This is a great age to introduce new things to Ubu. He's in his critical period for socialization which means that he is much more willing and open to new things and what he is exposed to now will help him be more comfortable with it in the future.
This includes handling. It's important to get Ubu comfortable with people touching his teeth, ears, mouth, and body in addition to being restrained. If he does not get this early on, grooming and health care could be a challenge in the future. These are good exercises for the adults to do in the family. I'll explain more about that in just a bit. We want to do this slowly at first to help him get use to it. While relaxing with him we can gently handle his feet.
When I start to trim his nails, I might just have a few sessions where I tap the trimmers to his nails and give him a treat. I also start puppies out on cat trimmers because they are a little less intimidating. If he's really stressed about having his nails done, I might do one or two nails a day to keep the sessions less stressful. I'm also feeding treats while I'm doing this. I want him to associate nail trims with good things. Most dogs don't care for having their feet handled so it's important to make this as stress free as possible.
I gently massage his ears and give him a treat so he has a nice, pleasant association with it.
For handling his mouth, I usually start out with brushing his teeth. This tends to get dogs very comfortable with people being in their mouth. Ubu only has his baby teeth in right now so they don't really need to be brushed but we're taking advantage of the developmental period he is in now and knowing that he will be more accepting of this now rather than later. I use only dog toothpaste (human toothpaste can make them sick) and I start out with a finger brush so it's less intimidating. At first, I just offer the toothpaste on the finger brush to him and let him lick it off. It's poultry flavored so he's happy to oblige. After a few days of this I can start to slowly work my way into his mouth until we get to the point where he is comfortable with people opening his mouth and exploring inside.
Through all of this I'm watching for signs of stress which will indicate to me whether we need to slow down or do more work in a certain area. Signs of stress can be panting, looking away, shaking off....
Licking his lips, yawning, or whining.
If all goes well, he's happy to have people handle him. It will make grooming and health care considerably easier in the long run.
One other thing to mention, On occasion a puppy will be mouthy when you are handling them. This is their way of telling you to stop doing what you are doing. But, I don't want you to stop. We don't want him to learn that all he needs to do is be a little mouthy with you and he gets his way. Instead, wait until he stops being mouthy before you stop doing what you are doing with him. But then take that information and know that you will need to do more handling with him. That's just one of the reasons why the kids should not be doing these exercises. Puppies also see kids more as their peers. Some puppies might not take to one of his peers doing grooming and handling.
There is also another kind of mouthing that happens with puppies. Puppies use their mouths in play all the time. If you watch a litter of puppies, they are all mouthing each other. They don't come knowing that they are not suppose to do that with humans. This is particularly difficult with children who tend to squeal, move fast, and jerk away if a puppy is mouthy. These are all things that, to the puppy, seem like the child is engaging them in play and encourages more mouthy behavior. It's important to teach children to stop, tuck their hands in and be really, really boring to the puppy so he learns that it won't get him what he wants. If he is being mouthy with us, we can say "Ouch!" pretty loud and quickly hand him something appropriate to chew on. Then we praise him when he is chewing on the appropriate item. We can also just end play and walk away from him. It takes some time but he will learn not to put his teeth on people. It's always a joyful day when the sharp baby teeth start to fall out and the nice, dull adult teeth start to grow in.
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