Why should you bother to name your dog? Well, everybody does, and its cute to be able to choose a suitable name you can use to call your puppy. It just seems right. But dog trainers will tell you there is much more to naming your dog than that. Above all, you use your dog’s name to start every communication you have with your dog. It’s how he knows to pay attention to what you have to say. Amid everything else that may be going on around you and your dog, its how you make contact. And yes, it just seems right because its how people naturally talk to each other as well. Listen to how your children almost always start their conversations with you by getting your attention first. They will say “Mom” or “Dad” first. That way they make contact with you, and just you, out of all the other people in the room, and you will stop and pay attention to what they have to say - well, most of the time, anyway!

Naming your puppy is more than just fun, then, it’s vital to your future communication with your puppy. Right from the start, you should get your puppy used to his name, and make a firm habit of starting every conversation with him by using his name. You want him to learn to “listen up and pay attention” whenever he hears his name. You are going to be giving your commands with his name first, like: Buddy - Fetch, Blue - Sit, Fido - Come, or Lassie - Stay. That way if you are having a family conversation about going for a walk, your dog will not be alerted that you are talking to him and have reason to get excited. That is until you call his name and send him off to fetch his walking lead. Mind you, your dog is smart, and if you have a similar conversation before every time you give him that command and take him for a walk he will soon figure out the association! Now we have a purpose for a name, what sort of name should we choose? First off, eliminate all the commands you might use: stay, sit, stand, walk, come, fetch, and so on. And avoid any duplication or similarity with other names being used in your family circle. Avoid Red if you already have a Fred, for example. Other common words that often enter your family’s every day conversation are also best avoided. The name has to be distinctive, and just for getting the attention of that one puppy. Confusion will follow if your puppy hears his name when its not being used to call him to attention.

Next, you should choose a short name that can’t be abbreviated. Calling him Macgregor one minute and Mac the next is another path to confusion. Its best to limit the name to three syllables at most, preferably only one or two. If your puppy has a formal pedigree he may have a very long name given to him by his breeder. Leave that on his papers and for the show ring, and start afresh for his day-to-day name. Remember you will have to call him from afar at times. A short sharp name that will carry will make that a lot easier for you. And a name you will not be embarrassed to have your neighbors hear you yelling out may be wise as well. Perhaps you should think carefully before choosing a name like Dumbo, or anything a little on the rude or politically incorrect side! That is why short and sharp names like Pal, King, Queen, Ace, Prince, Red, Spot, Mutt, Spike, Jess and Joe have been popular over the years. Some families like their dog to inherit a name from an earlier family dog. You may instead want to choose a name that reflects your puppy’s own unique character. Often a puppy’s behavior or appearance will suggest a name: Dash, Digger, Patch, Snow, Rolly or Bossy are examples. The breed and the country it came from may suggest a name: perhaps the classic Fifi for a poodle, or Danny for an Irish setter. Also keep in mind that cute little ball-of-fluff puppy will grow up. A huge and proud Great Dane hardly fits a cute puppy name like Fluffy anymore! Your choice of name should last your dog’s lifetime. Especially if you have a young family, popular movie, music, book or cartoon characters and stars will come to the fore in your name discussions. And news headlines, villains, heroes and fashions come and go. These sources of ideas keep refreshing your choices of names beyond the traditional well-used range. By all means be different!

What if you are adopting a stray dog? Try as many commonly used dog names as you can think of and see if one of them makes your dog immediately pay attention to you. You may just get lucky and find he was well trained to respond to his old name. It’s worth the effort. It could save you a lot of training work. But you will almost certainly have to retrain your dog to the commands you want to use anyway. Teaching him to respond to a new name is just one of the steps. Take your time over your choice of name for your dog. You will use it a lot over your dog’s lifetime. If it seems to fit your dog comfortably, and is distinctive and practical to use, your dog and his name will soon become inseparably identified with each other.

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Bringing a new puppy into the house is forever exciting and fun time. Everyone at home would like to play wit, cuddle and hold the little ball of fur. The last thing on minds of the most new puppy owners is to train the new addition, but is very vital that puppy training and socialization begin as early as possible.

Mingling a new puppy is an important part of any training program, and it is also significant for socialization to begin early. The gap for socialization is very small, and a puppy that is not properly socialized to people, dogs and other animals by the time he or she is four months old never develops the socialization he or she requires to become a good canine citizen.

