For many people, having a dog that they can head to the coffee shop, pub or restaurant with is important to them. It's important to recognise if this is right for your dog.

How can you set your puppy up for success?

Equipment you’ll need

A bed/blanket

The floor can be cold and uncomfortable not to mention smell very interesting. A bed or blanket (bearing in mind some pup’s may want to chew or shake a blanket) is key to make sure your dog can settle and relax.  We don’t sit on the grass in the winter do we!

A chew – a tasty chew or kong to enjoy will help keep your puppy occupied and focused. It’s important to give them something to do. My second cousin will sit politely with us if she has something to do, such as colouring in or reading a book. Dogs are the same. We say for parents to bring this for children to enjoy if they want to at puppy class – concentrating for an hour can be tricky.

-      Some treats – reward your puppy for polite calm behaviour. Give them eye contact and a treat now and again. Please don’t take your dogs good behaviour for granted or it may become extinct. Reward what you like. Reward them for doing nothing!

Be picky!

Pick your place. Think about things from your puppy’s perspective. If their first outing is too a noisy, busy place they may be overwhelmed and a bit spooked or totally wired and too overexcited to concentrate. Go to a quieter place to begin with and then build in those distractions.

Training

Teach an on your bed cue and Karen Overall’s deep breath protocol.

All dogs are different and have different temperaments so it may be that a certain environment is not for them. Watch out for body language that a dog is nervous about people approaching them – they may show the whites of their eyes or move away – this should be respected. Noisy children with sticky hands coming towards your dogs bed can be scary. Your dog may react out of stress/and or  shut down.

Seeing behaviour you don’t like?

If your dog is barking and lunging at another dog or person then get away from the situation. Move to another table. Don’t allow them to practice this behaviour as what gets rewarded can get repeated. A dog may be doing this behaviour to help them feel safe.

Remember if your dog was welcomed during covid, it may be very scary for them to go to the pub/café so you will need to help them and work on this.

We have outings to the pub / café after puppy class or another day that people can join. Check out our list of puppy classes in St Albans and Harpenden.

References

Adapted from an article in Sarah Whitehead's Inner circle.