Caring for Your Puppy

Puppies are like toddlers, energetic and very curious. The conditions in a puppy’s environment will shape the kind of dog he will grow up to be. Puppy care means close supervision, much like human babies, for they are still learning.

When a puppy arrives in your home, he should be at least eight weeks old. By that time, he should already have his vaccinations for Para influenza, parvovirus, and distemper. This is part of puppy care. He should be well adapted to his regular diet of puppy food. A well taken care of puppy is not nervous or fearful. A fearful or nervous puppy may have experienced trauma that has caused his distrust with humans. When you get a puppy, make sure you start keeping a file of your pup’s information like health records, place of birth or origin, physical description, and so on. This will come in handy all through your dog’s life.

When feeding your puppy, choose a dry food that is specifically made for puppies. Choosing substandard puppy food is not advisable. It’s better if you pick branded puppy food, because caring for your puppy is not cheap. Besides, it’s hard to identify good quality puppy food based on the ingredient list alone.

Puppy care does not mean overfeeding them with high protein level food and extra vitamins. As matter of fact, overfeeding and over supplementation are issues adding to hip dysplasia. Large breed puppies should eat large breed puppy food. The actual formula of the puppy food between large breeds and small breeds are different. Large breed puppy food is also better for fast growing pups.

How often you feed your puppy is a huge part of puppy care. Overfeeding him can cause obesity and weight related problems later on in your pup’s life. Offer food to your pup three times a day, no more no less. When he is ten to twelve weeks old, reduce it to twice a day. Let him eat as much as he can within 15 minutes and then put the food dish away. Leaving food behind continually will encourage overeating. In addition, free-fed puppies become picky, because they get bored with their food.

Do not feed your puppy people food. It will disturb with his regular diet. The key here is to get him used to eating his own food, not scraps from the table. Most of all, never feed your pooch bones, especially cooked bones. It’s bad for his teeth and can cause digestive problems. Cooked bones become sharp fragments when they break. That’s not good for your puppy, even for grown up dogs.

As I said in the beginning, caring for puppies is hard work. Patience, common sense, and love are keys to a growing healthy puppy. A puppy is as fragile as a baby is, but if you take care of it unconditionally, the reward is unconditional love. Because puppies and dogs will love you no matter who or what you are. A puppy’s love is the best example of unconditional love.