All Puppies Deserve a FIRST Chance — an EDUCATION!

Owners and their new puppies are still getting the short end of the stick. Dog problems are invariably blamed on “irresponsible dog owners” BUT they are simply at a loss for what to do, and, no one is telling them. Consequently, their puppies develop predictable and preventable, relationship-destroying, behavior, temperament and training problems and sadly, many are surrendered to shelters in search of a “second chance”.

DunbarAcademy.com has recently embarked on a new program to educate new puppy owners, so that all puppies get a first chance — an education that they so rightly deserve and so desperately need.

Owners experience difficulties during the puppy’s first few days at home — getting the pup to settle down quickly, quietly and calmly, especially at nighttime and seemingly unimportant housesoiling and chewing “mistakes” that set a precedent for many more to come. More disturbing, by the time puppies start puppy class, many already exhibit signs of shyness, standoffishness, stress, anxiety and fearfulness. Owners desperately need, and would be forever grateful for, puppy raising guidance.

So many owners are behind before they start because they purchased puppies that weren’t even housetrained, let alone socialized; some vets still advise not taking puppies to puppy class yet don’t explain how easy and essential it is to socialize puppies with people safely at home; few pet stores explain how to teach a pup to eliminate on cue, or that there are five different types of dog toy, each with specific functions; and although trainers don’t see puppies until later and shelters/rescues until much later, few trainers or shelters offer community-wide, preventative educational advice for new puppy owners. It’s hardly surprising that most new puppy owners are at odds for what to expect and what to do.

The world of dogs will not change unless owners: 1. Thoroughly socialize puppies towards oodles of people, safely at home, prior to three months of age and 2. Learn quick, easy and effective methods for teaching household manners and preventing predictable behavior problems in puppies and resolving incipient problems in adult dogs. But they have to know how and they have to appreciate the sheer urgency and so, we have to tell them.

Most essential information for raising and training puppies is readily available, included in two free eBooks — BEFORE You Get Your Puppy and AFTER You Get Your Puppy — that breeders, veterinarians, pet stores, trainers and shelters/rescues may download from the Free Course Collection at DunbarAcademy.com and then email to all of their puppy-owning clients and customers, or potential puppy/dog buyers, or adopters.

Aside from the obvious advantages for new owners and their puppies and dogs, a community educational program has numerous benefits for dog professionals. Breeders may email the books to prospective puppy-buyers to increase the likelihood that good breeding will be augmented with good husbandry. Vet Clinics and Pet Stores may distribute the books to new puppy owners, so they know which products to buy (and why — e.g., a crate allows owners to accurately predict elimination, so they may show the pup where and teach the pup to eliminate on cue) and veterinarians can benefit from having puppies that grow up to be adult dogs that enjoy being handled and examined. For trainers, puppies are more confident and better trained when they come to class and of course, good-natured, well-behaved puppies are less-likely to be surrendered to shelters. Moreover, pet professionals may customer the free eBooks with their own company name and contact information to brand their business in the community and attract more clients. Yup! A Community Puppy Owner Education Program is most certainly the Win-Win of all Win-Wins!

Good habits are just as hard to break as bad habits; Let’s teach good habits from the outset (Kelly Gorman Dunbar)