Maximizing Puppy Wellbeing and Safety

GDB puppies are… well, puppies! Introducing them to the world, helping them gain confidence, and teaching good manners while having fun is essential to their growth and development. Puppy raising volunteers balance enriching the puppy’s experiences with ensuring their safety and wellbeing. The following philosophy and guidelines can help lay the groundwork.

General Philosophy for Minimizing Risk
Initially, puppies should be supervised when experiencing something new (like a new toy, or a new bed in their crate). Someone needs to be present and able to step in if the puppy engages in unsafe behaviors. Puppy raisers can reduce these behaviors by:

• Encouraging exposure to activities early and often to reduce possible over-excitement associated with novelty.
  • Food and environmental enrichment (novel foods, foraging toys, different textured toys, sniffy walks).
  • Socialization/play dates/parties with other dogs (same and other breeds).
• Checking toys/equipment regularly for wear & tear, gates getting loose, etc.

Opportunities for access while unsupervised:

• All puppies start with the opportunity to experience activities/environments that promote positive welfare while supervised.
  • If the puppy is not responsive to input, and has unsafe behaviors, the puppy is not ready for the activity or environment and may need time to mature before introducing the experience again. Always ensure that the puppy is appropriate while supervised before moving to unsupervised access.
• With maturity, puppies can gain unsupervised access in familiar environments when they no longer require intervention to prevent or stop behaviors that could result in injury or ingestion (shredding toys, rough play with pet dogs, attempting to escape x-pen, etc.).
  • When introducing the same access in new environments, start with supervised access first.
  • If the puppy is not ready, go back to supervised access and try again later.
  • When in doubt, set the puppy up for success and prevent potential injury or ingestion by removing questionable items when unsupervised.
  • While in the puppy raising home, some puppies may not be ready for unsupervised access for some types of environments, toys, or circumstances, and that’s ok! Puppies mature at different rates, and some find certain activities more challenging than others.
  • Some activities may never be allowed unsupervised if there is a risk to or from other pets or people, such as interactions with a pet dog that continues to need supervision, or the puppy’s excitement level around children or others.