Lets start with the most important thing, which is health. First thing you should check, is your puppy eyes. You should watch out, if the eyes are not turning red. If they are, go to the vet, its probably just some small irritation, but it can be injury or disease.

Now lets talk about bathing. If your dog gets dirty, its neccesary to bath him. You can do it, but you must be very carefull. The water and shampoo can not get into his eyes and ears. I have special video about bathing, you will find link in description. If you dont have special dog shampoo, you can use shampoo for babies. After bath, dry your puppy with towels, i would not use dryer.

As you can see, puppy health is number 1 thing you should take care of. But there are other things as well. Training is very important, but puppies get distracted very easily. Because of that, keep the training sessions very short, no more than 10 minutes. Train puppies with positive training techniques, where you will reward them for good behaviour. I have some training videos on this channel, you can check them out. The most important commands are puppies name, sit, lie down, stay, come and leave it.

Watch our video and check Rocadog TOP 10 Tips on How to take care of a new puppy:

So you got new few weeks old puppy. If you are not ready for it, you might be surprised, that your puppy will wake up every few hours and they will want to go out or just play – even at night. But there are some ways how you can easily prolonge its sleep.

The first and the most obvious way, is to give him plenty of exercise at night. You probably heard that tired puppy is good puppy. So make sure, to make your walk little bit longer at the evening and definitely make sure that your puppy peed and pooped on this walk.

Now i will tell you the most important thing that really help me. Dont let your dog to wake you up. It should be you who is awake first. First few days observe, how long can your puppy sleep. If its 4 hours, set up alarm at 3 and half hour and wake up your dog. Slowly, but constantly prolonge this distance. I prolong it for 15 minutes every 3 days and today i can sleep with my dog for 8 hours straight.

Learn more about this topic in our video:

Heel is a command, where you are getting a dog into sitting position, where he is sitting next to your heel, left or right, based on your choice. We will use the luring technique, where we are showing the dog a way with his favourite treat. Just show the dog the treat and slowly swing the hand behind you in a circle and get back to your leg. After that slowly put your hand backwards so the dog get into sitting position.

Its important to always give your dog the treat and show him affection after he does what you want. Connect the command with positive reward. After some time, you can add some movement into the command. Say heel and do two steps with the dog and continue to prolong the distance slowly. You can start the heel training very soon, but your dog should already understand the Sit and Come command.

Watch video about How to teach a puppy the heel command:

One of the most crucial commands, that is a must to teach every dog, is Come. You want your dog reliably come to you, when you want it and need it, because it can keep your dog away from troubles. So how you will train this. Put your dog on long leash and let him sniff and play. Clearly say the command Come and gently push the dog towards you. When he gets to you, reward him with treat and affection.

Be sure, that you will give your dog treat and show affection every time he came to you. Link this command with positive and pleasant consequence. If you will be doing something, that your dog will not enjoy, dont call them with command Come. For example, if you will be giving your dog bath, dont call him with Come command. After some time, when your dog gets this command, you can ask him to come, when you are going out or before his meal.

Watch our training of the come command:

Socialization is process of meating new people and animals where puppy is learning how to behave properly. And it is easiest for them to learn all these things naturally as puppies. And you should not only socialize larger dogs like Labrador or GSD but also small Chihuahuas and Yorkies. Socialization is a must for all dogs! It makes sense, if your puppy will be meeting a lot of people and other dogs and have fun with them, than he will grow into confident and secure dog. But if you will not socialize him, he can grow up into dog that will be afraid of strangers and he might even be agressive towards them.

With well socialized dog, you will have a lot of fun and everyone will wants to be around him. Walks with unsocialized dog might turn into nightmare. So its up to you, but if i am on your spot, i would go out with my puppy right now and i would let strangers to pet him, let him sniff other friendly dogs and just show him other people. The more places puppy is taken and more people of different age will know, it will be better for his life.

Watch video of how i socialize my Labrador puppy: