Tips for Training Your Puppy

Puppies are so cute and cuddly, a little bit like babies, and as such it is very easy to give into the and sometimes quite hard to be tough with the discipline.  But that cute and cuddly puppy will grow up into a big dog and if you want him to be a well behaved dog then you need to look past those puppy dog eyes and let them know from the start who is the boss.

There is no definite age of when you should being training your puppy and you should probably start as soon as you get him, which is often at around eight or nine weeks of age.  The earlier that you start training your puppy the quicker he will learn and develop into a good, well behaved dog.  You don’t have to be extremely strict or too formal with your training but just little things to let him know who is boss and where is rank is in the family.

Puppies will get tired easy and like to sleep a lot so when you are training him keep your sessions short.  One of the first things you will want to do is to get him comfortable walking with a leash.  Start off just by taking him out in the back garden with the leash on just to get him use to it.  Just one quick walk around the garden will be fine for the first couple of times and you can gradually increase the time and distance.

At this early stage it is good to do this in the back garden rather than down at the park as he will be easily distracted at the park.  If the puppy really dislikes the lead and gets distressed then just take it off and you can try again a bit later.  Don’t force him to walk with you at first but rather let him choose where he wants to walk and you follow keeping the lead nice and loose as this is just mainly for getting him comfortable with the lead rather than teaching him how to heel.

Once your puppy is comfortable with the lead then you can start to add a little tension which you can increase each time.  Once he is walking well with the lead then you can start teaching the ‘heel’ command.

Using food as a reward when teaching him to heel, sit or other commands can be very effective.  Do not use food every single time however as this will make him expect to get food each time.  You want him to be able to obey commands with or without food so only give him food rewards on some occasions and the other times just give him lots of praise.

The main points to remember when training your puppy are:

• While he is young keep sessions short
• Be consistent
• Be patient
• Don’t expect too much too soon
• Don’t be aggressive with him when he gets is wrong – he will get it wrong some times
• Give him lots and lots of praise when he gets it right

By training your dog early your dog will be a pleasure to have as part of your family.

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