15 things you might not know about puppies:

1. New puppies sleep almost 20 hours a day. They need a lot of rest to grow big and strong, a lot like a newborn human.

2. They are born with NO teeth. They get their teeth when they are between 3-8 weeks old, and the new teeth are very sharp. And they like to use them to chew almost anything.

3. Also a lot like a human, they get 'baby' teeth and then lose them when their 'adult' teeth come in. That's usually around 4-6 months of age for a puppy.

4. They are born blind. Their eyelids are sealed shut.

5. They are born deaf. Their little ears are closed up.

6. With no way to see or hear, newborn puppies rely on smell for the first 2 weeks of life. After that, their eyes and ears begin to open. Hearing and sight is limited for the first couple of months, but gets better and better by 3 months old.

7. Puppies are like humans in even more ways. At age 1 year, they act a lot like human teenagers. They get in to a lot of trouble.

8. Puppies and dogs love when you speak to them. It's easy to find yourself using a type of speech called, 'Motherese' when speaking to their puppies. It's a high pitched voice commonly used when human mothers talk to their own babies.

9. When they are born, they cannot go 'potty' on their own. The mother has to stimulate them to both urinate and defecate. It takes them about 3-4 weeks to control this on their own.

10. Puppies are born with their own personalities. You can start to see it show around 6 or 7 weeks old. They haven't been tainted by the outside world yet, but some are already naturally timid, brave, silly, etc.

11. There are around 5 million puppies born in the USA alone each year. This is one reason it's important to spay or neuter your pets unless you intend to place them in a responsible breeding program to better the breed.

12. New puppies can't walk for about 3 weeks. They try, but they stumble and topple over. After that 3rd week, they are unstoppable.

13. Puppies learn a HUGE amount of do's and don'ts from their siblings and mother. Like when playing gets too rough. They learn the other puppy screams, mom growls, or a littermate turns away and ignores them after being bitten too hard. That teaches them signs of disinterest.

14. Puppies begin to learn 'manners' around 6 weeks old. Again, they learn from mom and siblings. That's one reason it's important to leave the puppy with mom as long as possible and not to take a puppy away from mom before 8 weeks. 10 or 12 weeks is even better.

15. Puppies can start training as early as 8 weeks old. They don't have a long attention span, but they can easily learn simple commands.