Just in time for our new puppy, it’s time for puppy playtime and ways to keep them engaged.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of The J.M. Smucker Company. The opinions and text are all mine.
If you follow along on Facebook, then you’ve seen that we brought a new family member home with us a few weeks ago. I’ll be sharing more about bringing a puppy home next week but first let’s talk about playtime. We’ve had our dog, May, for 10 years now, which just seems crazy. She was only 3 when I started this blog! She was still in the puppy stage really and now she’s very much in the old age of her dog life now. I decided with both my kids going back to school full-time and it would be the first time in 8 years I didn’t have any kids home with me, why not bring a puppy home? So, we decided to get a little blond lab mix from a friend of ours. Her name is Callie and she really is just perfect for our family right now.
We, of course, love May with everything in us and she will always be our first baby, but it is fun to have a puppy that can grow up right along with our kids. We were talking about it the other day and when Callie, our puppy, is 10 years old, our son will be graduating high school. That’s just so crazy to think about because it seems like such a long time but really I feel like we got May just yesterday! It goes so fast! We’ve been playing with Callie and trying to start training her as well.
May was fairly easy to train so we are hoping Callie will be too. So far she’s done really well. In just a few short days, she appears to be fully crate and house trained, which is a blessing, plus she sleeps most of the night and wakes up right in time for my husband to get ready for work and is ready to go outside. I have to say that when we had May, we didn’t know what crate training was until we already had her for a month or so, this time we knew, and crate training really is one of the best things to do for your own sanity and your puppy too.
Of course, we have had treats involved with both training the puppy and for our dog May to be sure she’s getting a lot of attention too. I’m sure for her it’s hard to go from the only dog for 10 years to having a little one. She’s been pretty good with Callie, the puppy. She wasn’t too sure about her though when Callie decided to bite May’s tail, but overall she doesn’t seem phased by her. We headed to Walmart to load up on treats and toys for Callie, plus some for May too. I decided to pick up the Pup-Peroni Dog Treats for May because she loves the real meaty goodness. Then, I also picked up the training treats, which are smaller sized Pup-Peroni Dog Treats for Callie too. We’ve been teaching her simple commands right now and she’s doing well with those.
We have found that using treats as a reward for going to the potty outside where she is supposed to go, going into her crate, and doing tricks is the key for getting her used to each new thing she is introduced too. It’s worked too. I also love that with May, our older dog, we are able to give her treats too for the commands she learned many years ago.
Puppy Playtime
- Choose good toys for the puppy that are safe items especially for chewing, they love to chew!
- Combine play time with learning commands, mix together simple commands and reward with a treat like Pup-Peroni or simply with cheering or clapping with excitement to show her that she has done what you have commanded.
- Find out what motivates your puppy, is it cheering or treats?
- Be sure to have a good balance of playtime and rest time, puppies do require a lot of rest, so be sure to pick times to play where they are active and excited to play.
- Always be sure to take walks, a great way to stay active and get to know your dog is by walking. Practice commands while walking them too.
These are a few ways we have been keeping our new puppy entertained. What would you add?
Remember to head to Walmart for Pup-Peroni Treats! Woof Yeah!
Now, I’m back to playing with our puppy!
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