Providing endless joy and love, a new puppy is a wonderful addition to a family and one of the most enthralling moments in your life. One of the most critical aspects of owning a dog is training them to be well-behaved pets. Proper training is a rewarding experience that ensures your dog comfortably adapts to different situations and environments while helping ensure everyone’s comfort and safety. So, when to start puppy training?
The sooner you start, the better it is. Training your puppy should begin as soon as you bring it home, ideally around the 8-week mark. Aly’s Puppy Boot Camp is one of the few programs that understands the importance of this early stage and begins training at 8 weeks. This is the optimal time for puppies to learn, laying the foundation for a well-rounded and friendly adult dog.
When Should You Start Training Your Puppy?
One of the most common puppy training faq is when to start training. As a pet parent, house-training your puppy and ensuring it responds to a basic command at an early age is your prime responsibility.
Dogs are extremely intelligent creatures that are always eager to learn and please at any age. However, as you must have heard, old habits die hard. Reversing bad habits and traits at an older age is not impossible but can be a challenging task demanding more effort as they are well established over a period of time.
Therefore, teaching good manners and conduct is vital to establish limits and boundaries and avoid unwanted behaviors or temperament problems later. That means basic obedience training should commence from the day your little bundle of joy arrives home at 8 weeks old. Remember, an untrained dog can not only be hard to control but a potential liability.
Puppy Training Timeline
From the moment your pup arrives home till they are one year old, you must invest plenty of time and energy into teaching your puppy several life skills during their different development stages. The following is a basic timeline of what to do at each stage:
8-12 Weeks
This is part of the most critical period of your puppy’s life after the neonatal and transitional stages. Crate training and early socialization are the most vital aspects of training during this period.
Crate Training
Crate training is at the core of the potty training process. The crate will be your puppy’s safe place where they will feel the most calm and secure to rest and spend some alone time.
Introduce your pup to the crate and let it explore gradually. Drop some toys or treats to lure them into it and offer a reward upon entering to reinforce the behavior. Begin by letting them stay in the crate for several short periods each day while increasing the duration gradually.
Create a schedule and take your dog outside to poop whenever they need to. As puppies have rapid bowel movements, that would happen every few hours, particularly first thing in the morning, after each meal, before bedtime, and perhaps once in the middle of the night. When they relieve themselves at the right spot, reward them with a treat.
Early Socialization
Socialization is indispensable to raising an emotionally confident dog that feels calm and comfortable in various scenarios. It prevents fear and display of anxiety or aggression outside of their comfort zone. The crucial period typically lasts from 6-16 weeks of age.
How well you socialize your dog during this period determines the type of personality and behavior they develop for the rest of their lives. Therefore, making the most of this short puppy ‘socialization window’ is key to raising an amiable and obedient dog.
Introduce your puppy to as many visitors to your home and allow them to touch and pet it. If you have other pets at home, make sure they spend maximum time with each other under your supervision.
12-16 weeks
Slightly mature and with energy levels more relaxed, this is the perfect age to train your four-legged companion in basic commands at home. That would open the doors of communication between you both for the future.
Obedience Training
You must formally commence basic obedience training now using positive reinforcement. Some of the most practical cues to teach that you will use in daily life include sit, stay, come, and leave. When you get your pup to obey the command, do not forget to give it lots of affection and their favorite treat.
Continued Socialization
Expose your puppy to new experiences in the outside world, such as different sights and sounds, which they will encounter throughout their lives.
Stroll around your area and take them to public spaces such as parks and any other place that allows dogs. That could include restaurants, public transit, and supermarkets. They will also get accustomed to being on the leash during this time.
Let them hang around children and other dogs and cats regularly and make sure they get plenty of playtime together.
16-24 Weeks
By this time, your puppy has matured significantly and should have grasped all the basic commands. They are almost fully potty trained with a well-established daily routine and are transitioning into adults, but the critical development stage is not over yet. So, it is important to carry on their socialization and training.
Take them for longer walks and make them meet other animals and people. An evening at your local dog park can be an excellent idea to meet with other dog owners while allowing your pet to interact with a maximum number of dogs at once.
