Bringing your new puppy home

Your KS designer doodles Puppy Pack

• What your Puppy Pack​ Includes

• Vaccination and Health Records

  • first puppy vaccinations

  • worming at 2, 4, 6 & 8 weeks

• 2 Year Health Genetic Warranty & Non Breeding, Spay/Neuter Contract

• ​5lb of our raw pet food, we have 40lb bags also available for purchase.

• A small package of wood pellets to put outside in puppies potty area.

• A package of our probiotic blend to help your puppies tummy during the transition to his/her new home.

• Ongoing breeder support for the life of your puppy

• 30 days free pet insurance

• Harness and leash

• A blanket rubbed on mom and siblings to help with the transition to new home

• A package of our dehydrated beef treats to use for training

• A toy

• A puppy grooming kit
  * curved grooming scissors

  * metal tooth comb

  * nail clippers
  * oatmeal shampoo
  * leave in conditioner/dematting spray
  I also include an in person puppy grooming tutorial, where i show proper coming technics, how to trim nails, trim around eyes, feet and the puppies sanitary area.
  
  
  

  Puppy Shopping List;

• Food & Water Bowls

• Puppy Food` we feed raw and include a few blocks in our puppy package. you can purchase additional food from us if you like.

• Puppy safe toys & chew toys

  • Kongs are an excellent choice

  • avoid toys with stuffing or small pieces that become choking hazards

• Baby gates, crate with a divider or X-Pen

• Litter box & softwood pellets if you have a long drive for puppy to potty

• Tools for the road.

  • seat belt and car seat cover or crate or someone to hold puppy on his/her journey home.,

  • (paper towels just in case)

• Natural cleaning products

• Please note air fresheners and plug ins are toxic to pets

• Time, love & patience
  
  ​Our puppies are litter box trained, they don't know what pee pads or newspaper is for.

We suggest a 36” crate with a divider so the space can be adjusted as your puppy grows.

We suggest a carrier so you can take your puppy out and about to see and hear all the sights and sounds.

but be safe with 4 paws off the floor/ground.

Parvo is a highly contagious and a dangerous virus that is very serious if a puppy contracts it.

Its best to keep puppies up away from where other dogs have been until they have had all 3 of their puppy vaccines.

We have puppy carriers available for $20 each.

We also have potty bells available to assist with house training.
$10 each

​Bringing Puppy Home

This will be your puppies first real car ride, they may also be nervous in a new environment with new people and may become car sick during the first few rides in a car. We recommend taking another person along to hold your new puppy or using a dog carrier. Have your passenger frequently, but slowly, rub the underneath of the puppy's neck and talk to him in a soft voice. This proves to be effective most of the time in relaxing your new puppy. Most puppies will just sit there if they're being held. Take a towel along just in case your puppy does get sick. They will start to gag and that is your cue to grab your towel; bring a plastic bag to put the towel or paper towels in. It is so important that everyone stay calm during this first car ride home. Just be prepared that they most likely will get sick., and if they do...calmly clean it up and carry on.
What to bring:
1. a towel
2. paper towels
​3. plastic bag

Home at Last!

Give your puppy about 45 minutes to an hour to settle down once you get home. Some suggest taking them out and letting them walk around on your front lawn for awhile but I only recommend this if your front lawn is far away from a public sidewalk where people may have walked their dogs, a private back yard is best. Parvo can last up to 6 months in soil and grass. Be careful where you allow your new puppy to go for the first 16 weeks.

Keep it Calm...Calm, Calm

Leaving everything your puppy has known in life so far will probably bring about some anxiety. However, this can be greatly diminished if you plan your schedules so that you will be home with the puppy the first 3 to 4 days at least. Make sure if you have young children that you've discussed with them before you pick up your puppy that it is necessary, as hard as it's going to be, to remain calm around the puppy at first. It won't be long before they will get to play and run and jump with their new puppy but the first few hours and days home should be pretty calm... Just pay attention to your puppies body language, if they seem OK with what's going on then carry on but if they seem nervous then try to lower the excitement level a bit.

