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Congratulations, you’ve welcomed a puppy into your home!
You may be looking forward to the fun times ahead, or you could have been looking up ways to train your pup (since you’ve chanced upon this article). As we all know, it’s never too early to begin puppy training. Here are some tips to get started.
DO’S
1. Follow a puppy training timeline
While it may be tempting to teach your puppy tricks that you’ve always wanted it to perform, or imitate the pet influencers you see on social media right away, it takes time for puppies to achieve different milestones. There are different types of training suited for different stages of your puppy’s growth.
For new puppies that are 8 to 10 weeks old, you may want to start by setting up a daily schedule and focus on crate and potty training. You can also start letting your puppy socialize in a controlled environment, and introduce them to a leash.
At 10 to 12 weeks old, your puppy will likely have increased chewing tendencies, so you’ll need to help them focus on appropriate chewing outlets such as chew toys and chew treats. This is also the age where the puppy can be taught to respond to basic commands and say “please” through body language when they want something.
The critical stages of puppy training typically occur during the first three to four months, but it is also not impossible to train an older dog. Some adult dogs may learn more slowly or have to be trained to “unlearn” certain bad behaviors, so do be patient!
2. Use positive reinforcement
Simply put, positive reinforcement is a training method that rewards dogs for good behavior (as opposed to punishing them for bad behavior). For example, you give your puppy a treat when it obeys your commands or behaves well. Apart from dog treats, a reward can also come in the form of its favorite toy, loving touches, or even verbal praises. Repeating this cycle over and over again helps your puppy associate good behavior with good things. Remember, positive reinforcement needs to be predictable and constant, which brings us to our next point—
3. Be consistent
No matter what you want to train your puppy to do, consistency is key. Your puppy may get confused if the cues are inconsistent. For example, you have a rule that your dog is not allowed on the bed, but you occasionally allow it to be on the bed when you’re in a good mood. With this inconsistency, your puppy will not understand why it gets scolded the next time it tries to jump onto your bed.
If you’re living with other family members, you’ll need everyone to be on the same page in order for your puppy to understand exactly what behaviour is expected of it. In other words, everyone should use the same cues and commands when training the puppy. It will be confusing for the puppy if one family member says “stop” and another says “no”, because it’s not born to understand that these words are supposed mean the same thing.
4. Socialize your puppy
Contrary to the common myth, not all puppies are born ultra-friendly and would warm up to everyone instantly. That’s why socialization training is important for your puppy, to help it get comfortable with new people and environments. Different types of puppy socialization include but are not limited to getting children and different people to play with your puppy, bringing your puppy out on puppy playdates, or even enrolling your puppy in puppy training classes. When it comes to introducing your puppy to unfamiliar people and surroundings, do take things slow and easy, and don’t forget to give treats and praise for good behaviors!
5. Work on alone time too
Just like introducing puppies to new social situations, leaving them alone can induce feelings of stress too. When left alone, an untrained puppy may turn to chewing on furniture or making a mess in the house to pass time. In bad cases, they may develop separation anxiety.
For newer and younger puppies, you can start by letting them get used to a safe confinement area such as a crate or an exercise pen with baby gates. You can teach them to associate this space with good things such as meals or their favorite dog toy.
When your puppy has become confident on its own and has mastered potty training and understands other rules of good behavior, you can slowly give them access to other parts of your home when you’re away. Don’t forget to leave your pup with chew toys to keep them busy, and reward them if they’ve behaved well during your absence.
Though it is beneficial to teach your puppy that alone time can be enjoyable, you should not leave your puppy alone for too long. If you foresee yourself being away for more than 6 hours, you may need to engage the help of a family member/ dog sitter/ helper.
DON’TS
1. Reward good behavior or correct wrong behavior too late
Timing is very important when it comes to reinforcement and behavioral training. Your puppy will likely be unable to understand that it has done something right or wrong if you respond even a minute too late, and it might associate your reward or punishment with something else that it has done.
Therefore, some trainers recommend using a clicker or a short phrase (e.g. “good boy”) to mark desired behaviors, then immediately follow up with a reward. Similarly, when it comes to correcting your puppy’s bad behavior, you need to catch it in the act and punish/ correct it right away. Late punishment will be associated with another action and confuse your puppy.
2. Reinforce wrong behavior
Some owners may unintentionally reinforce bad behavior in their dogs even though it might seem like the right thing to do at that point of time. For example, comforting your dog when it whines or giving it extra attention to it whenever it misbehaves may encourage it to display more of these behavior in order to get your attention.
Even though it’s not recommended to shower your puppy with extra attention when it gets naughty, ignoring it isn’t the best thing to do either. Some undesirable behavior such as chewing furniture or searching the trash can be self-rewarding to the puppy and will continue if you do not do anything about it. In that case, try redirecting your dog’s attention to healthy, rewarding activities such as exercises or playing with an interactive dog toy.
3. Overuse commands
This is tricky. Naturally, we tend to think that if saying the command once doesn’t work, we have to say it until it works, right? But if you keep doing that, your puppy may misunderstand the repeated command as the actual command. Take the “sit” command for example, your puppy may think that “sit, sit, sit, sit, sit” means “sit”, and only hesitantly sit down after you’ve said the fifth “sit”.
However, we all know that it is hard to not repeat commands entirely. To avoid misunderstanding from repeated commands, don’t reward your puppy if they have only sat down after the fifth “sit”. Instead, start over again and use positive reinforcement immediately after it has obeyed the first command.
4. Lose patience
We get it, not all puppies are 100% cooperative during training and different puppies learn at different paces. Some owners may become very impatient and frustrated when their dogs misbehave or simply refuse to obey commands. As a result, the owners often start venting their anger on their fur kids by yelling at them or disciplining them more harshly.
However, doing so is actually counter-productive as it creates a hostile and fearful environment for the pup. Your lack of patience may lead to your puppy’s lack of trust, making it even more reluctant to obey you.
Thus, it’s better to take a break from training when you feel that your patience is wearing thin, and resume later when you’re feeling better.
5. Forget to puppy proof your home
You house can be a fun fantasy land in the eyes of your inquisitive puppy, but it can also contain unknown hazards. You certainly don’t want your puppy to get sick from eating poisonous house plants, or accidentally swallow a small loose object. Make sure that the training and living environment is as safe as possible for your puppy.
Hope you find our tips helpful and have a great time training your puppy! Subscribe to our blog to get updated on more dog training tips and the best toys for dog training.
