Meet Tessa: Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
I met Tessa when she was 9 weeks old. Her mom, Ann was referred by a volunteer I knew from my years at Freedom Service Dogs. Ann wanted to make sure that Tessa was started on the right foot. They had not had a puppy for many years and so much has changed!
Our first meeting was typical puppy stuff. Tessa was very wiggly, and Ann was worried about dropping her since she was so tiny. Tessa was a bit bitey and even though she was sweet, she was doing puppy things and it surprised Ann by how crazy she could be. We spoke about crate training, playpen time, outside time, and car travel safety. Specifically, her homework was to work on relationship games including “The Name Game”, “Middle”, “Sit”, and “Touch”. All of these things Ann still works on to keep Tessa occupied, even now at 10 months of age!
After a few weeks, Tessa was progressing with the training homework, but her play continued to get rougher, zoomies to run around, was playing rough, she had gotten very bitey. She considered Ann’s hands as her best chew toys. Ann started to have to wear long sleeves and even gloves at times so Tessa would not break the skin with her needle-sharp baby teeth. She could throw little temper tantrums and had to learn that behavior would not get her what she wanted. I worked with them on redirection and substitution and the little yelp to teach bite inhibition.
I introduced leash training, down, and all the other beginning skills. We talked over the tether method though Tessa was picking up potty training nicely. Tessa was a confident little daredevil, which can make training easier in some ways. Just when Tessa was going to start group classes, COVID hit. It couldn’t have been worse timing for both Ann and Tessa.
We did several phone calls, but nothing replaces face-to-face training. At 9 months we resumed some private in-home training, mostly working outside. Tessa was progressing well, but there were a couple of things that Ann wanted to focus on. Tessa was pulling on the leash, launching right off the front porch when going outside. They also wanted to work more on loose-leash walking with distractions.
A common misconception is that all puppies need to be walked long distances for exercise & socialization even when they aren’t yet walking with good manners. This can be doing a lot more harm than good. This can reinforce pulling, racing around, and injuring young, not yet fully developed joints. Spending just a few weeks working with them on good walking manners and being consistent will get you so much further towards your goals of a well-mannered dog on a leash. There are so many ways to tire your young puppy out (both physically and mentally) even if you live in an apartment.
Even though Tessa is a smaller breed, it is still extremely important to work on the basics and reinforce the desired and good behaviors and redirect unwanted behaviors. Dogs continue to practice things that are working for them and will stop doing behaviors that are not useful to them. Tessa is a very smart, eager-to-learn, and healthy pup that will be a wonderful life-long companion.
Ann’s word of advice for getting through the first year is PATIENCE! Raising a puppy can be hard work and challenging as different behaviors present themselves. She wants everyone to be thoughtful before considering a puppy and be up to the task!
“Hi Fran, Tessa had a play date the other day with our neighbor’s little teddy bear dog. It took Tessa about 20 minutes to catch on, but in the meantime, she sure took advantage of ‘middle’, I think to feel safe. I didn’t tell her to do it, she did it on her own. She’s doing so great on the leash I can hardly believe it! Thank you again!” Ann