Your puppy may even get loose stool from the transition, if this happens I recommend 1 tsp of pure pumpkin 2x daily until the stool firms back up again.

Eating Schedule

Puppies eat 3 small meals a day, the amount you feed per meal will depend on how much your puppy weighs. All puppies are different. The first few days they might have a smaller appetite. All food and water should be brought up by 7pm so he/she goes to sleep with an empty bladder and bowel; they can sleep through the night with limited potty breaks. Our puppies are on a schedule of eating around 7am, 12pm and 6pm. They will need to go potty immediately after sleeping and about 20-30 minutes after eating. Put your puppy on a set eating schedule. You can set an alarm on your smart phone so you can stick to their schedule easier, this will make potty training a whole lot easier.

The Puppy is Not Eating

Not eating for the first day or day and a half - that can happen. Things are different for every puppy and how they react. In our care, puppies generally do as other puppies do; when one eats, they all eat. The adjustment period should only last a day or so. If your puppy isnt wanting to eat you can offer the beef treats provided in your puppy pack.

How Vaccines Work

When they leave our home your puppy will have had their first vaccination. Unlike human children you can't just give young puppies 1 vaccine and call it good. You're actually trying to catch a window of time when their Mom's antibodies wear off and your puppies need to kick in. If the puppy still has the Mothers antibodies still in play then any vaccine that is given will be useless. So young puppies between 8 and 16 weeks old are given the same vaccines (all in one shot) every 3 weeks in an attempt to catch that perfect window of time. This can be accomplished with the first shot or the third. You just never know. This is why it's SO important that you make sure that you're making those vet appointments on time and that they're getting all 3-4 sets of the same shot to make sure they are fully vaccinated.

Be Careful Where you Take your Puppy

Be very cautious about where you're taking your new puppy outside. Keep the puppy away from public places where other dogs may have been - until the puppy is fully vaccinated. Do not let your puppy come into contact with other dogs. If you have an adult dog at home then you must limit their access as well to dog parks and public areas until your new puppy is fully vaccinated, because there is always the chance that they may bring home a germ on their feet that won't hurt your older dog but could make your new puppy very sick. I'm not trying to freak you out, but rather warning you to be careful. I don't want you to feel like you need to be walking around on egg shells with your new puppy, I just want you to be aware of the possible dangers and do not hide them away until they're 16 weeks old. You can socialize and take your puppy out and about if you keep four paws off the floor.. Keep in mind we do have puppy carriers available for purchase at $20 each.

Crate Training Basics

Crate training your puppy is to use the canines' natural instinct to keep where they sleep clean to your benefit. Dogs do not like to soil where they sleep. The crate is not mean or abusive to them if used correctly and as a temporary training tool; dogs are den animals.

The crate should be large enough for the puppy, or dog to stand up without feeling that they need to haunch down. They should be able to lie on their side with their legs outstretched and turn around with ease. However, a crate used for house-training should be no bigger than this, or your puppy will arrange their crate to have both a place to sleep and go potty.

We suggest a 36” crate with a divider so crate can be adjusted as your puppy grows.

If your crate is the right size, it is almost guaranteed they will want to go potty the minute they come out; a swift trip outside will give them the opportunity to practice going potty in the right place and gives you a training opportunity to praise them - the perfect house-training scenario!

I recommend using a crate at night and when the puppy will not be left unattended for 2 hours or less. More than two hours is a lot to ask of a puppy; an X-pen with a litter box will be best until they are old enough to hold it for a full 8 hours. You can either use baby gates or an X-pen to contain your puppy in a small area, make sure their space is safe and without chewing/choking hazards.

