There are many opinions in our society today on the best time to begin puppy training with different people offering varied options on the topic. Generally, puppy training can begin when your puppy is as young as 8 weeks old with simple instructions that gradually progress in complexity.
Wally’s World of Dogs: Long Island Dog Training offers all kinds of dog training classes such as Long Island puppy training, k9 training, dog manners training, therapy dog training lessons, and other dog obedience training programs for all dog breeds, sizes, and ages. Below we discuss how you can begin training your dog and how to progress until your dog is fully trained.
8-10 Weeks Old
This is often the period when you get to bring your puppy home to live with you. Your puppy is not too young to begin training immediately after they arrive at your house. Begin with easy tasks like getting them on a daily schedule by planning their meal time, water breaks, and sleeping time.
You can also start potty training by scheduling their potty breaks and teaching them how to hold it while showing them their designated potty area. Crate training is another excellent task to train on, upon arrival to reduce separation anxiety.
Give them treats and praise when they get into the crate and allow them to sit there for about 5-10 minutes while you go to another room, letting them out when the time lapses. Feel free to introduce basic commands like ‘sit’ ‘come’ and ‘good.’ Train on name recognition and socialization with close family and friends.
10-12 Weeks
This is an excellent period to begin to expand more on your puppy’s commands, socialization, and impulse control. Now that they are familiar with basic commands as described above, start more complex commands while giving higher rewards. For instance, ‘heel at home’, ‘place’ and ‘down.’
During these weeks, introduce the leash and harness within the house to get them used to it because they will be the most frequently used tools once the puppy starts going outside. Since your puppy is now used to the members of your household, begin introducing them to strangers and other dogs, for instance, post-vaccination.
Help them control their impulses by having them wait for their water or food until they are calm and release them with a basic repetitive command like ’break’. Teach them to calmly walk through open doors by introducing threshold training to discourage lunging every time they see an open door.
3-4 Months
At this stage, your puppy has grown significantly in size and become better with basic survival skills and commands. It is now a convenient time to introduce more complex commands and increase socialization. Train your puppy to follow multiple commands continuously, such as sit, down, stay calm and come, and watch them perform these actions continuously before praising and rewarding.
These exercises also result in high energy levels for your pup which is fun to watch. Since most puppies get all their vaccinations by this time, go outside with them and allow them to practice to heel while observing and getting distracted by the outdoors.
Allow them to socialize with other puppies for more significant periods now that it is safe to do so. Introduce complex commands like ‘stay’ and ‘leave it’ which are useful for the outdoors.
6 Months-1 Year
This age marks the beginning of the reinforcement period. By this time your puppy has learned all the basic commands, potty training, crate training, and socialization. It is now time to ensure these new skills are permanent habits. To reinforce commands, introduce more distance, duration, and distractions.
Allow more distance between you and your puppy when giving commands to enable them to follow through despite the distance barrier. Encourage them to stay longer than normal with the command you have given.
Finally, place them outdoors or in environments where there are many distractions to train them to work through distractions when given a command. Maintain your current routine at home to reinforce the structure and avoid incidences of nibbling, potty accidents, and other regressive behaviours.
Puppy training can begin immediately when you bring your puppy home through small, basic commands which grow in complexity. Make sure to use a mix of both positive and negative reinforcement humanely when training your pup.
The process requires consistency and dedication from you as the owner, but, be encouraged by the fact that you will see significant change within the first year of consistent training.