Written and published by Got Sit Dog Training San Diego
Published by Got Sit Dog Training San Diego
Before spring break, the puppy had a routine and a half-decent sit. After a week of cousins, late nights and Fletcher Cove, it had learned to jump on children, beg at the table and bolt out the front door. Spring break puppy training in Solana Beach is about deciding, before the week starts, which habits the puppy will practice.
That is the whole premise: a puppy is learning every hour it is awake, and a holiday week is forty extra hours of learning with nobody steering. Here is what we tell families in Solana Beach and across North County to do with those hours, laid out as a comparison, because the choices are simple once you see them side by side.
Three reasons. The schedule disappears, so nap times and potty times slide. New people arrive, and every one of them greets the puppy differently. And the family goes more places, from the Cedros Avenue farmers market to the beach to a restaurant patio on Coast Highway 101, taking a puppy that has barely finished its vaccinations into the busiest week of its short life.
None of that is bad on its own. Exposure is exactly what a puppy between ten and sixteen weeks needs. The trouble is exposure without structure, which teaches the puppy that the world is a free-for-all.
Here is the same week done two ways. The left column is what we see in houses from Lomas Santa Fe to Eden Gardens every April. The right column is what we ask families to do instead.
| Moment | What usually happens | What to do instead |
|---|---|---|
| Guests arrive | Everyone crowds the puppy at the door; it learns that doors mean a party | Puppy on a leash or in a pen, guests ignore it for five minutes, then greet a sitting puppy one at a time |
| Meals | Kids slip food under the table; the puppy learns to station itself at the chairs | Puppy eats in its crate while people eat; a frozen stuffed toy keeps it busy |
| Beach trip | Two hours at Fletcher Cove, loose dogs, exhaustion, a sunburned puppy | Twenty minutes on the sand early, on a long line, then home for a nap |
| Naps | Skipped because there is always something happening; evening zoomies and nipping | Two crate naps a day, in a quiet room, even with the house full |
| Cousins playing | Puppy chases, nips ankles, gets picked up and squealed at | Kids sit on the floor; the puppy comes to them; chase games are not allowed for a week |
| Potty | Schedule drifts, accidents behind the couch, nobody sure who took it out last | A chart on the fridge and one adult responsible each day |
| Front door | Left open while people come and go; the puppy slips out onto the street | A sit at the door before it opens, every time, and a baby gate in the hallway |
The right column is not more work. It is a few rules decided once and kept all week.
A sit before every door and every greeting. A crate the puppy goes into willingly, because it means rest and a chew. And a leave it for the dropped sandwich and the kelp on the beach. Families that have those three before the cousins arrive get through the week with the puppy better trained than it started. Families that do not spend May undoing it.
We teach all three in the first two lessons, in your house, in two- or three-minute sessions that a child can run. Puppies this young do not need correction tools. They need a schedule, food they work for, and adults who keep the rules the same when the house is full.
This is the good part of spring break. A puppy that has had its shots can sit on a bench at Tide Beach Park and watch surfers, hear the Coaster go by from the Coastal Rail Trail, and meet one calm adult dog in a friend's yard. Each of those is a short, planned exposure that ends before the puppy is tired. One a day is plenty. The dog park is not on the list, and neither is a crowded patio on a Saturday night.
The rule we give families: the puppy watches first, then meets, then leaves. A puppy that leaves a new place wanting more has had a good socialization session. A puppy that is carried home asleep has had too much.
Spring break is one week. The habits are permanent. The same sit at the door that keeps a puppy off the street in April is the one that holds when the pizza arrives in October. The same crate that gives the puppy a nap during a houseful is the one it sleeps in for the next twelve years. Our puppy lessons start the week the puppy comes home, continue weekly for about an hour each, and move outdoors as the vet clears it, from your own street to Fletcher Cove.
You can see what the first weeks look like on our puppy training in Solana Beach page, and read how other families' puppies turned out on the raving fans page.
Ask your vet, because it depends on the vaccination schedule, and most puppies are cleared for beaches and sidewalks somewhere between twelve and sixteen weeks. Before that, carry the puppy to a bench and let it watch. After that, short trips on a long line, on wet sand, early in the day, with a nap afterward.
Yes, with rules. Children sit on the floor and let the puppy come to them. No picking up, no chasing, no squealing games. One adult supervises, and the puppy goes back to the crate when it starts nipping, because nipping is a tired puppy. Done this way, a week with kids is good socialization.
One scare is not a disaster if you handle it calmly. Do not comfort the puppy frantically or leave immediately. Move away from whatever frightened it, let it watch from a distance, pay it for looking, and end the trip on something easy. Then go back within a few days so the beach does not become the scary place.
You can, but a puppy between ten and sixteen weeks is in its most important learning window, and a week away from the family is a week of habits built with strangers. If you must travel, a sitter in your home who follows the chart on the fridge is a better option than a kennel.
The week the puppy comes home, and families have started with us at ten weeks. If spring break is two weeks away and the puppy already jumps and nips, there is time to put the door, the crate and leave it in place before the cousins arrive. The consultation happens at your house and is free.
Call (619) 704-9178, tell us what your dog does, and we will come and see it. The consultation is free.
Start with a free in-home consultation anywhere in North County San Diego.
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