New Puppy Schedule and Crate Training

Your puppy wakes up between 6:30 and 7:00 AM:
Take them out of their crate and immediately to the spot you would like them to go potty. Put them on grass area and say“go potty”.. continue to say this until they go. What this does is helps them to learn to go potty on command. Pretty soon all you have to do is say “Go Potty “ and they get what you mean. As soon as they squat, say “Good puppie's name!” and then let them run around for a little while.

Feeding Time in the Crate:
When your puppy comes back into the house, it is feeding time. Feed your puppy in the crate so they get a positive feeling about being in their crate. Food should only be put down for 30 minutes. Whatever they do not eat gets picked up. About 20 - 30 minutes after eating, they will need to go outside to go potty again.

Potty Schedule:
Puppy will need to go outside after the following:

• first thing in the morning

• after eating am & pm

• waking up from a nap

• playing excessively

• coming out of the crate

The signs of having to go potty are sniffing and circling around. When you CANNOT be with your puppy, then they need to go into the crate or playpen. Puppies can choke on bones, stuffed toys, beds and blankets! So be careful about what you put in their enclosure with them.

Bedtime in the Crate:
All food and drink should be brought up after 7pm. Bedtime for puppy is 10-10:30 PM. Again, they must go potty outside before going into their enclosure. When you put them back into their enclosure for the night say “Crate” and place them in and close the door. Do not make a huge fuss over them and get them all excited. Just calmly place them in their crate. If they cry, you just tell them in a low and (serious) voice “No, Quiet!” or whatever it is you wanna say, just make sure to say the same phrase every time so they learn that it means to be quiet and go to sleep. If the puppy still cries in the crate, then you can tap the top of the crate and again in a low voice say “NO-QUIET!”. Do not repeat this step over​ and over. Just do it a couple times and then let them cry. As long as they were fed, have had water, gone potty and are not in pain then they should be perfectly fine to go to sleep in their crate. Put the crate in another room, make sure the room is completely dark. It might be a hard first couple nights but it will pass and then you will have a dog that is crate trained.

Never let your puppy out of the crate when they are crying, if you must let them out, then you wait for a period of time when they have stopped crying and then you open the crate. You never want them to believe that you let them out because they were crying. Then they will continue to try this tactic. Believe me your puppy is not going to die of loneliness and they will eventually learn to love their crate and even use their crate as a special place they can go to get away. Dogs are den animals. They're just not used to being without their littermates. Do not beat yourself up because you are crate training them. Believe me it is going to be worth it in the long run.

Nipping Nipping in the Bud

It’s natural behavior for puppies to bite. As they begin to teethe, they naturally need things to chew on. Also, dogs generally prefer to use their mouths over their paws for manipulating objects, and this behavior begins in puppyhood as young pooches start to explore their world.

It can be cute at the beginning, but a puppy’s teeth are very sharp and they don’t know how hard they’re biting, so the puppy raising experience will generally include that one moment when Fido playfully bites down on a finger and draws blood.

Needless to say, this is not a behavior we humans want to have continue, especially not into adulthood. Here are the steps to take to nip the nipping in the bud.

Inhibit the biting

When puppies play, they mouth each other, which is totally normal. However, the mouthing can turn into a bite. When it does, the puppy on the receiving end will yelp, and this sound startles the puppy doing the biting, making them release.

Humans can exploit this behavior to teach a puppy to inhibit the bite and learn how much is too much. When a puppy latches onto your hand or finger too hard, let your hand go limp and imitate that yelping sound. When the puppy releases, ignore her for ten to twenty seconds, then resume play.

It’s important to remember, though, not to pull away from the bite. This can trigger your puppy’s chase instinct and make the problem worse. And if the yelp doesn’t work or you’d prefer not to make that sound, you can substitute a loud, “Ow!” or other verbal deterrent.

Don’t repeat the limp and yelp process more than three times in fifteen minutes — when you get to that point, it’s time for a puppy time out.

