What should i expect from my new samoyed puppy ? like it’s day to day activities ? as well as when they grow older
As a puppy, he will need constant attention. He cannot be just crated when it's inconvenient for you. For more you isolate him by crating him or putting him out in the yard by himself, more more likely he will developed behavioral issues. He will need to be taken out for potty breaks when he first wakes up, after every meal, after every drink of water, after every nap, after every play session, and right before bed. In addition, he will need to go out to potty at least once an hour in addition to all that. He will need daily brushing. In addition, he will blow his coat once or twice a year and that will require extensive grooming. He will need daily exercise, both mental and physical. He will need all his puppy shots on schedule. Until he is fully vaccinated you should not take him to public areas. Talk to your vet to determine what places are acceptable for him to visit when. After that he will need to have boosters every one to three years. Your vet can recommend vaccinations specific to your area or to your situation (eg, rabies is required most everywhere in the states and Canada but bordatella (kennel cough) may not be necessary unless you will kennel or show your dog). Unless you will be showing your dog in conformation, you will want to neuter him (spay if a female). Again, your vet can provide specific information on when to neuter/spay. You will need to put in the effort to train him. Do NOT use aversive training methods. Find a positive only puppy class for starts. This will teach you how to interact with him in a positive manner to help him become a confident and happy dog. Do NOT go to a "balanced trainer" or let anyone convince you to use a prong collar, electric collar, or other punishments on your dog. Samoyeds are sleeding dogs. They are used to having a certain amount of control of their own lives and making their own decisions. Using aversice, punitive and/or harsh training methods can make him fearful and/or unpredictable. Puppies chew. He will chew on things and on you. Make sure you have lots of appropriate toys and chews available. If he starts to chew on your table leg, redirect him to a chew and when he redirects praise him profusely. Praise him everytime he does something you like. Praise is a wonderful tool and samoyeds will respond well to it. Talk to your puppy. Ask him "what should we make for dinner?" "Should we go for a walk?" And so on. Explain what you are doing - like "Time to do laundry" "Let's get the mail" and so on. The more you talk to him in conversational settings, the better he'll respond to you overall. Use baby gates to confine him to the room you're in. Don't let him wander out of your sight - that's when accidents happen. If you plan on crating him at all, spend the first week making note of the time whenever you put him in the crate and whenever you take him out of the crate. At the end of the week, add up the actual time he was in the crate. If he is crated more than 12 hours a day total (including during the night), please consider finding ways to reduce that. Bringing him into the bathroom while you shower instead of crating him, letting him hang with you in the office while you work, etc, asking a friend or neighbor to puppysit when you run errands, etc can all provide him with social interaction instead of being isolated in a crate. Remember, we purposely bred dogs to be our companions. They are genetically designed to want to be with us. Now take a young puppy whose whole life has been spent in the company of his mama and siblings and take him from that familiar and comforting world and drop him into a strange place with unfamiliar sights and sounds and smells. He's going to look to you for comfort! So give it to him - as much as he needs. The more he trusts you to be there for him, the more he'll gain in confidence as he grows. You don't mention if you have kids, other dogs, cats, or other pets. You don't mention if you live in an apartment building, condo, house, etc. All those things will have suggwstions and advice. If you are not prepared to put in the effort while he is a puppy - sacrificing sleep to take him out for middle of the night potty breaks; putting away rugs, pillows, etc, that he might find fun to chew on; keeping your dirty laundry off the floor; skipping a night out to stay home and play with him; trying to sweep while a puppy attacks the broom nonstop; and so on - then please rethink your decision to get a puppy. And if you cannot or will not commit to 10-15 years to this dog and his needs, then please rethink your decision to get a puppy. You cannot put him out in a yard because you don't have time for him. You can't lock him away in a crate or kennel because he's chewing up your shoes. You can't fail to raise him properly and then dump him on someone else because he is too much to handle. But if you put in the work, give him positive experiences and lots of love and attention, don't use aversive methods or punish him, then you will have a friend and companion who will always love you.
Thank you so much ! really going to think about this for the week I do have 2 little siblings ages 5 and 7 and will have somebody at home everyday with him ( work from home ) Appreciate the time and response ! Also what do u do for mental stimulation ?
For mental stimulation, you can play hide and seek with him. You can use Kong toys and other food release toys. You can teach him tricks. Basically things that require him to think about what he is doing. Remember that kid toys can look a lot like dog toys. Make sure your siblings pick up their toys from common areas. Especially small items like legos and barbie accessories, etc. Again, using baby gates to confine him to specific rooms (or keep him out of specific rooms) will help. Teach your siblings from the start to let sleeping puppies lie. When puppy is asleep, he is not to be bothered. When puppy is eating, he is not to be bothered. Two good things to teach puppy and your siblings are "sit for it" and "let me see it". Sit for it. Hold a puppy toy or treat in your hand. Just calmly hold it. If puppy tries to grab it, ignore him. As some point, he will sit. As soon as he does, give him the toy or treat and praise him profusely. When he starts sitting right away (which only takes a few times), add the phrase "sit for it". Hold the toy or treat, say "sit for it", as soon as he sits give him the toy or treat and praise him. This will teach him that if anyone has something he wants, he should sit politely rather than jump on the person. This is important when there are young kids in the home. A samoyed will quickly outgrow a 5 year old. You don't want the dog jumping on your siblings trying to steal things from them. Let Me See It. When he has a toy, calmly put your hand on it and say "let me see it". Don't pull on it or try to take it away. At some point, he will relax his grip to get a better hold. When he does, calmly take the toy and praise him. Then make a big deal over the toy. As soon as he sits, give back the toy and praise him. Once he gets the hang of this, you can occasionally add in "enough". When you take the toy, calmly say "enough" and put the toy away. Then redirect him to something else and praise him. Never try to grab anything from him (and don't let your siblings try) or chase him to get it. Always calmly use "let me see it". This will teach him that he doesn't have to run and hide when he has something, that showing you his treasures is fun, that you aren't always going to take things away from him, and that if you do take it away he will get something else instead. Teach your siblings to never chase the puppy if he gets a hold of one of their toys or shoes, etc. They should immediately tell an adult and let the adult use "let me see it" to get the object back for them. I do not recommend young kids do "let me see it" with the puppy. When the older one is 9 or 10 and if they are a fairly calm kid, they can start practicing it when adults are present. Your siblings should not walk around with food or sit on the floor with food or hand feed the puppy. Puppies love food. Little kids are easy to steal food from. So they should always eat their snacks at the table if the puppy is present. If they want to feed the puppy, they should put the food/treat in the puppy's bowl and let puppy take it from there. That will lessen the puppy seeing the kids as a food source and jumping on them to get their food. Another trick that's good with kids is to create a special nickname for the puppy. Make it completely different from their actual name. This name is only used when you want the puppy to go crazy with play/affection. I used the nickname "Snortimer" with my puppy. When I called "Snortimer", he could rush at me and jump all over me and kiss me and so on. When I called him by his actual name, he was expected to be calmer and not go nuts. We practiced this a lot. He quickly learned the difference. This is great around kids because they usually love it when puppies go crazy all over them - but you also want puppy to learn manners and not jump on people and climb all over them just because they sit down. So puppy learns that the nickname is permission to go nuts and otherwise he behaves politely. And the kids will love having a "command word" to turn on the crazy puppy. Oh, and all these things are mental exercise - they make him use his brain.
