Bringing a puppy home is an exciting time, but it can also feel overwhelming. Every day seems to bring a new behaviour, a new challenge or another question about whether what you’re seeing is normal.
The good news is that most puppy behaviours are exactly that: normal.
Your puppy is simply learning how to live in a world that is completely new to them. When they get things wrong, that’s learning too.
The first year of a dog’s life is a period of extraordinary physical, emotional and behavioural development. Their brain is rapidly forming new connections, their body is growing at an incredible rate, and their experiences are helping to shape the adult dog they will eventually become.
We often become very focused on what we need to teach a puppy. I think it is equally important to consider what we want our puppy to learn about the world.
Is it safe? Can I explore? Can I move away if something worries me? Can I cope when I don’t immediately get what I want? Can I relax and sleep? Can I trust the people looking after me?
Those are some of the foundations we are really building.
What is happening in your puppy’s developing brain?
Puppies are often expected to behave like miniature adult dogs, but their brains are far from fully developed. They are still learning how to regulate their emotions, cope with frustration and recover from exciting or worrying experiences.
The early months include an important period of social development when experiences can have a significant influence on how puppies respond to the world later in life. This doesn’t mean we need to race around exposing them to absolutely everything before an imaginary deadline. In fact, trying to fit too much in can have exactly the opposite effect.
What matters is the quality of those experiences.
A puppy who calmly watches a bus from a comfortable distance may learn far more from that experience than one who is taken into a noisy bus station and becomes frightened. Meeting one calm, appropriate dog can be more valuable than being surrounded by ten excited dogs at a puppy free-for-all.
What we are really trying to help puppies learn is that new experiences can be safe.
How much sleep does a puppy need?
A surprisingly large amount.
Some young puppies may sleep for around 18 to 20 hours in every 24. Growing, processing new information and experiencing an entirely new world is tiring work.
Sleep is important for healthy development and learning, yet overtiredness is one of the things I find owners often overlook when trying to understand puppy behaviour.
An exhausted puppy doesn’t necessarily look sleepy. They may become increasingly bitey, race around the house, grab clothes, struggle to settle or appear to have suddenly become completely wild.
The natural response can be to think, they obviously need to burn off more energy.
Quite often, they need exactly the opposite.
If your puppy regularly becomes a tiny land shark at a similar time each evening, before adding another walk or more stimulation, consider whether they simply need help switching off and getting some sleep.
What does good puppy socialisation actually mean?
Socialisation is one of those words that has become synonymous with puppies meeting lots of people and other dogs.
It is much broader than that.
Your puppy is learning about surfaces, sounds, smells, traffic, household appliances, car journeys, handling, veterinary visits, different environments and all the other things that will form part of their life.
Good socialisation means introducing those experiences gradually and positively, at a pace your individual puppy can manage.
They don’t need to interact with everything they see.
In fact, learning that another dog can walk past without greeting them, that people can exist without approaching them and that they can simply observe something unfamiliar from a safe distance are incredibly useful lessons.
Each new experience should leave your puppy a little more confident than before.
Why your puppy needs a calm and predictable home
Exciting experiences matter, but so does having somewhere you don’t have to experience anything at all.
A calm home environment, reasonably predictable routines and somewhere your puppy can rest undisturbed help create a sense of safety.
This is particularly important when puppies first arrive home. They have usually just left their mother, littermates and the only environment they have ever known. We may have spent weeks excitedly waiting for their arrival; from the puppy’s perspective, their entire world has suddenly changed.
Visitors, outings, training sessions and constant attention can wait.
Give them time to settle.
What should you feed a growing puppy?
Rapid growth places significant demands on a puppy’s body, so they need a complete and appropriately balanced puppy diet to support healthy development.
I’m also qualified in canine health and nutrition, so diet is often part of the conversation when I work with puppy owners, alongside puppy training.
Treats certainly have their place in training. I use food extensively because it is a simple and effective way of reinforcing behaviours we would like to see again. However, training food still forms part of the puppy’s overall intake.
Using some of their normal daily food allowance for training can be a useful way of rewarding good choices without continually adding additional calories.
Food can also be much more interesting than something simply placed in a bowl. Appropriate food puzzles, scatter feeding and simple scent activities can provide opportunities to forage and problem-solve while satisfying some very natural canine behaviours.
How much exercise does a puppy really need?
Puppies benefit enormously from opportunities to sniff, investigate, explore and move naturally. Short walks, appropriate play, training and free exploration in safe environments can provide physical activity while also allowing them to learn about the world.
You may have heard of the five-minute rule, which suggests around five minutes of formal exercise for each month of a puppy’s age, once or twice a day. It isn’t a scientifically established formula and doesn’t need to be followed rigidly, but I do think it can be a useful guideline for reminding us just how little structured exercise young puppies actually need.
What I wouldn’t do is significantly increase exercise simply because a puppy belongs to a working or high-energy breed. More exercise isn’t necessarily better, and constantly trying to physically tire an energetic puppy can simply create a puppy who becomes increasingly accustomed to high levels of activity without ever learning how to switch off.
