"How Do I Reward My Puppy Without Getting Them Excited?" New puppy mom as of a few weeks ago and saying that it's been hard is an understatement. I understand the concept of praising good behavior when it happens, and we're getting better at it.
Fantastic.
If the good behavior is going to create downtime on her own or to go sit on her dog bed and wait for me, how do I praise her without making her move? How do I praise her without getting her excited?
A very good question. And, a bit of a catch-22, right? If you are seeing your puppy do something that like, so like a sit a down, they're walking with you nicely. They're greeting people nicely. Whatever it is, anything that you love doing, you wanna of course reward And an easy way is with food, with, a little. Piece of a treat that they like. And obviously, that gets your puppy feeling good, feeling potentially excited. But what do you do when, what they're choosing to do and you want to praise is them going to their crate, them resting them laying down?
Especially for a young puppy, it doesn't take a lot to get them very excited. And so how do you reward that? And my answer to that would be the reward is the rest. If your puppy is choosing. To go to their crate for downtime or to go to their dog bed, is not something that a lot of puppies can do, and that could be for different reasons.
Some puppies really just have a lot of energy. Some puppies are potentially not getting much engagement and enrichment outlets, and so it's hard for them to just want to have any downtime period. But if your puppy is choosing downtime, Chances are you've done things very well and or they're a low energy pup, and because you provided outlets, physical, mental enrichment, socialization, They're then much more likely to choose downtime to go and sit down, rest somewhere, relax. And so if you want to reward that, the reward is that they get to relax. The reward is that they're happy to choose downtime they're happy to go on their bed. That is a huge reward. We all go to bed at night.
being happy that we had a good day. And the reward is that we get to rest and get ready for the next day. So what you can do because it's still good to reward a puppy, definitely, a young puppy's likely going to lay down to sleep. So just let them rest. But as they get a little bit older, you'll notice that they go and rest or lay down and not necessarily.
Fall asleep as much right away. And so if you want to reward something, reward that. If they're choosing to just lay down or if they're just. Relaxing somewhere. Whether or not you've done activities prior. Give them a little snack. Give them a little something as they get a little bit older to still let them know, Hey, I like that you lay down.
I like that you are choosing to spend time alone. I like that you're giving me space. I like that you are not doing things that I dislike. And so as the puppy gets a bit older and they're choosing to do things that you like, Then be a little bit more interactive in your reward, your praise, your voice, the snacks, food, water, is a great reward as well.
Until then, the reward is that they're getting to rest, and you should feel proud that your puppy is looking to rest, looking to have some downtime as a result of everything you've done well.