How To Select The Right Kind Of Dog For Your Family?

It is very important to keep the right kind of dog to make it a joyful and fulsome experience, where in it meets, both your emotional and physical requirements. The type of dog should ideally be suited for the purpose it is kept and should fit in correctly to the environment of the home. The dog should be of the right size, temperament and the owner should be able to meet the requirements of the dog. The dog should also be suitable and acceptable to other members of the family. To meet all the criteria, the following tips are offered in selecting the right kind of dog for the family:

Size of the dog, hair coat, size and type of the house, presence of elderly people and small children in the family, availability of time and resources etc. are the factors to be considered and deliberated before choosing a puppy for the household.

While selecting a puppy, the owner should have a fair idea perspective of the right size of the dog when it becomes an adult. Larger breeds need a lot of space for itself and for exercises. Thus they will not be ideal for a flat or a city house, where smaller breeds are more suited.

Likewise, elderly people or small children can get hurt when a large dog is moving around. Large breeds need more time and effort in grooming, bathing and will be more expensive in maintenance.

Hairy dogs also require daily combing and grooming to reduce hair shedding and to prevent matting of hairs. Large dogs will require more food quantity and its excreta disposal will also be a problem in apartments and small houses. Large dogs if not trained well will require greater physical effort to control it while being given medicines / bathing / grooming etc. However, if properly trained, most of these problems can be reduced to the minimum.And we  already discussed the Importance Tips For Dog Training. 

For small houses and flats, smaller breeds with short coats of fur should be preferred. They are easy to maintain and hair-fall will be minimum. Smaller hair and body size will also reduce the body smell of the dog within the house.

House breaking of Puppies

Bringing a puppy to your home for the first time is a very happy occasion for the family members, especially for the children. However, it is a very stressful experience for the pup.  The pup is separated for the first time from its mother and siblings and   introduced to a very new environment with strangers.

The stress can be reduced by the following steps:

1. While picking up the puppy from its mother, a towel or cloth should be rubbed on the body of the mother and the puppy can be covered in the cloth while travelling and later it can be used as its bedding, which will later give a lot of comfort for the pup.
2. On reaching home, do not lock up the pup in a dark room and away from people. Preferably, keep it in the company of people with enough lightning.
3. Puppy-proof the home by carefully removing any object which can be swallowed by the pup. Keep all switches, cables and plugs well protected from its nibbling.
4. Restrict its movement by confining it to a corner of the room by barricading with a small grill or cardboard box. Cover the floor with old newspapers, so that it can be easily removed and replaced once soiled or wet due to frequent urination / defecation especially during the initial days.

5. Find out about the food that was fed by the previous owners and give the same thing for the first couple of days. Then gradually, introduce to new foods if necessary as sudden change of food can upset the stomach.
6. The puppy should be handled gently. Too much rough handling by the children should be avoided.