Christmas and holiday season are great times to spend some time with your puppy without the time restrictions that work gives us, but with holiday season comes other challenges. Often households are more hectic, more visitors, children are excited, lots of shopping and planning to do, decorations to put up and life can be even more hectic.
Here are some tips to help you and your puppy survive Christmas.
INCLUDE YOUR PUPPY IN AS MUCH AS YOU CAN.
They will be very excited with all the things going on, and activities such as opening present will fill your puppy with joy. Make sure they have their own presents to unwrap. I use brown paper as a safer alternative to wrapping paper and don't use selotape to prevent ingestion.
If your puppy can eat different foods, then give them some Christmas Dinner to eat, turkey, gravy and vegetables should all be safe for puppy to eat. Just make sure they don't have too much seasoning and only small amounts.
Make sure on the other hand that your puppy cannot eat things such as raisins, chocolate, cooked bones, grapes, onions garlic and anything that may contain artificial sweeteners, otherwise you may have an expensive trip to the vets as these are toxic to dogs.
GIVE YOUR PUPPY A SAFE SPACE
I always recommend crate training puppies. And during times like Christmas they are invaluable as a safe place for your puppy. If you don't have a crate, make sure you have a quiet area for your puppy to go to. Puppies are unable to take themselves to bed when they are tired when there's a lot going on, and tired puppies are bitey puppies. Puppies also need to be supervised at all times when free roaming in the home. An unsupervised puppy will get up to mischief and may chew wires to Christmas lights, eat something they shouldn't, jump up children and nip and obviously toileting in the house in increased.
MAKE SURE YOUR PUPPY IS TIRED BEFORE PARTIES
If you have people due over, then it's a good idea to play games with your puppy before they come, so they sleep and allow you the time to spend with your guests. A puppy raring to go, is unlikely to settle and sleep, and will become distressed and probably cry or bark for attention. Hide and seek with their food and some tug games will help puppy to settle.
Also ask guests to not disturb puppy while they are sleeping, a sleeping puppy is a good puppy.
BE AWARE OF POTENTIAL DANGERS
Many Christmas plants such as poinsettias and mistletoe are poisonous so keep them away from puppies. Candles at puppy height can easily be knocked over.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
I hope you found these tips useful, but most importantly make sure you enjoy your puppies first Christmas.
If you need any help or ideas on how to keep your puppy entertained and well trained, give me a call.
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