Those needle-sharp teeth need to be chewing anything but your skin.
Sometimes, when I lose my attention, my new puppy will come boldly up to me and grab hold of the first body part he or she sees moving. Not a good idea, puppy!
I then need to let out a very sharp squeal to let them know that is not the behaviour that I want. After all, when young puppies are playing together at their breeders, they have lots of opportunities to interact with their brothers and sisters. If, during play, a puppy bites a litter mate too hard, the bitten puppy will soon let out a loud yelp and turn away from play. The game is now over!
Clever puppy!
Puppies, do need to chew in the early stages, as these sharp puppy teeth, do start falling out at around the four to five month age, and I am sure, just like our human babies when they are teething, are forever trying to help the discomfort they are feeling and continually put anything and everything in the mouths to soothe the soreness.
A puppy, no doubt, is the same! So, during this formative stage when nature is attending to her work growing new teeth ready for the adulthood of our new puppy, our puppies would be feeling this discomfort in their mouths.
This is how I teach my new puppy to fetch! I put a collar and leash on my new puppy, I show them various toys to see which toy seems to be the main attraction at that particular time, and I play a fun game of happily moving the toy on the ground in front of them back and forth until they decide, this is fun and they mouth the toy.
We are now on the way to the next step where I gently remove the toy from their mouth and throw the toy a very short way from me, being aware that I do not want to throw the toy to the length of the leash. I, only at this stage, want the toy to be within the reach of my stretched-out hand.
I only throw the toy this short distance so that I can play with the toy again to encourage the puppy to take the toy in his or her mouth if my puppy does not realise that it is fun to pick up the toy also.
I have even in the past, when my puppy may not be as enthusiastic about this new game they are learning, I have wiped the toy with a food source. This makes the toy far more interesting to pick up.
I then happily encourage my puppy to bring the toy back to me, and again gently pry the toy out of their mouth if they are not willing to release the toy at this stage. Releasing a toy from their mouth is another game we can play too!
Back to our fetch game. Once I have the puppy happily getting the toy this short distance and encouraging them to release the toy to my hand, we are ready to now throw the toy the length of the leash.
It does not take long for them to get the hang of happily getting the thrown toy and bring it back to me.
I will even give them a treat upon return to help them enjoy this game more.
Once we have this down pat, I can safely remove the leash and start throwing the toy slightly longer distances, again call my puppy back to me with the toy, and of course, to show them how pleased I am with them, I will give them one treat after another, yes, that’s it, a jackpot of treats!
So, this is how I teach my new puppy to fetch, simply start with baby steps and work from there. They will love you for having this game with them.
Until next time…
