Puppy Training Tips

Puppies are cute and have those big innocent eyes that sometimes it can be hard to say ‘no’ to them and just give in to them.  But if you want that cute little puppy to grow into a well behaved and controlled dog then it is important to enforce some rules and start training him at an early age.

Puppies usually leave their mothers at around eight or nine weeks of age and you can start training him straight away from this age.  Do not be hesitant because he is still young as the younger you start training him the better.  You don’t need to be overly strict or formal but have relaxed training sessions at this age.

The first thing you want to do is teach your puppy his name as he needs to be responding to his name before you start any other training.  Once he knows your name you can then try to get him comfortable with a leash.  At first he will not know what this long thing is that you are attaching to his collar so do not try and pull him in any directions, just attach the lead and let him walk where ever he wants just to become comfortable with the feel of the lead.

Once he becomes comfortable with the lead you can then start to persuade him to walk with you.  Keep these training sessions short to just a few minutes at a time as he will get tired very quickly at this age.  As he gets older you can increase the length of the training sessions.

You can use food rewards to encourage your puppy to heel and be consistent in your training and within about a week he should at least be walking comfortably with the lead.

Teaching your dog to sit is another command that you can start teaching him quite early.  To teach him to sit give him the command ‘sit’ and gently push down on his rump to encourage him to sit.  It may take a few times of you gently pushing him down before he realises what the ‘sit’ command means.  When he does sit (even when you have gently pushed him down) give him a reward.

Sometimes give him a food reward and other times just give him lots of praise. It won’t take long before your puppy is obeying the ‘sit’ command to receive his reward, regardless of whether it is food or praise.  If you keep it mysterious for him so he doesn’t know when he will or will not receive food then he will obey each time just in case he may receive a food reward.  By only giving food as a reward some times and not every time then your puppy will not become reliant on food to obey commands.

Stay consistent with your dog training and remember to give your puppy lots and lots of praise.  Remember that your puppy will get tired quickly so keep those training sessions short.