Imagine yourself with your Christmas puppy 5-6 months from now…
Picture yourself walking or going for a run together enjoying the gorgeous weather.
Being together is like being with your best friend. There’s a sense of light-heartedness as you and your sweet dog notice other dogs playing nearby. Your fur baby prefers to stay with you, the sun of her universe.
Notice a gentle breeze flowing through the trees. Your dog’s tail wags and she looks up at you with her heart-melting eyes.
Light filters through the trees like heavenly rays. Being in nature with your dog feels relaxing and nourishing. Take in the colors, the smells and feel the sunlight bathing your skin. A perfect day.
When you get home, where do you and your BFF go to relax or play? What toys does she totally love?
What games do you two play?
What do your friends say every time they see her on Instagram or Facebook? What do you Tweet about her? What doggie clothes, cool beds, fascinating dog training tips or special recipes did you find on Pinterest? Do you go to the dog park? What is life like for you, the pet parent, who is cherishing and loving your fur baby?
Is This Scenario, This Vision of Your Christmas Puppy Realistic?
This vision can become a reality and that’s the good news but statistics say that it likely won’t happen.
What?!
The shocking news is that research now shows that in some areas of the US, shelters believe that as many as 60% of Christmas puppies end up in shelters within 6-9 months.
So instead of that vision we just looked at, you could become a disappointed statistic rather than a happy pet parent.
There would be no awesome dog, no toys, no games, no fun and play…and no adorable tweeting, photos on Insta or shopping for pup on Pinterest. The whole world as you imagined it, that vision would fade into disappointment.
It’s fascinating to see these surprising statistics because I never met anyone who said, “I’ll get an amazing puppy for Christmas, put a huge red bow around her neck and then I’ll take her to a shelter later if it doesn't work out.”
Yet in 2015, I went to shelters from coast to coast in the US and around May, there they were: one Christmas puppy after another…lined up in kennels.
Meet “Kennel Number 22” …that was her name. So many pups came to the shelter that she did not have a name yet on the day I met her. The pups were howling, spinning, frustrated and creating a nerve shattering environment in the shelter.
I used a small clicker, and some of my other favorite tools and within minutes, Kennel Number 22 brought me to tears. In less than 10 minutes, she’d learned to sit when someone approached her and then to lie down.
I went back a couple of days later, and she made me tear up again. She saw me, wagged that adorable tail and sat so pretty and straight. She knew what I wanted and she offered me a sit and it was so fun to spend time with her precious personality.
So what went wrong with Kennel 22? Did her pet parents decide that her howling and spinning and seemingly rude behavior was just too much for them? Could they have prevented it?
What went wrong for this cute puppy who was now part of the shelter’s overcrowding.
Certainly her pet parent didn’t consciously create a howling, screeching puppy who ended up at a dog shelter.
That’s never the intention. So why does it happen with such consistency? Let’s explore this so it doesn’t happen for you...
3 Things Must Happen For A Christmas Puppy and Their Pet Parent To Live The Life of Their Vision And Dreams
Let’s dive into making your Christmas puppy dreams come true. These are 3 Christmas puppy secrets that you need to know about:
- Prepare for your Christmas puppy
- Go into this relationship with your eyes wide open
- Be willing to learn how to be a Pet Parent (Not a dictator. Science has now debunked the idea that you need to dominate your puppy or become an Alpha dog. You get to be a loving pet parent. What a relief! You can love your pup to the moon and back. Recent anthropology and canine neurology will back you up.)
- Make a list and check it twice (Sounds like Santa Claus, right? That’s you this year.)
- Socialize your Christmas puppy to the right things, during the special developmental periods over the next 4 years
- Learn all of the critical socialization periods that pups go through from the time you bring them home normally at a couple of months old.
- And these socialization periods continue up until your pup reaches sexual maturity at around 9 months old.
- Then, there’s more to socialize as they mature developmentally at about 4 years old.
- Knowing the socialization periods and neurological imprinting stages becomes critical so you can be ready and help your pup know how to be with other dogs on leash, how to act and how to feel safe out in public and how to interact appropriately with other pets and people in your home.
- When you miss these vital brain development and socialization stages, it can be difficult, and worse case, impossible to change later.
- Teach your Christmas pup everything a puppy needs to know to navigate in a human world and be happy by doing some awesome, positive puppy training
- If you do not teach your pup or young dog some form of puppy training, your pup will figure life out for himself.
- He will decided where to pee, which furniture he owns and he’ll feel empowered to take it from you as he gets older.
- Well, to be fair, you never taught him the ropes.
- As his brain develops so does his understanding and sometimes it’s very difficult to un-train ingrained habits.
The reality is that the holidays get busy.
We all have lives that move forward with warp speed.
Every week that you are not able to find time to implement these 3 secrets, your Christmas puppy and you as their pet parent move closer to becoming that 60 % shelter dog statistic couple.
Let the Holidays Be Full of Hope and Happiness This Year For You and Your Christmas Puppy
There’s hope and possibility. How about an early present this holiday season. Click Here because I'd like to give you...
- A free preparation check list (for you and your Christmas puppy),
- Our Comprehensive ebook detailing everything you need to know in case you are adopting a rescue dog (it's free too)
- Very cool “bonding tool” for pups and pet parents … You will love this because it is perfect for the holidays and beyond...
And if you want to dive into socialization and teaching pups from the comfort of your own home (using your mobile phone), Click Here to discover more.
You'll see Kennel 22's clicker training secrets towards the middle of the page. That's one of several gifts for anyone who wants to live the vision they have for their Christmas puppy and make it a happy Christmas story to tell for generations to come.
This kind of joy-filled Christmas puppy story is about the amazing pup who arrived for the holidays, stayed for years to come as someone’s BFF and transformed the life of their pet parent forever.
It’s an epic tale.
xo, xo, xo,
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