Tips for Communicating and Bonding With Your Pup

 

It’s important for dog owners to establish a human-canine relationship built on a strong foundation of mutual trust, patience, understanding, fairness, consistency, and love. So where do you begin?

 

Spend Time With Him

Aside from feeding and providing health care, the most important thing you can do for your puppy is to spend time with him. When you get a new puppy, regularly snuggle and talk to him, brush him, get on the floor and roll around with him, and play fun games with him.

If you give a dog a lot of positive attention, you can’t help but build a strong bond. As a result, your puppy will think you are fun, and the more fun he thinks you are, the harder he will work to please you.

A great way to spend time with your dog and create a strong bond is through training. Teach your dog the basics as well as some fun tricks. And don’t forget to give lots of positive reinforcement. Training treats are great for showing your dog he’s done a good job. Then, when you’ve got all your stuff down, sign up to take the Canine Good Citizen test!

 

Find Your Inner Dog

In order to enhance your bond, you must interact and be involved in your puppy’s world. Watching your puppy chase bugs in the backyard while you chat on the telephone is not interactive. He must be a valued member of your family, and you must be the center of his universe. He should look to you for all of his fun and games.

 

Be Consistent

Equally important, a human-canine relationship must be built on mutual trust, and you must be consistent with your training and expectations. A puppy (or adult dog) should not be worried about how his owner is going to react from day to day. It is unfair to allow an adorable 8-week-old puppy on the furniture today but scold him when he is a 60-pound adult dog trying to sleep in your lap.

 

-AKC.org