Pandemic Puppies: Training Tips and Tricks
We are so honored to introduce our first ever Expert in Residence for our Show & Tell series. Meet Karishma Warr (they/them) who is here to share all sorts of training tips and tricks for your PANDEMIC PUPPIES! As the head of training and behavior at Calm Canine Academy, Karishma is a certified professional dog trainer specializing in treating complex behavior concerns in an urban environment. Keep scrolling for all of Karishma’s amazing content from their Show & Tell residency with TOC!
How To Think About Your Pandemic Puppy’s Routine
So you just got a pandemic puppy?! YAY! What comes next?! Did you know that with a young puppy, it can be helpful to stick to a predictable schedule that meets their biological needs and encourages healthy behavioral habits? There's no single playbook when it comes to scheduling every dog - what your dog's day looks like depends on breed, age, location, resources etc. We encourage you to think about “The Puppy Triangle” when organizing your day with them. As your puppy gets older, they tend to spend less time resting, and have longer periods of activity and enrichment. Potty training and feeding take place within this schedule as needed!
The Puppy Triangle
1: ACTIVITY
When your puppy wakes up from sleep or from a nap they will need to go straight to potty before engaging in an activity that meets their needs, and builds the skills they need.2: ENRICHMENT
After a period of activity and the chance to use the bathroom, we often give puppies a little 'project' to work on. It frequently involves food of some kind, but the idea is to give your puppy some time to do their own thing, use their brains, and settle themselves down after a period of activity. You can use their allocated daily calories in enrichment toys, or you can simply let your pup sniff around, self play or chew on a bone. Many people will choose to have their puppies in their puppy pens, gated into a room, or tethered to a heavy piece of furniture to keep them in their sight and help condition containment systems.3: REST
Did you know that puppies under five months need 18 to 20 hours of sleep PER DAY? With all of us home 24/7 it can be hard to not interact with your puppy all the time, but lack of proper rest can lead to increased mouthing, whining, barking, and hyperactivity - which is NOT cute when you're on an important Zoom call! After their needs are met through activity and enrichment - and they've had a chance to use the bathroom - puppies must be given time in their puppy pen or crate with a white noise machine to rest and recuperate before it all starts again!
Five Training Ideas to Help Socialize Your Pandemic Puppy Indoors
Many of us are struggling to get our pandemic puppies out and about due to COVID restrictions. However we can do a lot at home to get them comfortable and ready for life post pandemic.
1. CONFINEMENT
Conditioning your dog to confinement systems like crates or puppy pens can help set them up for success when you start to practice leaving them alone in preparation for returning to work or other life obligations!
2. OBJECTS AND SURFACES
To build confidence and prepare them for the unpredictable human world, you can work on new surface and object acclamation. You can use items like exercise equipment, kitchen tools, furniture, couch cushions, vacuums and more! Pairing these items with food, play and attention can help puppies learn that objects that move strangely and look a little bit odd are nothing to be feared.
3. SOUNDS
Acclimate and habituate your dog to new sounds that they will be expected to deal with when the world returns to normal. Plays sounds like sirens, motorcycles, children, dogs barking, construction noise, thunder, fireworks, etc. at a low volume on your phone or speaker and pay them with primary reinforcers like food, play, and praise.
4. HANDLING
Your pups will be expected to tolerate being touched, inspected, injected, brushed, washed, and wiped, which can be very challenging for young puppies and can lead to a lot of nipping. By pairing these things with high-value food like cream cheese and hot dogs, we can start to teach them that it’s nothing to fear!
5. TRAINING
If you want your pups to be able to walk on a loose leash, give you attention, and settle in busy urban environments, at parties, and around people and dogs, training starts indoors. This video shows me playing a fun walking game with my dog around my house! Definitely enroll in an online puppy class or work with a certified trainer to get your pup the skills they need in a low distraction environment before returning to a busy post-pandemic world. BTW Calm Canine Academy offers The Puppy Program, which is a LIVE four-week digital puppy raising course!
Training Tips and Tricks for Prepping Pandemic Puppies for Alone Time
When it comes to preparing our puppies for post pandemic alone time, the biggest advice we can give is to START NOW! Start helping your pup adjust to solo time weeks or even months before a significant absence - aka returning to the office. You’ll do this through a systematic desensitization process - aka slowly exposing your pups to the experience of being home alone in small increments that they can handle without panicking.
For many dogs this starts with simply stepping out of the door for one second, building up to two seconds, then five seconds, then one minute over a series of days. Those minutes will become hours with systematic daily practice, but we are often talking a matter of months not weeks for some pups to get truly comfortable with regular long periods of alone time.
To ensure our pups are always comfortable with our incremental absences it’s vital that we set up a camera or viewing system of some sort to observe and document their behavior. That way, if you have built up to two minutes of alone time, you can watch your pup through your camera and be sure to come back BEFORE you see signs of panic. This teaches your pup that absences are SAFE and that you'll never leave them for longer than they can handle.
Important management tip: While our puppies are still learning to be comfortable when left alone we need to avoid letting them cry it out! Imagine someone who’s afraid of water being pushed in the deep end of a pool - that might actually make them MORE nervous to be around a pool in the future! Well that's what it can feel like to many pups who are 'thrown in the deep end' with regards to isolation. It’s vital we take it at their pace, knowing that's the only way to truly get them safe and avoid sensitization.
For many the thought of breaking down a four hour absence into seconds and putting in place a systematic desensitization protocol seems overwhelming and that's where the professionals come in. We HIGHLY recommend reaching out to a CSAT (certified separation anxiety trainer) to get the coaching and support you need to successfully see improvement with this challenging behavior.
For many more training tips and tricks for pandemic puppies, check out this live interview we did with Karishma on Instagram.
