Leonberger puppies are truly adorable. It is easy to fall in love with them, but you need to be prepared to love and care for them for their lifetime.
Before bringing your new Leonberger home, it is important to make certain your home, yard and car are safe. You will need some some basic supplies for your new Leo.
Families often compare preparing and bringing home their newest Leo baby much like delivering and bringing home a new human baby. Like a human baby, your puppy will require lots of love, patience, and kindness, but will also need clear rules and expectations from day one, a healthy diet and daily grooming.
In this section, you will find information to give your new bundle of fur an optimal start and help build a positive, trusting life-long relationship.
Before bringing your new Leonberger home, it is important to make certain your home, yard and car are safe. The following are some tips for making your Leo’s environment safe and some recommendations about some basic supplies for your new Leo.
Making your home safe
* Both puppies and adults are curious by nature and will get into anything and everything. Safeguard your new Leonberger as you would a toddler. Go through each room, the garage, yard, and any storage or outdoor buildings your Leo will have access to. For a really good check, get down on your hands and knees and see the world as your Leo will. You will notice many more things if you view the world from your dog’s perspective.
* Buy baby plug protectors for all outlets at puppy height, and remember Leo puppies grow very quickly, so what is not within their reach at 8 weeks may be at 9 weeks.
* Block off access to stairs, balconies, and decks from which a puppy could fall. For young puppies, do not allow them to jump off beds, sofas, or climb stairs. These types of activities can injure joints and bones that are still developing.
* Be sure that your puppy cannot reach the cord to blinds. Non child proof blind cords can hang a puppy, or they can chew off and swallow a piece of the cord.
* Many household plants are poisonous such as azaleas, mistletoe, holly and philodendrons.
* Leonbergers will pick up any item and chew or swallow it. Remote controls, needlework, prescription and non-prescription medicines,
glasses, pens, watches, jewelry, screws, nuts, bolts, safety pins, paper clips, rubber bands, cat toys, children’s toys, shoes and laces, coins, matches, pencils, to name a few, can all be harmful to a puppy.
* Keep phone cords, electrical cords away from your puppy, and block access to spaces behind things like televisions and refrigerators.
* Be sure all doors in your house close securely and that visitors are aware of the importance of closing doors. Teach your dog not to go through an open door without the command to do so.
* Keep all household cleaners, detergents, pesticides, and chemicals up and away from your puppy’s reach. Check out all cleaners you plan on using on areas your puppy will frequent. Many chemicals used to clean floors can be harmful to a puppy.
Arriving Home
When you arrive home, take your pup to the designated potty area. Show him exactly where you want him to do their business. Always reward, reward, and reward following a successful potty break and don’t be shy about it. Use your voice to praise, clap and cheer, and yes, even do a pee-pee dance. Leonbergers relish praise and your neighbors will find it quite entertaining!
Once they have gone potty, bring them into your home where you plan for them to spend the majority of their time. Set up a small room to be their very own safe haven or den during the training period. Remember that Leonberger puppies love to paddle and swim in their water bowls. It can be a challenge simply keeping their water bowl filled. Cool flooring such as tile is considered prime real estate. Select a place that is close to family action, cool, easy to mop, and chew proof. Allow your new puppy to explore the area at his own
pace and try not to overly fuss with your puppy. If you notice that your puppy is a little anxious try not to amplify this by soothing or coaxing it. There are incredible new scents, sights, and sounds to absorb. Let your puppy experience these new encounters on its terms.
Keep it calm and structured for several days. Keep visits and encounters controlled, cheerful, and positive. Just take the first several days to bond with you and let your puppy adapt to its new home, yard, and people.
Puppies really do like a schedule. House training is much easier when the puppy’s meals, sleep time, and playtime are on a regular schedule throughout the day. Ask your breeder for their feeding and playtime schedules and try to run similar routine. Forget about your sleep…it will be weeks before you get a full nights rest.
HOUSE TRAINING
Puppies have small bladders. Most puppies will need to be taken outside several times during the night, and again first thing in the morning. Each meal should be followed by a potty break. Each playtime romp must also be followed by a potty break too. Remember, every single successful potty break should be followed by reward, verbal praise and, if so inclined, dance! No matter the occasion, Leonbergers love a good reason to celebrate!
CRATE TRAINING
The first few nights the puppy spends away from its littermates is often traumatic for puppy and family alike. Your pup will crave another warm cuddly body if it’s been sleeping with littermates until now. Expect to experience whining and crying, with some degree of restlessness. Having a crate set-up by your bed is ideal to reassure your puppy through the long nights. If possible, hang your arm over the crate so that puppy can lick your fingers and smell your scent until he falls asleep. Consider filling an old tube sock with rice and warming it in the microwave for about a minute. Don’t forget to have your scented article with the puppy for additional comfort. In cases where the puppy has to sleep in a room away from you, a night light, a ticking clock or soft music may help the puppy sleep better.
