Puppy Training

When the initial euphoria of bringing a puppy into your home begins to die down, a gradual realization will begin to set in. A gradual realization that this little puppy has to be trained. And the sooner the better.

Although, for the uninitiated, training a new puppy may seem like an impossible challenge, it is in actual fact so much easier and enjoyable than you imagine. If you take into account that the dog wants to learn the rules of peaceful co-existence between man and his best friend, and has the innate intelligence to want to blend into a domestic background, then the task of training will become a fun experience for you both, and one that will build and strengthen that famous bond that you have only heard about till now.

All that dog training requires is a blend of patience, persistence and consistent repetition. Don't forget that in the eyes of your puppy, you have become his idol, the leader of his pack. He or she will do almost anything to gain your approval. Armed with this information, you should be able to train your dog to carry out all of your commands and have a great time while doing it. If you have basic knowledge of how dogs behave, you should be able to judge how pliable your dog's nature is, and how best to train him or her.

You dog training program should be based around a mixture of patience and consistency. Incentives in dog training are critical tool. Most dogs will do almost anything for a treat, but some are fascinated by a favor toy and some will ignore everything else in favor of your approval. So watch for what is the most compelling reward for your pup and come armed to your training sessions with a pocket or two of tidbits or toys, to reward your puppy every time they get something right. Immediate and enthusiastic positive reinforcement will make training fun and make it work best. Humans may put great stock in the word "no" from our own toddler days, but ignoring a puppy, turning your face away and not giving them attention will be the perfect negative reinforcement during training sessions paired with the power of the joyful positive "good job, yeah!!" for doing it right.

In the beginning the sessions should be short but intensive, and kept to a rigorously consistent pattern. Once your dog masters a new trick it should be given a reward, and on the spot with real feeling. Dogs understand emotion better than our words. Keep going over the same trick, even after they have apparently mastered it. Puppies are not famous for their concentration cycle and will forget the trick several times before it becomes a recognized part of its repertoire. You should never become disheartened when it appears that the dog has forgotten the trick the next time you have a training session.

From the beginning of your training sessions, you should realize that your dog many not necessarily understand English, Every trick that you want to teach it has to be demonstrated in actions as well as in words. The favorite action is sit, and to teach your dog to carry out this simple command you have to actually force it to sit down, while repeating the word as many times. If you reward a successful attempt with a tasty treat, you will have gained the dog's confidence, and he or she will be up for more and more of that action. Eventually the dog will sit when you give the command, with no further need for physical intervention.

Try this, hold a finger pointing up, or a treat just out of reach, and move it closer to just above the pups head, this makes them back up a little while looking up and they sit without realizing they have done it! The immediate reward helps them understand, "Oh, that's what he wanted!"

Flushed with success from mastering the sit command, you and you dog will rapidly hunger for fresh challenges, and will move on to other milestones in puppy training , such as "stay, heal and down." Once you have mastered these the time will have come to attempt as the most important aspect of puppy training of them all, house training. This involves teaching the puppy, preferably not by example, what is right and what is wrong. As soon as the puppy begins to grasp the fact that you enthusiastically approve of it using outdoors as his toilet, you will have to back up your philosophies by being at its beck and call every hour of the day and night, to let him or her out, and even accompany it on its search for the ideal spot to let nature take its course. Even though it can take hours.

For more on house training, you might be interested in the section on crate training.