You have decided to share your home with a new puppy. This should be an exciting time for you as well as your puppy. Give your puppy time to rest and settle in without too much interference. He or she is in a new environment and all this is very new and possibly a bit confusing. Ask your children to be a little patient until your new pup settles in. Once the puppy feels safe and secure, the natural playfulness and curiosity will come to the fore and you will be rewarded with many happy hours of fun. Make sure your puppy has a place in your home that they can call their own. A place to snuggle up and sleep when tired. Introduce your puppy to this area as soon as possible. Always make sure that the bedding is clean and changed regularly. If your puppy has a place outside as well, make sure that it is sheltered from the wind and rain, and provide shade to protect him or her on hot days. Make a habit of checking and changing the water bowl on a daily basis. It is also essential to keep food and water bowls clean. Just like a child, your puppy needs to be housetrained. A couple of weeks of patience and perseverance and you will end up with a puppy that will go the door and ask to be let out when they need to do their business. Never ever scold your puppy if it has an accident indoors, never rub its nose in the mess, this is not the way to train your pup. Punishing a dog after the event only causes confusion. Here are a few hints: as soon as your puppy wakes up from sleeping, at any time of day, take it outside in the garden to its designated toilet spot and give the command "go on" (or whatever you choose to say). When the pup does the required thing, praise it lavishly. Do not play with your pup at this time - toilet time is toilet time and play time is play time. Repeat this procedure after every meal and, eventually, puppy will get the message and you will have many years of soil free living. If you need to go out and leave the pup indoors, put some sheets of newspaper down by the door. A puppy does not do its mess on your carpet out of spite, it just does not know the difference ... unless you train it. Failures in housetraining are human mistakes, not puppy errors. The training and eventual temperament of your puppy is entirely in your hands. The every day dog commands such as "sit", "come", "fetch", etc. are easily accomplished at home with a bit of patience. For those of you who are seriously into dog training and obedience, check out our links page to get in touch with various clubs in the Canberra region. Cairns are quite bright and can obtain very good results at club level obedience training - food is a very good motivator. No two Cairns are truly alike; each has distinct personality and character differences. As a rule though, Cairns are somewhat independent. A typical puppy may sit on your lap for a few moments, but will resist being held for to long, wriggling impatiently to get down and explore. Their intelligence makes them curious and extremely quick to learn. They are surprisingly sensitive, and harsh punishment is not necessary or desirable. However, a Cairn must know from the first that someone else is in charge. If they have any question about that, they'll do their best to run the house. Firm, loving, and consistent discipline is the key to a good relationship with your Cairn Terrier. Cairns seem to have an inborn affinity for children. They are physically very tough, and forgive or overlook mishaps with characteristic generosity of spirit. They should not; however, be teased or mistreated by children, and close supervision of small children and puppies is essential. Puppies need time away from even the best behaved children. A Cairn thrives on attention and training and suffers from lack of it. Without training, he will be bored and destructive, barking to help relieve the tedium. There is very little a Cairn cannot learn if their owner takes the time teach them. Because Cairns are highly intelligent, training sessions should be fun and challenging, not overly repetitious. Cairns respond well to 'motivational' training methods ... food being very effective. They can successfully complete in most dog sports from Obedience and Agility through to Flyball and Rally Obedience. They do love to dig, and flowerbeds are hard to resist - don't tempt your puppy by leaving it alone in a manicured yard for too long. They are far more rewarding pets when they live in close contact with the family. Being left "tied out" in an unfenced yard can be dangerous to the Cairn as it is vulnerable to any attack that might be invited from larger dogs. It is absolutely essential to have a securely fenced yard.