Product Description
Includes recommendations for the following activities
How to avoid the five most common emotionally damaging incidents that happen to puppies.
The six ways we can empower ourselves to stand up for our puppies.
A “12 Steps to Puppy Advocacy” infographic for quick reference
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I like the puppy advice booklets. They're well-organized, informative and packed with valuable insights for new puppy owners. The clear layout and thoughtful content make it easy to understand the essentials for raising a healthy, happy puppy. Recommend for breeders and anyone looking to provide helpful resources to families.
People often don’t think about being an advocate for their pup. They trust their vet but forget that vets are overworked and don’t know the pup as well as the owners do. They listen to a trainer and forget that all dogs learn differently.
While aimed at the puppy owner, Be Your Puppy’s Advocate can also be useful to owners of dogs of any age who need their caretakers to be an advocate. I am training a exuberant two and a half year old whippet to be a therapy dog. When working on his polite greeting I find it difficult to walk away from friendly strangers when he is too excited to be polite. The tips provided in this book will serve as a reminder that I should always do what is correct for the training goals I have rather than allowing social conventions come first.
Based on the Puppy Culture material I've used for years, I bought these booklets to give to each of my new owners thinking they would have valuable information. However, I was disappointed in the content; it wasn't at all what I expected it would be. I've raised and trained many dogs and am a trainer myself (agility). Don't get me wrong, I totally believe in being an advocate for your puppy and all your animals and the advice to ask questions and not take everything people say at face value is certainly relevant. However, my interpretation of the content is that you should overly-protect your puppy and not let him have any bad experiences. In agility training, if a dog falls off the teeter or dog walk (and isn't hurt obviously), the worst thing you can do is run over to your dog upset and fawning over him like a little baby - "oh my god, are you okay, are you okay? Poor baby". That gives the dog the message that 'wow, I thought I just slipped and fell but, based on mom's reaction, something really bad just happened and I should be afraid of it'. What we tell people is to say "holy cow you silly, look what just happened! Let's go back and try that again". Even if a dog is hurt, treating him like a baby just reinforces the fear imo. Anyway, I was disappointed and am sorry if anyone takes this the wrong way but, I will be donating these to the local library because I don't want to give them to my new owners.
Hi, thanks for your comments. It seems to me that you are conflating two different things. Protecting your puppy from bad experiences vs coddling him if he has a bad experience. The booklet is directed toward avoiding bad experiences for puppies as they do not always “shrug it off” and often do have lasting damage due to the sensitive nature of the socialization period. You may disagree with this but in my experience and observation it’s often difficult if not impossible to “bring back” a puppy that has been scared in this way. And, as we mention in the booklet, the current science bears this out.
It’s a different discussion and a much bigger topic about where the line is between challenges and bad experiences. “Falling off” of a dog walk that is an inch off the ground is one thing and learning to place feet and keep balance is an important part of agility training - so that can be a good challenge depending on the puppy. But putting a puppy on a full sized dog walk and hoping they shrug it off if they fall is the exact kind of experience we hope our puppy owners will avoid. I’m sure you’re not doing that, but you have to understand that most puppy owners do not have your experience and “common sense,” which is not common at all but based on your years as a teacher and breeder.
Anyone who would like to read the booklet in it’s entirety before purchasing can read it here:
https://madcapuniversity.com/blogs/articles-and-product-reviews/be-your-puppys-advocate
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