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Full Service Veterinary Care For Your Pets       Where EVERY Pet Is Special To Us!

GRANITE CITY

PET HOSPITAL

Located at 2935 South 2nd Street in St. Cloud, Minnesota 56301

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AN APPOINTMENT AT:

(320) 252-0277

OFFICE HOURS

FAX Us At:

(320) 252-5901

For Emergencies Contact: AFFILIATED EMERGENCY VETERINARY SERVICE  Telephone: (320) 258-3481

New Patients

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If you have a new puppy between the ages of 7 ~ 16 weeks of age,

come join us for our monthly Puppy Social.

An Important Step For Your New Puppy

Our monthly Puppy Socials are an opportunity to learn all about puppy training and socialization as well as giving new puppies a chance to play together.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Be sure to join us for an upcoming PUPPY SOCIAL.

Our Saturday Socials cover different topics so

pups are encouraged to attend.

 Call us at 320-252-0277

to make your reservation today!

Starting about one week after you get your puppy (around age 8 or 9 weeks), get him out one day a week to a new situation he has never seen before. This takes some planning, but is well worth the effort.  A walk (off leash) in a meadow or pasture with medium tall grass can be fun. Keep your puppy with you by voice. Encourage him to climb over a little mound of dirt or a log. Praise his efforts to do something he has never done before. Walk just fast enough that he has to strain very slightly to keep up with you.  At this age his desire to stay with you is very keen. Capitalize on that. The walk should take no more than 20 minutes.  Next week, take another walk, this time in the woods. He is in taller grass and weeds and must occasionally climb over small logs (just big enough to be a challenge). He goes up the hill, down the hill, over the rocks, maybe down a small bank. He goes through a thick carpet of leaves that crunch when he walks. Encourage him all the way. Praise him for meeting the challenge. Again the walk should take about 20 minutes.

At around 9 ~ 10 weeks old, make the walk a bit more difficult. Occasionally hide momentarily from him when he is distracted in the woods. Watch him. Does he notice you are missing? If he does, and starts to look for you, suddenly appear and praise profusely. If he doesn't look for you, toss a pebble to make him notice you are missing. Then call him from your hiding place. When he starts to look for you, appear and praise him. This will teach him, as it is repeated time and time again, to watch you when you are out in the woods, instead of you having to constantly be watching where he is. This makes him take that responsibility of staying with you. Play this game over and over through many weeks until you cannot hide from him because he is always watching. This only works when started young.

Take him on leash to town. Walk him on a main street with light to medium foot traffic. He sees and hears cars, trucks and heavy street traffic. He passes by many people walking bicycles, delivery men with hand trucks, etc. This should be a short outing about 10 minutes. Praise him lavishly for positive behavior. Be nonchalant and very encouraging. When you get back to the car, lay on the praise for his remarkable feats of courage.  Give your new puppy a very wide range of experiences. If you have done all this faithfully you will have successfully socialized him and it will stay with him the rest of his life, enabling him to continue to learn throughout his lifetime.