- Hi, I'm Karen Kalunian, and today we're gonna give you some tips on how to handle your new puppy.

(cheerful music) Welcome in to another episode of "Animal Talk".

I'm your host, Karen Kalunian.

Today I'm here with Dr. Elias from the Cranston Animal Hospital.

She took the time to come over and talk to us a little bit about puppies.

And first I'm gonna ask Dr. Elias about puppy handling.

So many people think you can just take a puppy home and let it jump from your arms and it's gonna spring off the ground, or you just can grab it anywhere on its body, which is not the case because they're still developing.

So Doc, what can you tell us the best way to sort of handle and hold?

I see the football hold.

We always tell people the football hold is key when it comes to a puppy!

- We want to make 'em feel secure with kind of their butt in your elbow, and then your hand under their chest.

And then you want to make sure that if you're gonna put 'em on the ground, you kind of squat down to let 'em.

They'll try to jump, but they can fracture a leg or hit their head if they're dropped.

- Right, and I noticed that you have your fingers here because puppies tend to wanna leap forward, and at least if you have this portion of your hand up under their chest bone, it makes it so that they can't really push forward, I mean, especially at this small size.

As they start to grow, they get a little stronger, so.

- Yeah, and we recommend that like people with smaller children, just if they're gonna pet the puppy.

- Keep them on the floor, smart.

- Just do it on the floor because it's always a tragedy if someone accidentally drops the puppy.

- Oh, I know, I know, I know.

- And then just handling the puppy, you want them to get used to you touching them like we would do for an exam.

So, you just want to mess, while you're hanging out on the couch or something, You wanna mess with their ears, kind of look at their teeth.

At some point we start recommending brushing their teeth so it's not wrong to kind of put your fingers in their mouth so they get used to that.

And then another big thing is you want to touch their digits because this is what we do to trim their nails.

And most dogs, they get really big and they hate to have their nails trimmed, it becomes a circus, so.

- [Karen] Right.

- I always tell clients to do this little piggy went to the market, this just, just.

- [Karen] Just like we do with the kids, right?

- [Dr Elias] Yeah.

So then they'll get used to that and it becomes a and it becomes something that's not upsetting to them.

- And as far as puppy health because I know people always wonder, you know, what do we do with a puppy as soon as we get it, if it's, specifically, if it's not already been vaccinated and at what age do you stop doing vaccinations?

- We usually start vaccinating them, it, depending upon the hospital's protocols, like six to eight weeks.

So, if you get a puppy that hasn't seen a vet, then you should make an appointment with a vet.

- [Karen] Right away.

- [Dr Elias] To get the puppy checked out.

- [Karen] Absolutely.

- [Dr Elias] Because most puppies, they have intestinal parasites that are transmitted to them from their mother.

So all puppies need to be dewormed and then we start their vaccination series.

And the other thing that we do is start them on heartworm and flea and tick preventative.

- All key to keeping them happy, healthy, and safe.

And I would always recommend, you know, like you said, immediately, if you have a puppy that has not been seen by a vet, make an appointment.

I know appointments are difficult right now but just, it's important because there's so many things out there that they can get sick from.

- Yeah and one thing that we always talk to the owners about is that you're really happy to have a puppy and you wanna show it to everyone.

But while we give puppies a vaccine series, there's core vaccines, which are your distemper, parvo, and your rabies vaccine and then depending upon the pet's lifestyle, you can do kennel cough, leptospirosis, lyme.

But as they're born with some maternal passive immunity.

And as they get vaccinated, they gain their own active immunity so they're not protected until they finished their series.

- Right.

- So as much as you want to, I'd avoid, I would recommend avoid taking him to parks, rest areas, things like that where there's unvaccinated pets.

- The danger zones we call them.

- Yes.

- Because you know, you think, you don't know which other dogs have been in parks and places like that.

So, what we're gonna do for today is we're gonna sign off from "Animal Talk".

I'm your host, Karen Kalunian here with Dr. Elias from the Cranston Animal Hospital.

And we'll be back with more with Dr. Elias.

To watch more videos like this visit ripbs.org/animal talk.