How do you train a puppy?

Answer 1

Puppies need to be trained a little differently than adult dogs for two reasons. First, their bodies are more fragile because their bones and joints aren't yet fully formed. Never try to force a puppy into something. For example, never push down on a puppy's hind end to get him to sit. Doing so can result in damage to cartilage and growth plates that can affect the way the puppy grows and develops.

Second, puppies' minds are wired differently than adult dogs. Their attention spans are short and their experience is limited. You cannot expect a puppy to learn as quickly or understand as completely as an adult can.

You also have to deal with the fact that you are molding the way this puppy will view you, humans in general, and training, for the rest of his life. It is critical that with puppies training sessions are gentle, short, and fun fun fun.

The preferred methods for training puppies are as follows:

1. Use luring to get the puppy to do what you want.

2. Use food rewards and lots of praise any time he does something good.

3. Keep training sessions under five minutes. Several short sessions are better than one long session.

4. If you or the puppy get frustrated, take a break for a few hours.

5. Make training seem like a game.

Dr. Ian Dunbar, world renowned veterinarian and animal behaviorist, developed our modern use of luring in puppy training. Two of his books are available free online from his website. I've included the link to these books below.

Also consider clicker training with puppies. It's a very gentle, very positive form of training that makes training fun for both you and your puppy. Some of the best resources on clicker training are Peggy Tilman's "Clicking with Your Dog" (a book) and the "Take a Bow Wow" video series. These two resources will teach you how to teach your puppy to sit, down, stay, walk on a leash, come when called, and much more, including some useful tricks like opening cabinets and turning off lights. Links to Tilman's book and the Take a Bow Wow videos are included below.

Potty training does take Patience and its best if you take your puppy out every hour, as soon as they wake up from a nap/sleep, after playing and about 15 min after eating. Never get mad at your puppy for messing on the floor, if this happens, calmly take it outside and set him down and say; go potty here, keep repeating this every time you take you dog outside too, dogs can sleep for eight hours in their crate as long as it's big enough for dog to turn around in . A lot of people suggest that crate training your puppy because it's been proven to be the best way to potty train them, his is especially true when you go to bed at night. (Keeping them in a crate and taking them outside ever hour, or tying them to a chair or keeping them in a contained area, where you can watch them, so that they don't go potty somewhere in the house with you not knowing. because puppy's don't like to soil there sleeping place/ den, that is the point of crate training.)

Also, if your puppy bites or chews a lot, distract them give them another toy to play with. (if your puppy is really energetic and wants to bite and play they probably just want attention). Teaching your puppy the "leave" or "swap" commands will help.

If your puppy barks a lot there is probably something bothering them, like they want to play, want attention, are hungry, being bothered or, like some puppies, wants on the couch or bed to sit with me.

Start out slow with your puppy. He/she is probably not used to you yet. Start out with an easy think like sit. Always reward you puppy when it does it right. Say "Good girl" or "goodboy" when they do something good, also use their name. After you get down with sit, move on to come on command or stay. When your puppy becomes better at this you can have some fun and train it some cool stuff like shake roll over and bark!

You should train a new puppy as soon as it is ready to learn, this means it would probably be weaned. As soon as possible would be the best time, because if you leave it too late, it could be a really hard dog to train. make sure you know training techniques, and that you are patient if your dog is not a quick learning breed. examples of quick learning breeds are collies (all) and Labradors, and I'm sure there are many more