Puppy Lessons From MaxFund!

Puppy season is here!

MaxFund started the month of April with a puppy adoption event. We are so happy with everyone who participated and helped; it takes a lot of hands to keep a yard full of puppies under control for a weekend and a lot of work to process that many adoption applications so quickly. Over a dozen puppies were adopted in one weekend, and we still have many more puppies ready to go to their forever homes.

At the shelter we love puppies, but we will also tell you that puppies are so much work. Our kennel staff, veterinary staff, and wonderful foster volunteers put in a lot of work to get all these new-to-the-world little pups healthy and ready for homes. Everything we love about puppies at MaxFund is everything that you should love when a newly adopted puppy comes home for the first time. Puppies bring a flood of joy and puppy magic wherever they go. They are cute and cuddly and playful, and did I mention that puppies are a lot of work? Puppies are learning to be dogs. They are learning about their world and their friends and what they can play with and what they can eat. What you get with those big eyes, super soft fur and happy tail wags is a mouthful of teeth excited to bite everything for the very first time! Puppies are exploring the world around them and learning to interact with everything. Fingers, pant legs, and shoelaces are all enticing for a puppy exploring new surroundings.

In a new home without their mother and littermates, they start learning all over again how to interact with a new family and what the rules are. It takes work and time to teach proper manners to an enthusiastic, mouth-forward puppy when everything is still new. Puppies are growing up to be dogs. We love the cute and cuddly little fur balls, but they grow beyond that quickly. Puppies need to learn rules and manners at the same time as they are learning how strong they are and what they can do. Do they know they are supposed to be gentle? Do they know they are strong enough to be too rowdy? We have many young dogs at MaxFund relinquished because they outgrew their knowledge and were not taught to have good manners. Puppies barely even know how to be dogs and certainly not how to behave. Sometimes a soft, squirmy puppy requires a lot more work when it is a big strong dog just a few weeks later. It takes patience to teach a puppy all new rules about what they can and cannot do when they are still growing and getting stronger every day. Puppies are starting to learn behaviors.

Unlike some adult dogs, puppies are sweet and easy because they don’t have to work through behavioral struggles of unknown history. Puppies are fresh and can be taught good habits without having to work through traumas. It takes responsibility too, though, because they are in formative stages where fears can run deep. Puppies are sponges learning everything. It is a special responsibility to teach them good habits and a healthy outlook for a successful doggy life. We love puppies at MaxFund. They’re cute. They’re cuddly. They’re sweet. They’re nippy. They’re messy. We love everything about our MaxFund puppies! Some days the puppies steal the spotlight from our older dogs and demand extra attention, but we love them and always are happy to start them on their way to a happy life in the best forever homes.

Article By Skye Baker, MaxFund Dog Volunteer