This week's puppy training tip

Many of my friends have welcomed new puppies into their homes recently so i thought i would start a weekly (i hope) blog with some of my key learnings from training dogs.

This week's focus will be on general puppy training techniques.

There are so many theories out there regarding the best way to train puppies, and this is just my opinion.

Do:
1) use lots of positive reinforcement. this includes verbal praise and lots of petting. petting is interesting, bc when my dog was a puppy, he actually did not really enjoy being petted too vigorously and would actually try to get away, but keep at it. puppies need to learn that petting is a master's sign of affection and it's actually a good thing.
2) verbal praise should be over the top praise. the words are important (ie. good boy or good girl), but just as important, the puppy needs to learn what the praising tone of voice is. so try to keep it consistent.
3) this is debatable, some trainers like to and some don't. but i like to use treats as rewards for doing the right thing during a training session. it causes the puppy to really want the treat down the road, but it really is effective. the true hard core trainers will tell you it's somewhat "cheating."
4) when training, use both voice and hand commands. it doesn't matter what the hand commands are so long as you keep it consistent. this is extremely important, and master's often get lazy with this step and just rely on voice command, but don't fall victim to your laziness. always use both. the reason for this is for when the dog is older and in a situation that is crowded, your dog may only be able to see you but not hear you. if you have properly trained your puppy to obey both voice and hand commands, down the road they become interchangeable.
5) teach your puppy the word "no." although, this is also debatable, i feel this is actually one of the first words your puppy should learn. when saying no, your tone of voice has to be stern and distinct from the tone of voice you use for praise.


Don't:
1) overwhelm your puppy with overtraining. create a schedule where you spend 1 full week trying to teach your puppy one new word. If you overtrain and try to teach your puppy several words all at once, it will be too confusing to remember. For example, do not try to teach, sit, down and stay all at once. spend a week on each one, and each progressive week, continue saying the commands from the prior weeks so he doesn't forget.
2) try to train when your puppy is very active. puppies need exercise and when they are excited and running around the room, they will not want to pay attention to training commands. Let the puppy run off his excess energy first. then, he will be far more responsive to training
3) life of your puppy should not be all about training. however, you should be training on a daily basis. try training for 10 minutes a day to begin. then gradually add 5 minutes to each training session each week and build up to 30 minutes of training per day.

Hope this helps.