Christmas time is here! Baking cookies, seeing friends and family, exchanging gifts and putting up the tree are just some of the many joyous things that Christmas brings. If you also brought a new puppy into your home during the year, or a new rescue, this is their first time experiencing the hustle, bustle and decor of Christmas.
If your dog will be experiencing their first holiday gatherings, take a peek at our blog post “Holiday Gatherings and Your Dog”. It’s full of helpful tips to make sure you are setting your puppy or dog up for success.
This post, however, is going to focus on a very important piece of Christmas decor- the Christmas tree. You may not realize just how exciting and overstimulating the Christmas tree can be for a puppy/dog, especially if this is their first Christmas in the home. Your puppy/dog is naturally going to want to explore the tree, the ornaments and gifts underneath it. Unfortunately, this can lead to some unwanted behaviors and accidents.
Teaching your puppy/dog what to do (or not do) for future Christmas trees starts with training around the first one. When you get your tree out or bring it home, put your puppy/dog on leash and let them explore it. This can help them get out that natural curiosity while still being under control with the leash. After the exploring is done, you want to train some basic cues around the tree, such as leave it or recall. Dogs do not generalize well. This means that just because your puppy/dog may have a good foundation of these cues in regular situations- when presented with something new and exciting, like the tree, they may not remember what to do when asked for these cues. Make sure to reward your puppy/dog heavily for ignoring the tree. Any time they look at you or are not interested in the tree- reward! This teaches them that not interacting with the tree gets them great things. If you are really struggling with training your puppy/dog around its first tree, reach out to a trainer for help. Any training you do now, is important as you are setting up the foundation for your puppy/dog for the many Christmases they are going to have with you.
Another step is going to be management. Sure, you can use those basic cues when you have eyes on your puppy/dog, but you can not cue them to leave the tree alone if you’re not there supervising. This can look like making sure your puppy/rescue is in a pen or crate when you can’t watch them, or putting them behind a gate in another room. This can also look like putting a barrier around the tree itself, such as an x-pen (if you do not want to manage the dog, rather manage the tree). It’s not forever, but making it hard for your puppy/dog to get at the tree will only help for the future. If they can not practice the behavior of messing with the tree, then that behavior will not compound into the future. You also want to think about the decorations on the tree. You may want to forgo hanging ornaments on the lower branches this year, as those can be very tempting for a puppy/dog to play with. The same goes for the presents under the tree. I know a beautiful Christmas tree surrounded with presents is a very Hallmark moment, but your puppy/dog doesn’t know they should not rip into those very tempting boxes. Consider only bringing the presents out when you are ready to open them.
Your puppy/new dog’s first Christmas is a wonderful and exciting time! Making sure that you are setting them up for success will make it even better. By doing so, you’ll ensure that Santa Paws will have your pup on the nice list this year and the many years to come.