You must also continue their training by practicing the basic cues to further strengthen their skills while teaching some new tricks and techniques. These could include heel, jump, drop, bark, etc.
6 Months
At 6 months old, your dog should be almost fully trained and socialized. Training and socialization is an ongoing process, so from here on, you will continue to reinforce everything you have taught your pup in day-to-day life while making it slightly more complex. Give them commands in places with lots of noise and distraction and hold the instructions longer to further solidify their skills.
Consequently, you can always be sure that your furry companion will be under your control and comply with your orders under all circumstances.
Puppy Training Tips And Methods
The following are some tips and tricks that make dog ownership a smooth and enjoyable journey while ensuring that your canine friend develops into a well-behaved, confident dog:
Use Positive Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement is the most common strategy in dog training. It involves reinforcing good acts by rewarding your dog with a treat, their favorite toy, or lots of praise and affection, like patting on the head or back, to encourage them to repeat the desired behavior as commanded.
Puppies are typically rebellious and will test you to the limits. It is crucial to maintain a cool head and discourage misbehavior by not giving the pup any treat or love instead of showing any harsh attitude toward them, such as scolding or yelling. That could lead to trauma and behavioral issues down the road.
For example, if your dog obeys a certain command or eliminates outside the house while you potty train them, offer them a treat or game as a reward for that acceptable behavior. Make sure to keep the reward hidden until they obey you.
The main principle behind the method is that dogs will be motivated to repeat the expected behavior in return for a reward. Doing so consistently will lead them to perform the good act more frequently and eventually ingrain it in them permanently as it becomes a habit.
Keep Training Sessions Short
Unlike adult dogs, puppies have short attention spans and are easily distracted, which means they can only concentrate on training for a few minutes. Accordingly, it is best to break up training into several short sessions each day, each lasting 2 to 5 minutes, depending on how long your furry friend can focus on what you are communicating to them.
Forcefully training your pup for longer periods can be overwhelming and can result in lethargy or fatigue, which could ultimately lead them to lose interest and associate training with a negative experience.
Give Exposure to Different Environments
Taking your dog out in diverse settings is an essential aspect of the obedience training and socialization process. As mentioned by Brasken Labradoodles, a California labradoodle breeder, exposing your dog to new surroundings familiarizes them with various sights and noises they will encounter throughout their life.
Conducting training sessions in public places with distractions like parks will allow you to understand how well your dog responds to your commands in any situation.
Consider Puppy Training Classes
A puppy training class can be an excellent way to lay the basis for a joyful and confident dog in the future. Puppy training classes, especially group sessions, allow your canine to interact with several other dogs and humans in a controlled environment. However, private lessons might be better suited for some dogs with concentration issues to receive more personalized attention.
Puppy kindergarten teaches your dog basic obedience training, the cornerstone of dog training. Learning basic commands will lay the foundation for a well-mannered and sociable dog without behavioral problems, and which you can be confident about in any unfamiliar situation.
As a pet owner, you will also learn the importance and effectiveness of using positive reinforcement as a training tool and how to communicate with your dog while spending quality time and strengthening your bond with them.
Stay Calm And Consistent
Puppy training does not happen overnight. Teaching your puppy the do’s and don’ts of behavior might often be a bumpy ride due to their explosive energy levels and lack of focus. Staying consistent and positive along the way is most likely to yield the desired results eventually.
It is essential to develop a training schedule and stick to it at all times, particularly for potty training, as it would help establish a daily routine without making things unpredictable while preventing unwanted surprises.
The meaning of consistency is twofold here. In the other context, you must always use the same word throughout the training instead of its variations to avoid confusing your pup. For example, when teaching your dog to ‘stay’ and not move, do not use a similar word like ‘don’t move’ or ‘pause’.
Final Words
Puppy training can be an enjoyable activity that requires some time and energy, but the long-term benefits outweigh that by far making it well worth the effort. Early training prepares the ground for a happy and emotionally stable dog devoid of unpredictable behavior or fear of new surroundings.
By consistently using tried and tested training strategies like positive reinforcement and exposing them to diverse experiences during the first 6 months, you can rest assured that you have raised an obedient and reliable dog that will provide a lifetime of loyalty and happiness.
