Puppies are curious and love to explore, and through their explorations they continuously learn ways to access their needs and wants – ways that are sometimes not appropriate and not safe..
Therefore, it’s important to limit your puppy’s movements to puppy-proofed spaces and to supervise him as he is moving around your home.
Importance of Management & Supervision:
- To keep your puppy safe
- To protect your belongings
- To prevent your puppy from learning inappropriate ways (a.k.a. bad behaviors) for how to access his needs and wants.
While your puppy is still learning your house rules and home manners, limit his movement to these 3 areas:
Confinement Areas
- These are puppy-proofed areas where you can secure your puppy and leave him unsupervised: Crates, exercise pens, puppy-proofed rooms, fenced-off areas, etc.
- Among the confinement areas you prepare, designate one as a resting area where your puppy can settle and sleep.
- Spend time conditioning your puppy to confinement and to being alone if he’s not yet used to this.
- Confinement is a temporary management strategy used to keep your puppy safe and out of trouble while he is still learning home manners.
Potty Areas
For Apartment-Dwellers
- A bathroom, balcony or rooftop may serve as a more accessible, easy-to-clean alternative puppy potty area for people living in apartments.
For House-Dwellers
- Designate a small outside area as your puppy’s toilet: fence this area off or make sure you guide your puppy to this specific spot while on leash.
Substrate Conditioning
- Depending on what you prefer, what is easier for clean-up or what is more accessible, you can condition a substrate preference
- Apartment-dwellers may find it useful to encourage substrate preference if you want your puppy to only go on certain absorbent surfaces like pee pads or artificial grass.
Activity Areas
- These are areas where you will spend supervised time with your puppy, engaging him in enrichment and training activities.
- Puppy-proof the areas where your puppy will be allowed.
It’s important to encourage good habits and manners in your puppy from the beginning of his life with you. Set up the puppy to learn good behaviors by managing his environment and actively supervising him during his growing and learning stage.