Puppies at K9 Anytime

Puppies are welcome at K9 Anytime as soon as they are fully vaccinated and given the all clear by their vets to go out on their walks.

There is absolutely no such thing as too young, too small, too soon, or too early when it comes to socialising your dog, and delaying the process is damaging for their future confidence and competence in social situations. Irrespective of breed, size or temperament, there are two common denominators in happy and balanced adult dogs; 1. dogs that have been and continued to be socialised from a young age; 2. dogs that enjoy sufficient, varied, and regular physical, mental and social stimulation on a weekly basis.

Daycare allows your puppy to learn the social ropes from day 1 in a supervised and safe environment, with reliable dogs who are well equipped to lead as role models and experienced staff.

Socialising puppies with dogs, new environments and people at an early stage allows us to make positive impressions on their blank canvas, reinforcing and supporting the positivity with which they see the world. When we shield our puppy from things that we decide they might find "scary" or that they "aren't ready" for like older or larger dogs, unfamiliar people, busy traffic, the vacuum cleaner and so on, we are in fact delaying the process of allowing them to create positive associations with what are in fact very neutral experiences, and can even be encouraging fear or anxiety around these things, as they recognise that these are things which my parents avoid, therefore so should I...

Preparation is everything.

See their puppyhood as preparation for their adult life; where the foundations for success in their later years are laid and where we start to stack the building blocks of their confidence, happiness and overall wellbeing.

For example;

Dan & Dean have never been inter railing before. Dan booked his trip through a reputable agency who set out a route for him with pre-book discounted prices for all tickets and hotel stops. Dean turned up at every station and just bought a random ticket on the spot to wherever was closest and paid commission on his bank card at every ticket machine that wouldn't accept cash (which was a lot of them) and every decent hotel was fully booked by the time he arrived. Dan traveled with a map and made sure he found places with free WiFi so he could check things as he went. Dean forgot to pack his charger and had no phone after 36 hours. Dan spoke to his friends & family who had been before who told him what to watch out for and how to stay safe travelling on his own. Dean decided to take this trip yesterday and was not aware of pickpockets and had his wallet stolen on the third night.

Dan & Dean came home. Dan had a great trip, went to every major capital and came home in one piece. Dan thinks inter railing is fantastic, and would do it again in a heartbeat. Dean thought Europe was awful. Overpriced. Dangerous. Overrated.

Both chaps took the same trip, only one took the steps at an early stage to prepare himself for a maximally enjoyable & smooth journey. The other only ate Lays for a fortnight and gave his blisters blisters of their own. Putting in the work early on meant that Dan's experience of Europe was positive, and he would go into future trips with positive expectations. Failing to prepare and going in without any experience, support or guidance meant Dean's impression of Europe was negative, and he would anticipate future travels to incur the same kind of stress and trouble. Dan would be excited to travel again. Dean would be hesitant and even anxious.

That's not to say you need to ship your puppy off with a rucksack on the Eurostar, but it is to say that starting them early on, harnessing their hopeful world view and teaching them to approach new experiences with positivity and pragmatism by guiding them through great experiences on which to build is stepping the first paw in the right direction towards happy & balanced adulthood.