The Top 5 Mistakes People Make When Bringing a Puppy Home - Puppy Bible Insight

Bringing a new puppy into your life is exciting, but it also comes with responsibility. The choices you make in those first few weeks and months set the foundation for your dog’s behaviour and relationship with you long-term. Unfortunately, many common mistakes—though often made with good intentions—can create lasting problems. Here are the top five things people often get wrong when bringing a puppy home, and why avoiding them matters.

1. Too Much Freedom

One of the biggest mistakes new owners make is giving a puppy too much freedom too soon. Allowing a young dog to roam unsupervised around the house means it learns behaviours you don’t want—stealing socks, chewing furniture, mouthing, or toileting indoors.

Without structure of what not to do, puppies make poor choices, and instead of guiding them, owners often react with frustration or punishment. This breaks trust. A puppy needs boundaries so it can learn what is expected in a fair and consistent way. Crates, house leads, and supervision are about teaching good habits from the start.

2. Neglecting the Imprinting Period

Perhaps the most critical mistake is not taking the imprinting (socialisation) period seriously. This early stage of development is when puppies are most receptive to learning about the world. Exposing them to everyday experiences—noises, environments, people, children, and other animals—builds resilience and confidence.

Missing this window often leads to fearful or reactive behaviours later in life. The goal is not to overwhelm the puppy but to give it positive, calm experiences that create a foundation for adulthood.

3. Over-Talking and Babying

Too much talk can actually confuse puppies. Dogs communicate through body language, not words. If you constantly speak to your puppy without consistency or purpose, your words lose meaning.

Even worse, if you comfort a puppy when it is anxious or fearful—saying “good boy” while it’s scared—you risk pairing positive words with a negative emotional state. Instead of reassurance, you may connect the intended praise with a fearful emotional state. Use your voice purposefully, and let your calm, confident body language do most of the communicating.

4. Accidentally Teaching Barking at the Door

Many people unintentionally teach their puppies to become excited—or even reactive—when the doorbell rings. Yelling at a barking dog often sounds like you’re barking along. Others use food to redirect the puppy, but this can create a different association: “doorbell = food.”

The result? The dog becomes highly aroused whenever someone arrives. The better strategy is to prevent excitement in the first place. Don’t allow guests to interact with your puppy, and don’t reward door-related arousal. Your puppy should learn that visitors are not its concern.

5. The Wrong Kind of Love…

We’re all human, and we all want every living creature to experience kindness and love. Fortunately, yes, I said fortunately, that is not the natural world. Consequences both good and bad form the foundation of your bond with your dog and provide clarity in training, which builds trust, which forms your bond. It’s all too easy to feel sorry for your dog that has not had the best start in life. Pitying him won’t change the history or help him. Instead of empowering your dog to grow and become the dog he could have always been, you keep him trapped in the mental torture of his past. It's time to hit the reset and allow your dog to grow in character and lead his best life!The hardest part of dog training is learning to view through the eyes of the dog. How do dogs teach each other to form harmonious family groups? They never give… Think about that for a good while. As humans we give our new dog or puppy everything, instead of teaching in a way the dog naturally understands.

Final Thoughts

Raising a well-balanced dog starts with structure, clarity, these form the basis of your relationship. Too much freedom, and even the wrong kind of love can sometimes have lifelong consequences. Pitying your dog, particularly an adopted dog from a rescue, will have crippling consequences. By avoiding these pitfalls, you set your puppy up not just to behave well, but to thrive as a confident, trustworthy companion.

This is an insight into our Puppy Bible, which is a part of the puppy programme we offer. For more insight please get in touch!