Puppies should largely be through any early fear period, which means we can continue desensitization, socialization, and familiarization at full speed! Remember, the process is a marathon, and each week builds on the prior week.
Your puppy should have better control over its bladder at this age and be able to be crated for longer periods, especially at night time. Smaller breeds may take longer to potty train than larger breeds, though.
It should also have a longer attention span and be even more receptive to obedience training. As always, keep experiences short, sweet, and positive!
Weeks 10-12 Overview
- Continue desensitization to grooming activities (bathing, brushing, nail trimming, etc.)
- Continue crate training
- Continue potty training by taking pups to potty area when they wake up and after eating
- Continue building bond and trust with pups through handling, cuddling, petting and meeting different people
- Continue to rotate through toys, textures, and objects in environment
- Continue to increase the difficulty or size of obstacles
- Continue obedience training
- Continue car rides, cart/wagon rides
Care Tasks
| Task | Recommendation | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Care | Bathe (every other week), trim nails (weekly), brush (as needed), weigh (weekly) | Weekly to Bi-Weekly |
| Potty Training | Continue taking puppy to potty turf, pad, or outdoor space after waking or eating (See Potty Training Guide) | As needed |
| Crate Training | Crate puppies together after playing (for 1-2 hours), ★ crate during bed time (4-8 hours, then take out for potty) if possible (See Crate Training Guide) | At least once daily |
| Play time in outdoor space | Allow pups at least 60 minutes of play outdoors (weather permitting) | At least once daily |
| Food/Water | Feed pups 3x daily, offer access to water during/after meals and play time; remove water at least one hour prior to crating at bed time | 3x Daily (Food)As needed (Water) |
Socialization Tasks
| Task | Recommendation | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Body handling | Freely interact with pups by holding, petting, and cuddling; touch their paws, ears, and tail | Daily |
| More new people | Pups can meet more people for longer periods and more often, try having people wear hats, sunglasses, etc. | Weekly (or more, if foster can do so) |
Environmental Enrichment
From this point forward, you can add novel items if you can think of them or have them available to you, but it is okay to rotate through existing items at this point!
| Task | Recommendation | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Rotate toys and textures | Rotate toys and textures each time you clean the pen | 2-3x Weekly |
| Continue using difficult obstacles | Rotate through obstacles but increase difficulty by adding more slippery or uneven surfaces, like balance/wobble boards, rolling objects, stairs | 2-3x Weekly |
| Passive sounds | Ensure pups can hear household activities, especially louder ones like vacuuming | Daily |
| Give treat-filled toys | Give puppies frozen treat-filled toys to encourage settling into crate during day time | Daily |
Age-Appropriate Toys, Textures, and Obstacles
Toys need to be of the appropriate size to avoid pups swallowing or choking on them. You may also find some pups are more apt to destroy certain types of toys, which should then be removed and avoided.
Puppies will become mouthier as their adult teeth start to come through, so care needs to be taken to remove toys they outgrow or can readily destroy. Substitute for hardier chews or toys.
Interactive Enrichment
Continue to increase the duration and/or intensity of prior weeks’ tasks. Continue to encourage and reward puppy politeness!
| Task | Recommendation | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Continue playing with toys | Play with pups using the toys in their pen, encouraging them to approach and interact with the toy you’re holding | Daily |
| Redirect mouthiness, give chews | Allow only gentle mouthiness (“yelp” like a littermate would if too firm) and redirect mouthiness to toy Provide supervised time to chew on fish sticks, harder chews, etc. | Daily |
| Reward good behavior | If a pup chooses to sit, stop whining, etc, reward with affection | Daily |
| Sit with pups, call them to you, walk with pups | Interact with pups, allowing them to explore you, climb on your lap, maneuver around you Encourage them to walk towards you, with you, and follow you around | Daily |
| Loud, unpredictable sounds | Bangs, booms, clangs, thuds, whirs, yells – louder, less predictable sounds | 2-3x Weekly |
| ★ More obedience training | Lure puppy into a sit using soft, puppy treat and mark with “sit” Can continue to “come,” “down,” and “look at me” if pup engages in training | At least twice daily |
| ★ Car rides and cart rides | Continue taking pups on short car rides in an enclosed crate. Take them on walks in a cart/wagon (that is safe for them) | Weekly |