The goal here is to teach the puppy that gentle play continues; rough play stops. Once you’ve inhibited the hard bites, repeat this teaching process with more moderate bites. Eventually, you should be able to teach her that mouthing without biting down is okay, but anything more than that is not.

Redirect

To teach your puppy that his mouth on human skin is not okay at all, use redirection. When the puppy tries to mouth you, pull your hand away before contact, then provide a treat or wave around a chewy toy until he bites that.

You can also satisfy your puppy’s urge to mouth things with non-contact games, like fetch or tug-of-war. However, remember to never let the tugging become too aggressive, and teach your puppy “let go” or “leave it” command, so that you can always remove something from his mouth without an aggressive response.

Distraction

In addition to mouthing people, puppies will also mouth things in their environment, mostly out of curiosity. In addition to puppy-proofing your home, provide an assortment of interesting and safe chew toys, chosen for your pup’s level of chewing and destructiveness — for example, if she shreds that plush toy in two minutes, you may want to stick with rubber or hard plastic.

“Hide the treat” toys are also great for distracting puppies from nibbling on other things, and these provide mental stimulation as well, since she has to figure out how to get to the reward.

Finally, arrange for playtime with your dog and other puppies or vaccinated adult dogs. This will help to socialize her, and those dogs will also assist in the process of teaching your puppy when a bite is too hard.

Deterrence

There are various products, like Bitter Apple, Bitter Cherry, and YUCK No Chew Spray, that are designed to prevent a dog from licking or chewing by putting an unpleasant taste in their mouth, but there are two important steps involved in using them for training.

The first is to associate the smell and the taste in your dog’s mind so that the scent alone will keep him away from unacceptable chewing targets. To do this, put a little bit of the product on a tissue or cotton ball, then put it in your pup’s mouth. He should spit it out right away. When he does spit it out, let him smell it so he makes the association.

The second step comes in when you’re actively using the product for training — make sure your dog doesn’t have access to water for up to an hour (but not longer) after contact with the product. This may sound cruel, but if your dog learns that he can just run to his bowl and get rid of the taste, the deterrent will become ineffective.

When training, place the product on any objects you don’t want him to lick or bite once a day for two to four weeks.

Ankle biters

Many dogs become fascinated with nipping at people’s feet or ankles when they walk. This is particularly true of herding breeds. To stop your puppy from nipping at your heels, keep a favorite toy in your pocket. When she does bite, stop moving, then wave the toy around to distract her until she latches onto it.

If you don’t happen to have the toy handy, stop moving when she bites and then, when she releases on her own, offer her the toy or a treat, and praise. The idea is to teach your dog that good things happen when bad behavior stops.

Mouthing and nipping are natural behaviors for puppies but unwanted in dogs. Remember, a large majority of dogs surrendered to shelters by their owners are between eighteen months and two years of age — the point at which “cute” puppy behavior becomes frustrating to the owner. Taking these few simple steps now will help prevent that bad behavior down the line, and help you to have a stress-free, life-long relationship when that little bundle of fur grows up.

Positive Reinforcement Training

Remember how happy you were if your parents gave you a dollar for every A on your report card?

They made you want to do it again, right? That's positive reinforcement.

Dogs don't care about money. They care about praise. Positive reinforcement training uses praise to reward your dog for doing something you want him to do. Because the reward makes him more likely to repeat the behavior, positive reinforcement is one of your most powerful tools for shaping or changing your dog's behavior.

Rewarding your dog for good behavior sounds pretty simple, and it is! But to practice the technique effectively, you need to follow some basic guidelines.

Timing is everything

Correct timing is essential when using positive reinforcement.

• The reward must occur immediately—within seconds—or your pet may not associate it with the proper action. For example, if you have your dog sit but reward him after he's stood back up, he'll think he's being rewarded for standing up.

• Using a clicker to mark the correct behavior can improve your timing and also help your dog understand the connection between the correct behavior and the treat.

