Five Things You Need to Teach Your Puppy
So, you’ve made the big bold choice to get a puppy - congratulations! Is it easy? No I’m not going to lie to you, but is it worth it? Abso-fricken-lutely! Now your puppy’s crucial development period lasts up until 16 weeks, so you want to make sure that once you get them home at 8 weeks old you spend the next 8 weeks mega focused on teaching them all the things, because this can save you a lot of stress and grief later. You want to set them up as much as possible to be a happy, confident, self assured dog. Here are five things you need to teach your puppy:
1.House training: Your puppy needs to relieve themselves every two hours plus after drinking, eating playing and sleeping. Potty training will go a lot smoother and faster if you are fully present and therefore can minimize the use of pee pads - relying on these will hinder the process in the long run. Be patient and consistent. Reward potty outside with treats, praise, affection. Ignore accidents and make sure to clean up with enzyme based cleaner like this one so it doesn’t become a designated pee spot.
2. Basic commands: Sit, Stay, Come, Down, Look and Touch. You want to start teaching these immediately, because you want your puppy to learn to listen and focus on you especially in environments where there are so many distractions. Utilize a clicker or the word “Yes” to mark the desired behavior and immediately reward with treat to solidify it. Keep the sessions short and consistent (no more than 15 minutes at a time) ; start small and build up to the full behavior adding the word as a final step.
3. Socialization: You want to gradually expose your puppy in a controlled and positive manner to as many different people, animals, objects, sounds, and environments as possible. This can help build confidence and reduce fear. Remember to give lots of treats when they interact favorably with new things. Puppy playgroups are the best way to introduce them to other pups in a relaxed and supervised environment. Also, plan to have lots of visitors come to your house during this time. It’s best to begin to expose them to new things in way where you can control it rather than outside where you can’t.
4. Leash training: Don’t skip this one - leash manners are an essential part of your Puppy’s development and especially if your puppy is going to grow to be much bigger - you can handle them way better when they are small! You want to teach them to walk calmly without pulling, and to ignore distractions - walks are for walking and pottying not playtime! This is where the Look and Touch commands will be especially useful to get their focus on you. Start in a quiet area and build it up gradually - reward for calm behavior and walking nicely beside you.
5.Handling and Grooming: Get your puppy comfortable with being touched specifically paws, ears and mouth. You can utilize consent here too - touch your puppy gently in one spot and then allow them to show you with their body language that they are ok with it before proceeding further - this builds trust. Make sure to introduce them slowly to all manner of grooming tools - brush, nail clipper, bath, dryer etc. Go slow with all of this and use lots of treats, this will set them up for success when they need to visit the groomers and the vet. You want them associate the visits with positive and familiar things to reduce fear and anxiety.
Puppyhood is crazy, but incredibly joyous too! Remember your puppy comes to you as a blank slate, you are there to teach and mould them so that as much as possible they grow to be happy, and confident Dogs. Training never ends, but it is much easier to begin when they are puppies, and it is much easier to teach something anew than it is to unteach a behavior that has already developed. So, use these tips as a starting point and let’s give our Dog’s the best possible start!
