Hey! I have my own resources, but a friend brought up your new puppy (more as a "oooo cute puppy !!!" thing, less as a "hey this person got a puppy you should message them about things") and I wanted to reach out to see if you had any resources that you found helpful for socializing/general training with this puppy (or past puppies)? I look forward to watching PS5 grow and advance in her obedience etc
hello! i'm getting to this like half a week after you sent it so i feel like you may not still be here lol, but i feel like i get this question a lot so here's my short list of puppy resources:
If You're Only Reading One Thing:
please read more than one thing
but if I can't convince you to read more than one thing, my Ultimate Puppy 101 Resource is The Puppy Primer by Patricia McConnell and Brenda Scidmore. It's easy-to-read, it's short, it's accessible, and it covers basic things pretty well
you can currently grab a copy for $7.50 from the author's site!
Okay, I Will Read Exactly Two Things:
Sophia Yin's socialization checklist! it is free! it is short! it will help you track whether you are giving your puppy a well-rounded socialization experience!
OP's Shiny New Favorite(s):
Social, Civil and Savvy my beloved. i really, really like this book. it's focused specifically on puppy socialization and gives a fantastic overview as well as practical advice. i think this book would be very accessible for general audiences, but also found it helpful/insightful as a professional trainer and think more experienced dog people would benefit from this one, too
you can pick it up in print for $10 here. alternatively, i was extremely hyped to find out that there is an audiobook version. it does appear to be on Hoopla Digital for free in both ebook and audiobook format if your local library offers you access to Hoopla
the same author wrote another book called Fired Up, Frantic, and Freaked Out. like you might expect based on the title, it's actually intended primarily for adult dogs who are overaroused/reactive/etc.
despite this, i've been listening to it recently and i think it could be very helpful for puppy owners as well – it introduces a lot of strategies and concepts that are helpful in general for dog training, as well as for dealing with your puppy's emotions. another book that i found helpful despite having professional experience!
Girl Help i Have Four Dollars in My Bank Account:
the Pandemic Puppy Raising Support Group on Facebook is run by competent professional dog trainers and has a ton of resources and guides sorted by subject. i believe all of these resources are free but i'm not 100% sure on that one
the Pandemic Puppy Podcast is the Pandemic Puppy Raising Support Group's sibling for your earholes. i find it slightly more helpful in the sense that i get a little overwhelmed by the sheer volume of resources on the Facebook group. it was (is?) hosted by Kayla Fratt, a professional trainer who was in the process of raising her first puppy, with an impressive cast of guest hosts
the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy has a free eBook called Growing Up FDSA. it's structured as a bunch of mini-chapters, sorted by surviving the first week, first month, and first year. a couple of these mini-chapters will be of limited relevance to people who aren't interested in dog sports, but many of them are extremely helpful for general audiences.
i would actually recommend starting with the very last chapter ("It's A Puppy, Not A Problem") and then working your way through the rest of the book
Kikopup has a puppy training playlist here. Kikopup is the only Youtube/TIkTok/social media whatever dog trainer that I really would recommend at this point.
the playlist comes as 136 separate videos in no particular order, which i admittedly find slightly overwhelming.
In my experience, Kikopup videos are not particularly flashy/sexy/slick, which might be a turnoff for some viewers – but this actually reassures me about her as a trainer, lol. her mechanics and methods are worth the watch despite some of the relative disorganization/lack of influencer-style polish
free online flipbook on determining when to spay/neuter your dog
free online flipbook on age appropriate puppy exercise
the /r/puppy101 wiki is pretty good and covers some topics not thoroughly discussed by my other resources (e.g. puppy blues, which i think is a very important subject for new puppy owners to know about). i will say that some of their recommended books and resources are not books/resources that i would personally recommend
Social, Civil and Savvy, Fired Up, Frantic and Freaked Out, and Sophia Yin's puppy socialization checklist can all be accessed for free, as mentioned above
not really totally focused on socialization, but Jane Lindquist of Puppy Culture fame has a free course for new puppy owners called With Open Arms and a Level Head: How to Bring a Puppy Into Your Life. i would put this lower on the list than the above resources tbh, but it's ✨free✨ and i think it's pretty all right
Actually I Do Have Some Dollars in My Bank Account, and/or i Really Love Watching Things with My Eyes:
the actual Puppy Culture program is really worth checking out if you can. it gives a really good perspective on early puppy development and why it's so important to take advantage of the critical period of social development. a lot of Puppy Culture is targeted towards breeders, but it's very useful for puppy owners as well. that being said it's like $70 lol
also a big fan of Attention is the Mother of All Behaviors from Puppy Culture, which you can grab for a more modest $22
Perfect Puppy in 7 Days by Sophia Yin: i think there's a lot of good stuff in this book, and it used to be in my top two recommendations. i do think a lot of the material is covered more comprehensively by other resources on this list, but if you want a shorter version of a lot of concepts, this book may not be a bad purchase.
you should know, though, that like a solid third of this book is just instructing you to have your puppy sit for literally everything in life. i personally do not do this with my puppies. Boo was trained this way early in life and her last owner and i both had to work past the tendency to auto-sit at all times (teaching her a "stand" for obedience was....fun).
that being said, it's hard to jump up on people if you're sitting, and it's hard to bolt out the door if you're sitting, and it's hard to steal food if you're sitting...so there may be some merit for pet dogs. i still don't love it for little babies and i'm having a hard time putting my finger on why.
Fenzi Dog Sports Academy has a presentation series targeted toward regular pet owners (the rest of the site is largely intended for dog sports people). you can get each course for something like $11-20 dollars depending on whether you choose to buy them individually or as part of a pack
they have a six course puppy combo pack for $65 with a lot of Big Name Heavy Hitter Dog Trainers featured, which is the cheapest option if you want all the puppy videos
i suspect that many of these webinars will overlap significantly with other resources on this list (the crate training course from Sarah Stremming is probably pretty similar to the hour-long crate training episode of the Pandemic Puppy Podcast with guest star Sarah Stremming) (and Laura VanArendonk Baugh shows up to talk about puppy socialization in like three different resources on this list lol)
but if you really learn best from webinars, go nuts
if I was going to recommend one webinar to round out the resources on this list, the Building Puppy Confidence lecture might be worth the $18.95 to buy it on its own
Resources that I Do Not Love:
there are some hopefully obvious ones here (Cesar Milan, Monks of New Skete, anyone preaching dominance/hierarchy-based training or telling you to put a prong collar on a puppy....), but I have issues with a couple commonly recommended resources
Before and After Getting A Puppy by Ian Dunbar: this book is absolutely foundational, Ian Dunbar is a pioneer in the field, he's one of the first dog trainers I really looked up to...and this book isn't really that great.
when i went back to it to listen to it again, i was surprised to discover that parts of it haven't aged very well, and i think his discussion of socialization is open to harmful misinterpretation. for example, emphasizing meeting 100 people in 100 days can easily lead to people overwhelming a puppy despite having the best of intentions.
i think there are a number of newer resources that have a little more nuance and that will be easier to effectively put into practice for puppy owners
Zak George: i've listened to a couple of his audiobooks and like. you can do better. has the opposite vibes of Kikopup
BONUS ROUND: You Need One Boy Your Free Will Is An Illusion
identifying a responsible breeder
identifying an irresponsible rescue
✨ good luck with your puppy! ✨
