You may need to prepare a head of time for your new pup’s arrival especially if you have very young children or other pets. Ideally you should have brought your new puppy home in a kennel. The kennel should serve as a car seat for your Havanese from infancy to old age. This limits the possibility of bolting into traffic if you are involved in an auto accident. They will not have their necks broken in a panic stop. They will not distract you while you are driving. Take the puppy out of the kennel you brought it home in to relieve itself in a secure area before taking it in the house. Put the puppy back in his or her kennel and enter the house. Set the kennel down on the floor where your other pets can visit and smell without having access to push and prod with their paws or noses. The arrival home should be without a lot of loud excitement that can scare an already confused puppy. Let the puppy rest. It will take about 3 days for the puppy to acclimate to his or her surroundings. Do not get upset if he or she is not hungry right away. Try not to place too many demands on the puppy for the first 3 days. After the puppy has rested a while and the newness has worn off with the family pets, take the puppy out of its kennel and take it to a spot in a secured area of your yard and let it relieve itself. You are to stay with the puppy when it is taken to its spot to go to the bathroom. If it goes you are to quietly praise the puppy. Then you can go back in the house and ask the children to sit Indian style on the floor and supervise both pup and kids as they are introduced to one another. Let the puppy warm up to them. Ask that they do not wildly kick their feet, or raise their voices or grab at the puppy with fast motions. Once the puppy gets comfortable with its new surroundings and family then you will not need to be as cautious. You must always be careful where you are walking and closing doors. You do not want to step on the puppy or slam its head shut in a door. If the puppy gets too excited during the introduction to children and jumps up in their faces or pulls their clothes right now is the time to start training it not to be so wild. You can be firm in voice and determination from the start with a puppy who just plunges right in.
