Advice for your puppy from Jan Fennell

When you take on a puppy you are taking on a 12-14 year commitment. So it is important for all owners to consider the dog's welfare in both mind and body right from the very beginning.

It is a daunting prospect - both for the puppy and the owner. I often remind people that it is a traumatic thing for a puppy to leave the litter where it has spent the first two or three months of its life, to be placed in an alien environment where people are speaking a language they do not understand. This is why, in my method, I stress the importance of dealing with the puppy in a language it understands from the outset. Hopefully, this will mean that it will be happy in its mind from the beginning.

All of us benefit from being surrounded by as much help as we can get. By establishing the right food formula for your puppy (it is important to get this right - so knowing your breed size is very important) and the quantity of food your puppy needs, the guesswork is taken out of feeding - and so is the worry. My life with my own English Springer puppies has been improved hugely by the Iams diet. Because I know and trust Iams® to deliver all the good things my dogs need, it leaves me free to concentrate on their happiness and all round well being.

I spend much of my life dealing with what I call remedial dogs, pets with behaviour problems. In almost every case, the root cause of the problem lies in the past. Owners, through no fault of their own, have been giving out signals that have - in turn - given their dog a misplaced sense of its own importance. It may be something that has been ingrained even earlier, by a previous owner. My method redresses this imbalance, establishing the owner as the unchallenged leader of their pack - and thus ensuring a kinder, calmer more understanding future for the dog. Of course, it follows from this that the best way to avoid any of these behavioural problems is by establishing the right sort of relationship from the very beginning of the dog's life. A puppy offers the perfect opportunity to start as you mean to go on. And here are some key pieces of advice to help you get off to the best possible beginning:

• A puppy should never leave its litter until it is at least eight weeks old. It is within the litter that the puppy learns the fundamental facts of life, from social skills to the language of its peer group. To separate a puppy from this environment before these first intense eight weeks are over is, I believe, hugely damaging to a dog.
  
  
• Meet the puppy's mother. New owners can learn so much from the parents, both the canine and human carers. The puppy's mother will give you a clear idea of the dog's temperament and physical attributes. More importantly its breeders will, hopefully, show you it has come from a responsible, loving home - and that they will be there as back-up, not just through the puppy's difficult early days away from its litter, but for the rest of its life.
  
  
• Because leaving its litter is such a trauma for a puppy, the first 48 hours in its new owner's home are crucial. It is vital you make the puppy feel as comfortable, safe and loved as possible in its new environment. I recommend that a puppy actually spends its first night sleeping with or near its new owner.
  
  
• Part of the fun of getting a dog is choosing a name. But make sure you choose it from the beginning and that you stick to it. There are good reasons for this - it is important that the dog becomes familiar and comfortable with its owner. I ask owners practising my method to call their puppies to them as often as they can, always remembering to reward them with titbits and praise when they do the right thing. As far as I am concerned there is no limit to the number of times a puppy can hear the words "good dog, good boy or good girl".
  
  
• Never forget how quickly puppies learn. One of the great joys of training a puppy is the speed with which young dogs learn new tricks. I have found that if you repeat any procedure three times a puppy will pick up the message, whatever it may be. This is a huge positive, but, by the same token, if you make a mistake more than once, it will be that much more difficult to retrieve things.
  
  
• I do not recommend taking puppies out for walks until two weeks after they complete their vaccinations, that is usually until when they are 14 weeks or so old. They are simply unprepared for the big wide world at this point. It is far better in my experience to put them into a well-run puppy playgroup, where they can run around in a situation similar to the natural playfulness of the litter environment.
  
  
• Before a puppy's first walk in the outside world, it is important that the principles of heel work are established at home. The important thing is to teach the puppy that the best place to be is by its owner's side. Tugging matches should be avoided at all costs. There is nothing a young pup loves more than a game. There will be more than enough time for games later. For now it must learn the rules of a different game. If you don't lay down those rules at this point, believe me, it will make up its own.
  
  
• Use the right tone of voice. Don't shout or shriek, use what I call a bonny sound. I remind them that the dog is supposed to be man's best friend. How do they talk to their best friend, do they shout and bawl or do they talk kindly and calmly to them? Once the dog is responding to gentle commands the voice can be reduced to a near whisper. This will really bear fruit later on. A dog that is tuned in to soft commands will really pay attention when an owner raises its voice.
  
  
• Make play constructive. Playing with a dog is a magical part of the relationship, something to be cherished and enjoyed at all times. Given that my method is based around non-aggression, it is in many ways the perfect time to transmit information to the dog. I frequently use playtime to practice and top up some of the key disciplines, skills like the recall and coming to heel.
  
  
• Be wise to their tricks! Owners must establish playtime. And the easiest way to do this is by taking control of the toybox. One or two favourite toys can be left around for independent play. But generally the owner should decide when play happens. The key thing to remember here, however, is that you don't get into contests. To the dog, play is never simply for play's sake. It is a contest that it wants to win. So for this reason, owners should never get into tugging contests with a dog. Firstly it is allowing the dog to dictate the rules of the game. Secondly, and potentially even more dangerous, there is a danger the dog may sense its physical superiority over an owner. And in a puppy this is the last thing we want.

It really is vitally important for all owners to consider their dog's welfare in both mind and body right from the very beginning - if you get it right from the start you'll reap the rewards and pleasures of a well behaved, well balanced dog.

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I am a great believer in the old saying that you only get out what you put in. Since complementing my method with the Iams® complete diet, I have seen the physical benefits more and more clearly. Starting as you mean to go on is important - there are many benefits to Iams dry food, but the biggest one for me is fewer and firmer stools. When you have a litter of puppies to care for less mess is a big help.

My newest puppies, Fifthavenue and Manhattan, illustrate this perfectly. They, along with the other five members of their litter, were fed on Iams even before they came into the world. From the moment their mother Jen, conceived I fed her - and her brood - on the diet.

Since they were born, the pair of them have been happy, healthy, outgoing dogs. They are now on the verge of entering their first competitions. As a breeder, it has been up to me to get the conformation of the dog right. But thanks to the diet they have been given they will go into the competition ring with excellent bone structure, gleaming teeth, and an ideal skin and coat condition. We are now ready to see the benefits of the hard work we have put in.

As for the other five puppies they have now gone to homes as far afield as Jersey and the Home Counties. And I have peace of mind knowing that their new owners have acquired dogs that have been given the best possible start towards a long and healthy life.

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