• Throw that bowl away. Really? Yes, Bowls are ancient. Hand feeding your puppy is the BEST THING you can do. Dogs are hard-wired to work for their meals. It’s fun and bonding and teaches the puppy that all good things come from you.

• Use interactive feeding toys when you cannot hand-feed. Works brilliantly well for mental stimulation. A tired puppy is a good puppy. Also, you can get creative and make your own toys.

• DON’T wait for the puppy to be 4 months old to show the world to him (Remember, the critical socialization period is 3-12 weeks). You can take the puppy out after getting two shots. Just NO dog parks, walking in the pet-stores, grass or other high dog-traffic areas. Try walks in the neighborhood, visits to your friends home, puppy classes and supervised playgroups and backyard play dates with well-socialized adult dogs.

• PLAY with your puppy. It burns your calories and is a fun way to exercise and train your puppy.

• ALWAYS reward good behavior. Catch them doing something right and reinforce it with “what your puppy will work for”. Teach what you  want them to do instead of telling NO or punishing them.

• Give your puppy some time for himself in his crate. Leave him with stuffed Kong or a chew toy filled with goodies. This will teach him that being left by himself isn’t really bad after all.

• Make sure to give your puppy “calm-time”. Play your favorite classical music while you gently massage the puppy. 

• Supervise, Supervise and Supervise! If you cannot watch him like a hawk, he needs to be in his crate but remember as a general rule of thumb, the number of hours your puppy can spend in the crate is his age plus one. So a 3 month old puppy can be in the crate for a maximum of 4 hours.

• Hello’s and Goodbye’s should be low key and NO BIG DEAL. You don’t want to breed anxiety in your puppy.

Happy Parenting!