May 24th, 2009 by admin

SOCLALISATION
Now that you have done all of the preparatory work and have helped your pup get accustomed to his new home.

And family, it is about time for you to have some fun! Socializing your St. Bernard pup gives you the opportunity to show off your new friend, and your pup gets to reap the benefits of being an adorable furry creature that people will want to pet and, in general, think is absolutely precious! Besides getting to know his new family, your puppy should be exposed to other people, animals and situations, but of course he must not come into close contact with dogs you don’t know well until his course of injections is fully complete. This will help him become well adjusted as he grows up and less prone to being timid or fearful of the new things he will encounter.

NO CHOCOLATE!
Use treats to bribe your dog into a desired behavior. Try small pieces of hard cheese or freeze dried liver. Never offer chocolate as it has toxic qualities for dogs.

PROPER SOCIALISATION
The socialization period for puppies is from age 8 to 16 weeks. This is the time when puppies need to leave their birth family and take up residence with their new owners, where they eill meet many new people, other pets, etc. failure to be adequately socialized can cause the dog to grow up fearing other and being shy and unfriendly due to a lack of self-confidence.

Your pup’s socialization began with the breeder but now it is your responsibility to continue it. The socialization he receives up until the age of 12 weeks is the most critical, as this is the time when he forms his impressions of the outside word. Be especially careful during the eight-to ten-week period, also known as the fear period. The interaction he receives during this time should be gentle and reassuring. Lack of socialization can manifest itself in fear and aggression as the dog grows up. He needs lots of human contact, affection, handling and once your pup has received his necessary vaccinations, feel free to take him out an dabout (on his lead, of course). Walk him around the neighbourhood, take him on your daily errands, let people pet him, let him meet Other dogs and pets, etc. Puppies do not have to try to make friends; there will be no shortage of people who will want to introduce themselves. Just make sure that you carefully supervise each meeting. If the neighbourhood children want to say hello, for example, that is delightful—children and pups most often make great companions. Sometimes an excited child can unintentionally handle a pup too roughly, or an overzealous pup can playfully nip a little too hard. You want to make socialization experience positive ones. What a pup learns during this very formative stage will affect his attitude toward future encounters. You want your dog to be comfortable around everyone. A pup that has a bad experience with a child may grow up to be a dog that is shy around or aggressive toward children.

SOCIALIZATION
Thorough socialization includes not only meeting new people but also being introduced to new experiences such as riding in the car, having his coat brushed, hearing the television, walking in a crowd—the list is endless. The more your pup experiences, and the more positive the experience are, the less of a shock and the less frightening it will be for your pup to encounter new things.

CONSISTENCY IN TRAINING
Dogs, being pack animals, naturally need a leader, or else they try to establish dominance in their packs. When you welcome a dog into your family, the choice of who becomes the leader and who becomes the ‘pack’ is entirely up to you! Your pup’s intuitive quest for dominance, coupled with the fact that it is nearly impossible to look at an adorable St. Bernard pup with his ‘puppy-dog’ eyes and not cave in, give the pup almost an unfair advantage in getting the upper hand! A pup will definitely test the waters to see what he can and cannot do. Do not give in to those pleading eyes-Stand your ground when it comes to disciplining the pup and make sure that all family members do the same. It will only confuse the pup when Mother tells him to get of the sofa when he is used to sitting up there with Father to watch the nightly news. Avoid discrepancies by having all members of the household decide on the rules before the pup even comes home… and be consistent in enforcing them! Early training shapes the dog’s personality, so you cannot be unclear in what you expect.

COMMON PUPPY PROBLEMS
The best way to prevent puppy problems is to be proactive in stopping an undesirable behaviour as soon as starts. The old saying ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks’ does not necessarily hold true, but it is true that it is much easier to discourage bad behaviour in a young developing pup that to wait until the pup’s bad behaviour becomes the adult dog’s bad habit. There are some problems that are especially prevalent in puppies as they develop.

NIPPING
As puppies start to teethe, they feel the need to sink their teeth into anything available… unfortunately that includes your fingers, arms, hair and toes. You may find this behaviour cute for the first five seconds….until you feel just how sharp those puppy teeth are. This is something you want to discourage immediately and consistently with a firm ‘No!” (or whatever number of firm ‘No’s’ it takes for him to understand that you mean business). Then replace your finger with an appropriate chew toy. While this behaviour is merely annoying when the dog is young, it can become dangerous as your St. Bernard’s adult teeth grow in and his jaws develop, and he continues to think it is okay to gnaw on human appendages. Your St. Bernard does not mean any harm with a friendly nip, but he also does not know his own strength.

CRYING/WHINING
Your pup will often cry, whine, whimper, howl or make some type of commotion when he is left alone. Such behaviour is known as separation anxiety and is a condition that owners must not take too lightly. This is basically the pup’s way of calling out for attention to make sure that you know he is there and that you have not forgotten about him. He feels insecure when he is left alone, when you are out of the house and he is in his crate or when you are in another part of the house and he cannot see you. The noise he is making is an expression of the anxiety he feels at being alone, so he needs to be taught that being alone is okay. You are not actually training the dog to stop making noise, you are training him to feel comfortable when he is alone, thus removing the need for him to make the noise. This is where the crate with cosy bedding and a toy comes in handy. You want to know that he is safe when you are not there to supervise, and you know that he will be safe in his crate rather than roaming freely about the house. In order for the pup to stay in his crate without making a fuss, he needs to be comfortable in his crate. On that note, it is extremely important that the crate is never used as a form of punishment, or the pup will have a negative association with the crate.

Accustom the pup to the crate in short, gradually increasing time intervals in which you put him in the crate, maybe with a treat, and stay in the room with him. If he cries or makes a fuss, do not go to Him, but stay in his sight. Gradually he will realize that staying in his crate is all right without your help, and it will not be so traumatic for him when you are not around. You may want to leave the radio on softly when you lleave the hose; the sound of human voices may be comforting to him.

CHEWING TIPS
Chewing goes hand in hand with nipping in the sense that a teething puppy is always looking for a way to soothe his aching gums. In this case, instead of chewing on you, he may have taken a liking to your favourite shoe or something else which he should not be chewing, Again, realize that this is a normal canine behaviour that does not need to be discouraged, only redirected. Your pup just needs to be taught what is acceptable to chew onand what is off limits. Consistently tell him NO when you catch him chewing on something appropriate. In this way you are discouraging he inappropriate behaviour and reinforcing the desired behaviour. The puppy chewing should stop after his adult teeth have come in, but an adult dog continues to chew for various reasons-perhaps because he is bored, perhaprs to relieve tension or perhaps he just likes to chew. That is why it is important to redirect his chewing when he is still young.