Stages of Dog Training: Puppy

Let’s begin from the beginning. It’s very important how a pup is treated after they are born. There is a process called early neurological stimulation. Best to Google it and get all the details as this is very important.

There are also some great resources called “Puppy Culture” this will give you the how-to-do early neurological stimulation. And much more.

Let’s jump forward to eight weeks. This is a good time to get your puppy. I do not recommend getting them any earlier because so much vital learning takes place in the weeks before you get them.

When we bring our new pup home the first thing on the agenda is potty training. If we set up our home with safety and structure, we will be one our way. I will talk about the how-to potty train in another blog.

The second thing is the beginning of training.

We have two areas we can train without doing much more than we are already doing. The easier the training is for us the more likely we will do it.

First is feeding time. Pups are fed two to three times per day. Each time is a perfect time to start training.

Fill your bowl, raise it above your pup’s head until they sit. Put your hand up palm toward them with one hand and say wait! With the other hand began to lower the bowl. If the puppy moves forward lift the bowl back up. Then start all over again.

You will in the beginning be doing the 5 or 6 times. This sets the stage for you pup to start learning.

Your pup is hungry and wants the food. What you want is for your pup to keep their butt on the floor and not move forward. With the hunger driving them to solve this problem they figure it out quickly.

After you are able to put the food down say “OK” and let the pup eat. Each time you do this they get faster and faster. After a few days you have your pup sitting nicely waiting for their food. This is a great preventive for resource guarding down the line.

Then when all is going great.

After you set the bowl down wait a few more seconds to say OK before letting them eat. As your pup learns to wait longer you can add a few more seconds until you get a pup that will not move forward until you release them. Next is waiting even longer until your pup looks up at you.

They will be thinking hey what’s up, what’s the problem. When they look at you say OK and release them to eat. Now come the fun part! You just taught your pup the food comes from you and not the bowl.

The next training area is the doorways. Have your pup sit and wait at the door before your say OK to let them go out. You take them out 10 or more times each day so you are training without doing much more than you would be doing anyway.

Puppies are very eager to learn and very happy to comply. At this stage of training use lots of positive interaction with them. Playing lots of games and rewards. Teach sit, down, stand, let go of toys, no jumping, and many other fun things.

Just remember everything you allow your pup to do is training them to do just that! If you let you pup jump up on you because they are so small and cute. When they get to be a big dog, they will have learned how fun this is.

So now is the to teach no jumping!

We have two other new blogs that follow up on dog training. One called Stages of Dog Training: Adolescence and the other Dog Training: Adulthood.