Learning how to interact with other dogs is something that usually would occur among litter mates. However, since most dogs are removed from their mothers so soon, this litter mate socialization regularly does not finish properly.

The most vital lesson puppies often learn from their litter mates and from the mother dog is how to bite, and how not to bite. Puppies usually roughhouse with each other, and their thick skin protects them from most bites. However, when one puppy bites too hard, the other puppies, or the mother dog, swiftly reprimand him, often by holding him by the scruff of his neck until he submits.

In fact the best way to socialize your loved puppy is to have it play with lots of other puppies. It is also okay for the puppy to play with a few adult dogs, as long as they are friendly and well socialized. Many communities these days have puppy playschool and puppy kindergarten classes. These classes could be a good way to socialize any puppy, and for handler and puppy alike to learn some essential obedience skills.

When socializing puppies, it is best to let them play on their own and work out their own issues when it comes to suitable roughness of play. The only time the owners must step in is if one puppy is hurting another, or if a grave fight breaks out. Other than that the owners must simply stand back and watch their puppies interact.

While this socialization is taking place, the pack hierarchy must quickly become apparent. There would be some puppies that are especially submissive, rolling on their backs and baring their throats at the least provocation. Other puppies in the class would be dominant, ordering the other puppies around and telling them what to do. Watching the puppies play, and formative what type of personality traits your puppy has, would be extremely valuable in determining the best way to proceed with more advanced training.

It is also significant to introduce the puppy to a variety of other animals, particularly in a multiple pet household. Introducing the puppy to friendly cats is imperative, as are introductions to other animals the puppy might encounter, such as rabbits, guinea pigs and the like. If your household contains a more exotic creature, it is essential to introduce the puppy to it as early as possible, but to do it in a way that is secure for both animals.

It is often good to start by introducing the puppy to the smell of the other animal. This could be easily accomplished by placing a piece of the animals bedding, like a towel or bed liner, close to where the puppy sleeps. Once the puppy is familiar to the smell of the other creature, he or she is much more likely to believe the animal as just another member of the family.

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Bringing a new puppy home can be an exciting time. However, before you bring a puppy into your home, you need to be ready for what is to come. The first week is by far the most crucial for the future behavior of the puppy and the sanity of those living in the home. It is fairly obvious that you will need a crate or a soft bed for the dog to sleep in, food and water bowls, food for the dog to eat, toys for the dog to play with, a collar and a leash, at the very minimum. Just as important, maybe even more important than the items that you choose to buy for the dog is the agreement between all family members on the routine, rules and responsibilities of all members in helping to care for this new member of the family.

As mentioned previously, the first week is by far the most important week for you and for the puppy. Everyone is excited to have a new puppy and everyone wants to help out. Rules, routines and responsibilities are easily broken. Maybe you had agreed that you would not let the puppy jump on you or anyone else, but you are just so excited that you have this new puppy that you do not really mind that the puppy is jumping on anything. The family may have agreed that the puppy will sleep in his or her own bed, but now that you have brought the puppy home, you want it to sleep in your bed. The next morning, you may find that the puppy needed to go outside in the middle of the night, but decided to go on the bed instead of letting you know.

After a week or so, people become less excited about a new puppy in the home. No one wants to feed the puppy any more and the puppy is not getting outside nearly enough, judging by the stains on the carpet. The puppy is vulnerable, since it has been removed from the presence of his or her mother and other puppies in the litter. It is best to set up a special area or room of the house just for the puppy for at least the first couple of months, until the puppy gets used to living in your home. This is the beginning of training the dog. As you are training the dog to go outside, you will need to paper the entire floor of the area in which you have decided it will stay. There is always a mistake here and there.

Play with the puppy quietly and gently. It is not wise, when you are training a dog, to give the dog all of your attention and to fill its day with all sorts of activities. Most puppies need a lot of sleep. It is best that you give the puppy some time to him or herself. They need their space just like you do. It is very important that you do not deviate from the schedule your family set when deciding who will care for the puppy and when. If you do, it will be far more difficult to train the dog. It is important that if the puppy is not going to be around people all day long that he is left alone from the beginning during the day, so that he can get used to it.

These are very basic principles as to how to go about handling a new puppy in your home and how to go about training the dog.

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