As far as tapeworms go, they often come from a dog ingesting a flea. Not all fleas carry them, but some fleas do carry tapeworm eggs. Once your dog ingests that flea, that allows the egg to hatch inside your dog, and the adult tapeworm comes out. So to prevent that, you need to be sure that your dog and any other pets exposed to in the home are on effective flea prevention. That's a year-round type of thing. And if your dog's a farm or outside dog, maybe some kind of a mole hunter in the backyard, those types of rodents and things can carry fleas as well. So they possibly want to have a prophylactic deworming as far as either keeping them on heartworm prevention that deworms against the tapeworms or even deworming them each year.

Most intestinal parasites can be prevented. Many of the heartworm preventions that we have available will prevent a wide array of those intestinal parasites, so that's a great type of preventative for them to be on. And then, there are also other types of dewormers that are out there that are strictly dewormers that are sometimes used as means of prevention.

They can. Whether your dog is just going out to use the bathroom, or even if you were walking through a yard and potentially stepped on some dog poop and tracked it in, that is a way that they can get exposed. Or, even if they have fleas, they can get exposed to tapeworm eggs and still have those intestinal parasites.

Treats or a toy are your best friend, or even just praise in general. You want to be teaching them to sit, stay, and lay down. Those are going to be some commands that could be life-saving for them in the future.

Positive reinforcement works a lot differently than scolding your puppy. It seems to work along the lines that the puppy remembers what you're enforcing as far as good behavior. So if your puppy is doing something wrong, try to push them in the right direction. And if they start going that direction, give them all the praise that you absolutely can. So whether that be treats, giving them their favorite toy, just a good boy or a good girl and a nice little pet, those things can help them out.

I'm a big fan of crate training. Many people are not fans of that because they feel like it's harmful or doesn’t lend itself to a great relationship with your puppy by using it. But I’ve come to find that if you crate train the puppy when they're young, they can be overall house trained. And then they can stay out of their crate once they're a little older and can be more trustworthy.

They make a lot of great toys out there. I always recommend a stuffingless toy if they need something soft. If it has stuffing in it or a squeaker, they will rip it out and potentially eat it. And that could lead to you coming to see me because they may need surgery. But I like the Kong toys. They are overall pretty durable, and they're also still a little easy on their teeth. They have a lot of variety, and also the Nylabones. They make some pretty good ones as well. You want something durable but not going to break their teeth.