she let me do that that was something that made me feel better about the kind of personality that she has and that's it. If you guys found this video helpful, please give us a thumbs up. Subscribe There's a lot of information on this video and the channel. If there's something in particular that you have questions about, leave it in the comment box and if there's something that you want us to do a video on, please leave it in the comment box as well. All right, take care. Thanks for watching and have a blessed day.