The star of Smithsonian Channel’s Dogs With Extraordinary Jobs reveals everything you need to raise the perfect pet—and get off on the right “paw” with your new best friend! “By far, one of the best resources for new and future puppy parents.”—Marc Abraham, award-winning veterinarian, broadcaster, and founder of PupAid Celebrity trainer Victoria Stilwell is one the most trusted names in the pet world. In this fun and informative guide, her first for puppies, she teaches you how to navigate each stage of a puppy’s growth, from the first weeks through adolescence. You’ll learn:   • puppy-proofing your home • toilet training • building leash-walking and play skills • preventing nipping and excessive barking • caring for your puppy’s health • and more! Victoria Stilwell  is a world-renowned dog trainer who has served as the host of the international hit television series  It’s Me or the Dog , a judge for CBS’s  Greatest American Dog , an on-screen behavior expert for Oxford Scientific Films’s  Dogs Might Fly , and the producer of the Smithsonian Channel’s  Dogs with Extraordinary Jobs . Stilwell is the CEO of the Victoria Stilwell Academy for Dog Training and Behavior, editor-in-chief of the Positively website, and host of the  Positively Podcast . INTRODUCTION Puppies! We all love them, but along with those cute faces and wiggly tails comes a whole host of challenges that make raising a puppy as overwhelming as it is joyful. With so much available but conflicting information out there, it can be very hard for pet parents to know what advice to follow. Where should I get my puppy from? How will I get him to sleep through the night? How long does it take to toilet train my puppy? What is the difference between puppy nipping and biting? How can I successfully introduce a new pup to my kids? I answer these questions and many more throughout this book, but I also focus on something that is just as important. I call it the how and the why. Understanding how your puppy experiences the world and why she behaves in a certain way will help you raise her correctly. So while this book is a practical support system and a goto source of information when you are up in the middle of the night wondering how to get your whining puppy to go to sleep or when you are on your knees cleaning up the latest accident, it also helps you understand just how incredible your puppy is. Yes, raising a puppy is challenging, but these challenges are worth it when you hold that bundle of energy in your arms and feel such love that your heart might explode. The Ultimate Guide to Raising a Puppy is with you every step of the way. My Story I have a passion for dogs and have always been fascinated by their behavior. As a member of an enormous international dog-loving club, I live with and celebrate these incredible animals every day. I am constantly amazed by the fact that dogs are the most successful domestic species on the planet and have successfully evolved with humans over thousands of years. This is an incredible achievement on both sides. Humans have adapted to having dogs in their lives, and we have honed the skills of these effective predators in many different ways. But while we congratulate ourselves for making such a beneficial alliance, we also need to respect the journey made by the dog, which is nothing short of remarkable. Dogs have gone from hunting and fending for themselves to sharing our beds and eating our food. They don’t speak our language or understand most of our rules, but they still manage to adapt to our complicated lives. Humans are not easy to live with, but dogs, for the most part, successfully negotiate the challenges we give them. I have been a dog trainer and behavior consultant for twenty years, starting out in some of what I still believe are the toughest environments for dogs to live in—the cities of London and New York. Relocating to the United States from the UK was a big leap for me in many respects, but the challenges I faced training puppies and adult dogs in a city that only allows dogs off leash in cramped dog runs or in Central Park before 9 a.m. meant that I worked with dogs that not only were incredibly frustrated and reactive, but had developed a whole host of anxieties exacerbated by city living: noise phobias, space issues, separation distress, aggressive behavior toward people and other dogs, touch sensitivities, destructive chewing, and incessant barking, to name but a few. But for all its faults, Manhattan can also be the best place to have a dog. The city might be an overwhelming assault on all the senses, but it’s a delicious smorgasbord of ever-changing smells that provide countless hours of wonder for nose-driven dogs. Teaching dogs to focus on streets crowded with people, sirens and horns blaring every few minutes, and a myriad of distracting smells from garbage, human waste, and city rats, taught me to be very patient and provided ample opportunity to work with many differe