Being Your Puppy’s Team Captain

Captains embody 3 C’s in leading their team: Caring, Courageous, and Consistent.

Being named a team captain is quite the honour. The position of captain is given to those that are respected and trusted to lead the team in the right direction. However, with this great honour also comes great responsibility.

As a good puppy captain we are accountable for any “mistakes” our puppies make, they are babies and we need to set them up for success. If we didn’t we need to do better next time. Keeping calm and staying in control when things get a bit more stressful isn’t always easy, but that’s what makes a good captain.

Caring:
Having all the power over a living being means we should have utmost concern to put their well-being first. As a caring captain, you should treat your puppy with respect and recognise that they’re not trying to be bad, but instead just do what works. If you have a problem with the puppy’s behaviour, it is on you to set the puppy up for success and put in the time and effort to train a better, for our human understanding, alternative behaviour in a positive way. To keep good team chemistry we got to make sure to approach any issues arising in good faith and without blame.
If your puppy is for instance quite over excited in class because of all the humans and other puppies around and the prospect of doing training and getting to do playtime, then it is on you to set them up for success by bringing good meaty chews, filled toys, etc. to set them up for success and by paying attention to all the good/calm/focused moments they have, so you can reinforce those. Give your puppy the space they need and adjust your expectations to your individual puppy.
It is your responsibility to keep your baby puppy safe, so don’t take them to places where other dogs will rush them and don’t give them the chance to run off themselves. Walk in calm open spaces and use a long line.
Don’t let perfect get in the way of good. Remember that while you do need to train your puppy, you don’t need to work on perfect obedience at all costs. It’s much more important to have a calm, positive experience with your puppy than being overly focused on obedience and ruining your relationship in the process. Obedience will come with time if you socialise your puppy well. The same counts for socialisation in which you rather want to have calm, relaxed, positive experiences where you let your puppy witness people/dogs/sounds from safe distances than having them all emerged in the middle of things.
Bear in mind it’s very, very hard to undo bad experiences in puppies. The emotional sensitivity that allows for the socialisation process works both ways: it will allow puppies to imprint a bad experience as easily, even more easily, than a good one. So always err on the side of caution!

Courageous:
Good captains are willing to step up. As a courageous captain, you must “walk the talk”, do the training and advocate for your puppy.
Be a good role model for others interacting with your puppy. Be prepared to speak up for your puppy! Be that towards a professional or a person of authority who is advocating using force or aversive tactics with your puppy, like for instance scruffing or alpha rolling them or a family member that thinks they need to ‘discipline’ your puppy by shouting or hitting at them or a stranger that thinks it a good idea to make a big fuss of your overexcited and jumpy puppy. Be prepared to speak up and walk away if your vet’s office isn’t willing to create a safe, positive space for your puppy. Feel free to blame Sit Happens “Our trainers made us commit to not using these methods. Please contact them if you have any questions.” The important thing is to prime yourself to be ready to walk away, it is okay!
When you are with your puppy, do not ever be worried about what people think of you. That includes avoiding people who are trying to fuss over your puppy or telling them not to as your puppy is in training as well as literally walking away from bad advice or someone trying to touch your dog. It might feel awkward to begin with but you will get used to it and it will start to feel good when you do right by your puppy.
Stick to your values of being a kind and dedicated leader. You need to work hard to raise your puppy to be the family member that you envision it to be, but the work will pay off.

Consistent:
Effective captains need to be the model of consistency. To be a consistent captain you need to hold yourself to a standard of giving 100% in all your interactions with your puppy. You cannot cut corners if you want to lead the team effectively. However, given that your puppy needs to rest 18-20 hours per day, there’s lots of time that you don’t need to dedicate towards your puppy other than teaching them early on to be happy to rest in their confinement areas.
If you set your puppy up for success and don’t let them practise unwanted behaviours whilst you are also rewarding all the good things you see, you will get exactly the dog you want. Don’t be stingy with rewards, you can fade them out with time.
Consistency is key and starts straight away. If you let your puppy practise pulling on the lead to meet other puppies, they will continue to do so when growing up. If you let people greet them whilst they are over-aroused and jumping, they will continue to do so when growing up. If you let your puppy get all worked up before walks, they will be harder and harder to calm down and focus on walks when growing up. The list is endless, so be sure to have clear rules and boundaries now and be fair and consistent with implementing those.
Consistent captains have a calm and clear style of communicating and get the attention of their team almost magically, without big efforts, so let’s all strive to be the caring, courageous and consistent team captain for our dogs that they need us to be.