Keep it short

Dogs don't understand sentences. "Daisy, I want you to be a good girl and sit for me now" will likely earn you a blank stare.

Keep commands short and uncomplicated. The most commonly used dog commands are:

• watch me

• sit

• stay

• down (which means "lie down")

• off (which means "get off of me" or "get off the furniture")

• stand

• come

• heel (which means "walk close to my side")

• leave it

Consistency is key

Everyone in the family should use the same commands; otherwise, your dog may be confused. It might help to post a list of commands where everyone can become familiar with them.

Consistency also means always rewarding the desired behavior and never rewarding undesired behavior.

When to use positive reinforcement

The good: Positive reinforcement is great for teaching your dog commands, and it's also a good way of reinforcing good behavior. You may have your dog sit

• before letting him out the door (which helps prevent door-darting)

• before petting him (which helps prevent jumping on people)

• before feeding him (which helps teach him good meal-time manners).

Give him a pat or a "Good dog" for lying quietly by your feet, or slip a treat into a Kong®-type toy when he's chewing it instead of your shoe.

The bad: Be careful that you don't inadvertently use positive reinforcement to reward unwanted behaviors. For example, if you let your dog outside every time he barks at a noise in the neighborhood, you're giving him a reward (access to the yard) for behavior you want to discourage.

Shaping behavior

It can take time for your dog to learn certain behaviors. You may need to use a technique called "shaping," which means reinforcing something close to the desired response and then gradually requiring more from your dog before he gets the treat.

For example, if you're teaching your dog to "shake hands," you may initially reward him for lifting his paw off the ground, then for lifting it higher, then for touching your hand, then for letting you hold his paw, and finally, for actually "shaking hands" with you.

Types of rewards

Positive reinforcement can include food treats, praise, petting, or a favorite toy or game. Since most dogs are highly food-motivated, food treats work well for training. I personally prefer using praise over treats. Remember if you are using treats as a reward to count the calories, for every treat you give you need to cut back on breakfast and supper portions or your puppy/dog will be getting to many calories in a day and could gain to much weight.

• A treat should be enticing and irresistible to your pet. Experiment a bit to see which treats work best for your pet.

• It should be a very small (pea-size or even smaller for little dogs), soft piece of food, so that he will immediately gulp it down and look to you for more. Don't give your dog something he has to chew or that breaks into bits and falls on the floor.

• Keep a variety of treats handy so your dog won't become bored getting the same treat every time. You can carry the treats in a pocket or fanny pack. Choose healthy treats, dehydrated chicken or liver work well. Limit the liver because to much can cause loose stools.

• Each time you use a food reward, you should couple it with a verbal reward (praise). Say something like, "Yes!" or "Good dog," in a positive, happy tone of voice. Then give your dog a treat. At KS Designer Doodles we use the word YES .

If your dog isn't as motivated by food treats, a toy, petting, or brief play can be very effective rewards.

When to give treats

When your pet is learning a new behavior, reward him every time he does the behavior. This is called continuous reinforcement.

Once your pet has reliably learned the behavior, you want to switch to intermittent reinforcement, in which you continue with praise, but gradually reduce the number of times he receives a treat for doing the desired behavior.

• At first, reward him with the treat four out of every five times he does the behavior. Over time, reward him three out of five times, then two out of five times, and so on, until you're only rewarding him occasionally.

• Continue to praise him every time—although once your dog has learned the behavior, your praise can be less effusive, such as a quiet but positive, "Good dog."

• Use a variable schedule of reinforcement so that he doesn't catch on that he only has to respond every other time. Your pet will soon learn that if he keeps responding, eventually he'll get what he wants—your praise and an occasional treat.

Caution! Don't decrease the rewards too quickly. You don't want your dog to become frustrated.

By understanding positive reinforcement, you'll see that you're not forever bound to carry a pocketful of goodies. Your dog will soon be working for your verbal praise, because he wants to please you and knows that, occasionally, he'll get a treat, too.