I would much rather see a puppy spend twenty minutes slowly investigating an interesting environment, sniffing and exploring at their own pace, than being marched for miles because we think they need to be tired out.
Exercise at this age is there to support a developing puppy, at their pace.
Why play matters to puppy development
Play is far more than entertainment.
Through play, puppies practise movement, problem-solving and social interaction. It can help develop coordination and confidence and gives them opportunities to experiment with behaviour in a safe context.
Play doesn’t always need to involve another dog either. Playing with their human is so much fun for a puppy and strengthens the human canine bond. Playing tuggy with a pup will not make them aggressive! Be cautious with ball play as some breeds get obsessed and become what is described as “ball junkies”.
Simple scent games, appropriate chew items, food puzzles, toys and opportunities to investigate different environments all allow puppies to use their bodies and brains.
Most importantly, watch the puppy in front of you. Play should be enjoyable, not something they are expected to continue when they are tired or overwhelmed.
Which skills should I teach my puppy first?
It is very tempting when we bring home a puppy to start working through a mental checklist: sit, down, paw, stay…
There is nothing wrong with teaching these things, but they wouldn’t be at the top of my list.
I am much more interested in the skills that will make everyday life easier for both the puppy and their family. The ones I would start with are:
- Coming back to you when called
- Settling while life carries on around them
- Feeling comfortable being gently handled
- Walking with you without the lead becoming a constant battle
- Gradually learning to spend short periods without you
- Coping when something they want isn’t immediately available
These aren’t impressive party tricks. These are life skills.
Teaching puppies how to cope with small frustrations, recover from minor disappointments and feel safe when the world doesn’t behave exactly as they expected helps us build something far more valuable than obedience: resilience.
Is mouthing, chewing and zooming normal puppy behaviour?
Very often, yes.
Many of the behaviours owners find most frustrating are perfectly normal parts of puppy development.
Mouthing is part of how puppies investigate their environment and can increase during teething. Chewing is a normal canine behaviour. Toileting accidents are inevitable while puppies are developing bladder control and learning where we expect them to toilet.
And those apparently crazy bursts of zooming, biting and grabbing everything in sight can sometimes be a clue that a puppy has simply had enough.
Context matters.
Rather than immediately asking, “How do I stop this?”, I encourage owners to first ask, “Why might my puppy be doing this?” “What does my puppy need?”
Sometimes changing what is happening around the puppy is far more useful than trying to correct the puppy. More often than not the answer to what they need is sleep!
One thing I would encourage every new puppy owner to do
Lower your expectations.
Not because puppies can’t learn extraordinary things. They can. There’s just no prize for getting there fastest.
You don’t need the puppy with the best recall in puppy class at twelve weeks old. You don’t need to expose them to every dog, person, vehicle, café, shop and high street before they reach a particular age. And you certainly don’t need a puppy who behaves like a perfectly trained adult dog.
Watch the puppy in front of you.
Give them time to investigate. Notice when they’re tired. Help them move away when something worries them. Let them sniff. Let them play. Let them sleep.
And give them time to grow up.
Frequently asked questions
When should I start training my puppy?
Learning starts from the moment your puppy arrives home, but that doesn’t mean you need to launch into formal training sessions. Begin with everyday experiences: responding to their name, coming towards you, settling, gentle handling and learning that being with you is safe and rewarding. Keep sessions short and enjoyable.
What should I do if my puppy is frightened of something new?
Give them space and allow them to observe rather than encouraging or forcing them closer. Reassurance will not reinforce fear. Your puppy needs to learn that they can look to you for support and, importantly, that you will listen when they tell you something feels too much.
Have I missed the socialisation window if my puppy is older?
No. Early experiences are important, but dogs continue learning throughout their lives. If your puppy has had limited early experiences, the answer isn’t to suddenly expose them to everything they have missed. Introduce new experiences gradually and at a level they can comfortably manage.
How do I know if I’m doing too much with my puppy?
Watch the puppy rather than the schedule. Increasing mouthing, frantic behaviour, zooming, difficulty settling, becoming less responsive or appearing overwhelmed can all suggest your puppy needs a break. Puppies don’t always recognise when they’re tired, so sometimes we need to create the conditions that allow them to switch off and sleep.
Building the foundations for the dog they will become
Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes we can make is expecting too much too soon.
Puppies are babies.
They learn gradually, through repetition, consistency and experience. Perfect obedience can wait. For now, what matters is confidence, good associations and a puppy who feels safe in the world around them. Each time your puppy discovers that you will listen when they are struggling, those foundations get a little stronger.
The goal isn’t to raise the perfect puppy. It is to help that puppy become a confident, resilient adult dog, and that journey begins from the very first day they come home.
If you’d like support through those early months, my Nose to tail puppy programme is built around your puppy, in your own home and at a pace that suits them. It’s even better if we can chat before your puppy arrives.
I work with puppy owners across Ayrshire, East Kilbride and Glasgow South Side.
If you’d like to talk things through, just use the form below.