When you look at a room full of new puppies what do you see?

Cute, cuddly little bundles of love for sure but what about their future?

Mum will have done her bit taking care of their needs, showing them respectful boundaries and finally making them independent enough to go to their new homes.

From here on Mum is out of the picture, she has prepared her pups for their new life all she can do now is hope they grow up to be healthy secure calm happy dogs and that’s entirely down to their new owners.

Just like children some of those puppies will grow up to be well-adjusted sociable dogs, some will be moved on when the new owners can’t handle their boisterous behaviour, others will change owners multiple times and you don’t need me to tell you what happens to so-called ‘dangerous’ dogs.

In my experience there is no such thing as a ‘bad’ dog only a badly trained dog and none of us want that to happen to our puppies do we? Of course not.

Trust me that cute little bundle of fun is going to grow up very quickly. In 12 months time he will be a fully developed adult dog and if you are not in charge he will be.

Pups grow up much faster than children and he/she will be an adult while the children around him will still be little kids. They need to learn to respect each other for them to live together in harmony.

Also if you have cats, chickens or other pets your puppy will need your guidance on how to relate to them.

For details about my Puppy Foundation Course visit vicbarlow.com.

Sounds like a lot of responsibility I know but your pup is going to be with you for many years.

It’s well worth the effort to have the dog you always wanted.

By Guardian columnist Vic Barlow (the Dogfather)