Day 35 A.M. & P.M.

A common puppy training mistake human makes — and we do this with other humans as well — is to think STOP is enough information to change behavior.

It is not.

The problem with telling a dog or human what NOT to do is it does not help them know what to do instead — we need less about stop and more about instead.

Puppy biting — let’s start there.

It is a normal, developmentally appropriate puppy behavior — and it hurts.

It is not ethical or fair to expect a puppy to not use her teeth AND it is okay not to want to bleed all over the place or wind up with a few new piercings.

Telling a puppy to stop biting and chewing won’t work, however, because chewing and biting is part of the Puppy Job Description.

But the puppy cannot bite fingers if the puppy is chewing on the pineapple. Therefore, the trick is instead of human flesh, think toy.

We do not want puppies peeing all over the house BUT it is unrealistic to expect them to understand about house training. Since there are no puppy diapers, we need a different strategy.

Unlimited and unsupervised house access is a Bad Idea — instead we create a schedule and environment in which the puppy has quick access to a potty when needed, which is a lot; you can read more about housetraining HERE.

Our job is to help the puppy be successful — always. This means setting the puppy up for good habits and when we have missed the mark and the puppy is doing something we do not want to continue, we implement the instead.

A focus on YES instead of NO is such good practice for every interaction with humans and dogs.

I love the way dogs invite us to be better humans.

EVENING: Photos from the Day

Five weeks old — amazing! This is Buttercup.

We did not know who sent this Daisy Giraffe until today — thank you, Kay and Sue! We were slightly more grateful before Lincoln learned how to turn it on and we heard the 30-second song over and over and over and over.