A proper balanced diet can make a big difference in your Leonberger’s wellbeing.
Ask your Leo’s breeder to provide you with the name, amount and type of food your puppy is used to, as well as a feeding schedule.
If you are unable to purchase the food in your area, ask for suggestions regarding a change of diet. When you bring your new Leo puppy home, make sure you have several days’ supply of the food he is used to eating. Make the change to a new diet gradually, if necessary.
• Don‘t overfeed your new dog, but don’t underfeed it either. While you do not want to let your Leo puppy get fat, please remember this is a very large breed dog and you don’t want him to be too thin either.
• Rule of thumb – you should be able to find his ribs when you run your hands down his sides, but his ribs and his backbone should not be sticking out.
• Be careful of supplementing your pup’s diet. Listen to your breeder and your vet’s recommendations.
Food Hazards
The ASPCA Poison Control lists the following as causing stomach upset and in some cases, severe toxic reactions: avocado, chocolate, coffee, fatty foods, macadamia nuts, spoiled foods, onions and onion powder, raisins, grapes, salt and yeast dough.
Never allow your dog to consume alcoholic beverages. Never allow your puppy or adult dog to consume any product containing the sugar substitute, Xylitol.
Grooming begins as soon as you bring your puppy home, and you should immediately start brushing him so he becomes accustomed to being groomed. Brushing should be done on your puppy with a slicker brush about once a week. The hair behind the ears and the feathering on the backs of the legs should be brushed several times a week, as these areas tend to mat easily. You can help make it a pleasant experience by giving him treats while brushing.
You should start to handle your puppy in many ways, such as rolling him on his back, touching his feet, looking at his teeth, scraping the teeth, and cleaning and checking his ears. This will prepare him for when he has to go to the vet, and will make future grooming sessions easier. If you are planning to use a grooming table, you can start brushing and trimming nails on the table along
with lots of treats. It will not take long before your puppy wants to jump up onto the grooming table voluntarily because he associates the table with treats.
Your puppy should have had her nails trimmed regularly by her breeder since she was a week old. You need to continue trimming them at least every other week. If you’re not sure how to do it, ask your vet to show you. There are also some great illustrated articles on the internet that will help you with nail trimming. Trimming nails is as important as brushing your dog. Your dog’s feet will look better, but more importantly, her feet will be healthier and stronger and it is much more comfortable for your Leo to have nicely trimmed nails. The best time to trim your young puppy’s nails is when she is sleeping after a particularly exhausting play session. Nail trimming can be made into a positive experience by giving a treat after each nail has been cut. As time goes on, you can give a treat after two nails have been cut, then three, and so on. Eventually you will have very little difficulty with this task.
Here is a good article on nail trimming.
Having your Leonberger groomed by a grooming shop is convenient and easy. You can start taking your Leonberger to be groomed once he has completed all of his puppy vaccinations. Vaccinations are usually completed by six months old.
Professional groomers provide a grooming experience that goes beyond what most of us can do in the backyard. They are skilled to use tools, which effectively brush out a shedding undercoat. Grooming shops have special water nozzles that assist in getting the coat extra clean, and powerful drying systems to ensure coats get completely dry. Professional groomers are confident in clipping nails and most grooming shops include clipping of the nails with the shampoo service. Taking your Leonberger to a grooming shop for a complete shampoo and comprehensive brushing will make your brushing and grooming job at home much easier.
(Read more about home grooming under the Teen/Adult section)
When you get your puppy, please keep these images in mind. Their bones do not even touch yet. They plod around so cutely with big floppy paws and wobbly movement because their joints are entirely made up of muscle, tendons, ligaments with skin covering. Nothing is fitting tightly together or has a true socket yet.
When you run them excessively or don’t restrict their exercise to stop them from overdoing it during this period you don’t give them a chance to grow properly. Every big jump or excited bouncing run causes impacts between the bones. In reasonable amounts this is not problematic and is the normal wear and tear that every animal will engage in. When you’re letting your puppy jump up and down off the lounge or bed, take them for long walks/hikes, you are damaging that forming joint. When you let the puppy scramble on tile with no traction you are damaging the joint.
You only get the chance to grow them once. A well built body is something that comes from excellent breeding and a great upbringing-BOTH, not just one. Once grown you will have the rest of their life to spend playing and engaging in higher impact exercise. So keep it calm while they’re still little baby puppies and give the gift that can only be given once. By Patricia Crespo Photos Veteriankey.com @62 days
However, beginning to work and train with your new puppy is imperative. This file from the Leonberger Owner’s Guide will give you some good points for training a new puppy, Puppy_training
The best you can do for your puppy is to socialize! A complete exposure list from Whole Dog Journal. Socialization Exposure List
