tastes and textures. You can make training more pleasurable for your dog by offering food rewards that stimulate his taste buds. Meat treats are always popular, but cheese can also be very effective.
Touch
Dogs can’t pick up and handle new objects to investigate them. Instead, much like human babies, they put them in their mouths. Mouthing is an important part of exploration for a dog, particularly for puppies. Special sensory hairs grow around the dog’s muzzle, under his jaw, and above his eyes. These are called vibrissae, or more commonly, whiskers, and they also help him gather information about his environment through touch.
Human beings express their affection through touch, but this is not necessarily a natural response for a dog. Dogs have to become accustomed to gentle handling and stroking from puppyhood onward.
Play-biting in puppies is an important way that dogs learn how strong their bite is. If a puppy is separated too early from its littermates, as is often the case with pet store puppies, it may not have had the chance to learn what is called an “inhibited bite” and may be more prone to nipping.
Know yourself
Bringing a new puppy or dog into your home should never be an act of impulse. Before you make that decision, you need to ask yourself some searching questions. Dogs, as the slogan goes, are not just for Christmas, they’re for life.
Just as it’s difficult to appreciate before the event how much things will change when you have a baby, bringing a puppy into your life is a significant undertaking. When I got my first puppy, I was living in a fourth-floor apartment with no elevator in the heart of Manhattan. As a trainer, I knew what to expect, but even so it was quite an effort to go up and down those stairs twice a night so the puppy could have a pee. Nor was it particularly pleasant to walk him after dark on 46th Street!
If you have had dogs before, or if you had a dog when you were growing up, you may already have some idea of what’s involved. If you have never owned a dog, think about the following issues:
Will you be able to spend enough time with your dog?
Once they are past the puppy stage, most dogs can be left for between four and six hours without becoming distressed. If you work full-time and there is no one else at home to look after the dog, you are condemning an essentially social creature to a life of anxiety, boredom, and depression, unless you hire a dog-sitter or enroll your dog at a doggy day-care center.
Dogs need regular exercise
That means a couple of walks and a decent run every day. Cats exercise themselves. Dogs, however, should not be left to stray without human supervision.
Dogs need training
Even the most seemingly docile animal can become a monster without basic obedience training. You need time to do this, and plenty of patience.
Dogs need stimulation
Just like us, they get bored without challenges, fun, and games.
Do you have children?
Have you got a dog already, or another pet? Settling a new canine arrival within a family can sometimes be difficult, especially if not everyone in your household is as overjoyed as you are at the prospect.
Which breed to choose?
Once you have satisfied yourself that you are prepared to meet the challenges that a dog will bring into your life, the next question is, which dog? Humans have been selectively breeding dogs for centuries, accentuating certain innate characteristics or aspects of appearance. While all dogs are individuals, each breed tends to have certain traits in common. Some need more exercise than others; some require more grooming. Some breeds are naturally more protective; others are more sensitive to noise.
The great advantage of choosing a purebred dog is that you will know to a certain extent what to expect. Use this to your advantage and do your research thoroughly beforehand. Read books and magazines, talk to breeders, and ask friends about their experiences with their dogs. Don’t choose a dog on the basis of its appearance or because the breed is in fashion. Many people who rushed out to get a cute little Dalmatian after seeing 101 black-and-white spotted puppies cavorting in a Disney film found themselves owning a dog with substantial needs for exercise. Dalmatians were originally bred as “carriage dogs”; that is to say, they were bred to run alongside carriages and scare off footpads and thieves. They need exercise – tons of it – and careful, confident handling.
Choosing the right breed is choosing the breed that is right for your situation. If you want a laid-back, easygoing pet that will be a good companion for your children, a Terrier, which is a particularly active sort of dog, wouldn’t be the most sensible choice. Labradors and Retrievers, on the other hand, are naturally good-tempered and sociable, which makes them ideal for families with children. However, they do need a lot of exercise. If you are not prepared to devote considerable time to training and exercising, don’t choose a working dog such as a Border Collie, who will go crazy without sufficient stimulation. Greyhounds and Whippets, although bred to be very fast, paradoxically don’t require vast amounts of exercise. The guarding breeds, such as German Shepherds, Rottweilers, Dobermans, Chows, and Akitas, are intelligent and loyal, but they can be over-protective and tend to be one-person dogs. It is important to know that while taking breed characteristics into account, every dog within that breed is an individual with his own unique personality and temperament.
Aspects to consider:
Size
How big will the dog grow? And how much will he eat?
Noise
Some breeds are naturally more inclined to bark and yap than others. Some breeds are more sensitive to noise.
Activity level
How much exercise does the dog require? Working breeds, bred to herd sheep, need serious workouts.
Temperament
Terriers are naturally bossy and tenacious. Spaniels, Setters, and Retrievers generally have friendly, affectionate natures.
Coat
