Puppy Training Starts with YOU!

Your puppy is starting to settle into their new home...it's time to start training them to be a good dog!

You may feel a bit lost, especially if you have never trained a puppy before, or if you have resolved to train your next pup to be calmer when they are left alone, or maybe to not bark so much at strangers in the park. For any issue, there is an overwhelming amount of advice online about training methods, important things to avoid, and things you definitely can't delay!

As soon as they come into your home, your puppy is watching you eagerly and wants to figure you out! No matter how cute they are, it can be a bit intimidating, since they develop habits so fast, and every action and reaction may have unintended consequences!

Your puppy is a sponge soaking up every bit of new information, and it can feel like time is running out to mold them into a "good dog". It may seem tempting to just drop them off with a certified trainer, and have them work their magic. They know what they are doing, right?

Puppy boot camps and daycare/training course combos are popular for a reason, but they are not all equal. If you research and find a legitimate one, one that uses positive-reinforcement training method only, is fully transparent with their facilities, and involves and teaches you as much as they teach your pup, there is no reason not to take advantage.

But remember!

While a professional trainer may help begin to guide you on your journey to train your puppy, it will always be up to YOU to keep the training going and really instill the desired habits and behaviors you are looking for. You must train YOURSELF (and your family, if applicable) to enforce all the good habits until the they are fully instilled and your pup is done developing, likely around 1.5-2 years old. Any legit training courses will work with you, show you their methods, and repeatedly insist that you must keep practicing at home. If you aren't prepared to do the bulk of the work, it's just time and money thrown out the window!

The most valuable training class I took with my boy was an early puppy class focused on socialization and desensitization, teaching the puppy that new noises, textures, and grooming was okay. It instilled confidence in my puppy, and after one class, I could take the core lesson, and continue to build on the idea.

For example, teaching your puppy not to be reactive involves daily controlled interactions, outings, and patient desensitization where you both practice how to react to various stimuli, from their first few weeks, all the way through adolescence. Training out separation anxiety starts with the tiniest repeated steps, practicing leaving the pup alone on the couch and getting up for a moment, then for a few moments, leaving the room for a moment, then a few moments, leaving the house for a moment, then for a few moments, and building up time over days and weeks so they will feel confident that you will always come back.

The importance of teaching the puppy some basic commands is also widely known, however, few understand that the key reason is not only so they blindly obey some specific phrases. The very process of training these commands establishes a pathway of understanding and communication with our pup, one that transcends species and allows you to listen and grow to trust one another. Nobody else can establish something like that for you, it can only form between you and your pup through doing the work. And while commands are invaluable for training good behavior in pups (read "Say No to "No!" - Establish Effective Communication With Your Puppy" for more), good behavior in itself doesn't happen just from understanding "sit", "stay", or "lay down".

In addition to all that work, the most difficult thing is to train and change your instinctive reactions to your puppy, which is why it's so important that you are involved in the training process and really engage with your puppy. For young puppies, good behavior starts with watching YOU, and learning from your reactions. Most bad habits that puppies can pick up come from your natural responses to them:

It took a lot of training myself not to try to tear my yarn out of my puppy's mouth when she was only exploring, but due to a calm response, it all ended without yarn-pandemonium!

Natural Response: They start to tear up a rug, your natural response is likely to shift your attention to them, ask them to stop, and eventually probably run over to them and chase them away. What they learn is that when they tear things up, you stop ignoring them and instead focus on them, maybe even play a fun game of chase!

Trained Response: Wait a moment, get up, but do something totally different without even making eye contact. Go to an other room, rattle a plastic bag, or make silly noises. Puppies have major FOMO, so they will probably abandon whatever they were destroying and follow you to see what you are doing. At that point you can go back and remove the object they were destroying. Puppy-proofing is really important in the early days, so they can't even reach anything that they shouldn't be chewing on!

Natural Response: They pick something gross up from the street, your natural response is to yank it out of their mouth. What they learn from that is that they can't trust you, you take away their treasures. They learn to run from you, and may even start resource guarding their treats and food and snapping and biting you for it.

Trained Response: Always have a high value treat or toy with you in the early months, and calmly trade them for whatever they have in their mouth. If you don't happen to have anything, in a similar way to the first scenario, you can try to distract them by excitedly pointing out a flower or a signpost, and often they will spit it out to go look/sniff. In a true emergency you can definitely remove a dangerous object from their mouth, but only if there is nothing else you can do, and only very rarely, that way, they learn to trust you and eventually understand that you only take things away from them when it's really important.

Natural Response: They pee on your floor, and your natural response might be to start telling them off, and if you are ill-informed enough, you might even rub their nose in it. What they learn is that you get scary/abusive when you see them pee/poo, and will likely learn to hold it until they are safely alone in an other room, and potty there in secret.

Trained Response: Ignore it if they pee/poo inside! It's done, just stay calm, don't even look at them, and clean it up. In the first few days of house training, it's imperative to take the puppy outside as often as every 15-30 min (depending on age...8 week old puppies can pee as often as every 15 minutes while they are active and playing!), and praise, celebrate, maybe even treat the pup when they do their business outdoors. To contrast that, ignore the puppy completely if they do it inside. This is the only true way to make them understand the appropriate place to go. Taking them outside often also gives them confidence that they will have the opportunity to relieve themselves soon enough, if they learn to hold it while indoors.

Natural Response: They might learn to come to you when they are called, but your natural reason to use recall is probably to take them inside, crate them, leash them, or take them away from something they are playing with. If every time you call them is to leash or grab them and take them away from what they were doing, they will eventually learn that they have to stay away from you and run from you, to keep playing or exploring.

Trained Response: Recall them often, for no reason, and let them go back to their playtime or exploration. Recall them randomly to give them delicious kitchen scraps, or for a fun game, or to give them a belly scratch, and let them go free again. Especially in the early months, try to minimize the amount of time you recall them because you are ending their fun, and they will never have a reason to run from you!

Natural Response: This is a thing my family is very guilty of! You take for granted when the puppy is calm and quiet and just ignore them, until the pup cries for attention, food/treats, to be let out of the crate, etc.. Then, remembering that the puppy exists, you immediately get up and give them what they want. This trains your puppy that they are ignored until they whine/misbehave, and then they can get whatever they want. It's especially difficult to train yourself and family members out of this, because often, you are not even paying attention to the pup until they make a sound or start misbehaving, and then your natural response is to go give them what they are crying for because hey, it's been a while and they could use some love.

Trained Response: Reward your puppy for being calm and quiet with little treats and calm attention any time you can. Pay attention to them especially when they are behaving well! Don't even look at them when they are whining for attention or food. Ignore them, until they stop, and THEN if it's time for their dinner, or to go on that walk, calmly go and do that. While it's important to learn to determine the reasons your puppy might be crying and respond quickly in case of an emergency, most often, giving them love and rewards for being quiet and peaceful, and taking that extra minute or two to let them stop whining, will keep them from forming a bad habits.

As you see, the key to puppy training is your own engagement, hard work, and thoughtful, measured responses. They are always watching you, and especially as their brain starts to develop, they often take advantage of your instinctive reactions. While it is always a good idea to seek advice from a certified professional trainer who uses positive reinforcement methods, you are going to have to buckle down and really work with your pup yourself to keep the good habits! Good luck, and most importantly, have FUN with your puppy!

Spend the time with your pup, train them, have different experiences with them, learn to communicate, and the bond you form will be unbreakable!