Basic Obedience Training For Your Puppy
Teach your puppy to be courteous, obedient and well behaved.
Puppies can begin learning basic obedience techniques when they are eight weeks old — or as soon as you bring them home. It’s important that your puppy views any type of training you do as a positive experience that they look forward to each time.
Positive reinforcement is the process of rewarding a puppy once they’ve performed a desired action with something your puppy values. For example, by praising them or offering their favorite treat when they’ve successfully recognized what’s asked of them, they will begin to associate good behavior with a reward.
But other than teaching a puppy new skills, why is obedience training important for your puppy to learn? I will discuss this in more detail below.
In This Article:
- Why is Obedience Training Important?
- Obedience Training Supplies For Your Puppy
- Popular Training Methods
- When Should I Start Training My Puppy?
- How Many Times a Day Should You Train Your Puppy?
- What Are The 7 Basic Puppy Commands?
- Key Takeaways For Training A Puppy
WHY IS OBEDIENCE TRAINING IMPORTANT?
Obedience training is an essential part of any puppy’s life. It provides both mental and physical stimulation which helps to keep your puppy feeling happy and satisfied from a job well done. It will also make both of your lives much easier.
Reward-based training helps to improve and strengthen the relationship between both puppy and owner. The most attractive reason for training a puppy is because of the joy and ease it brings to a household. A well-trained puppy is much more enjoyable than a puppy that isn’t socialized or aware of inappropriate behavior. Teaching a puppy to listen to you and learn basic obedience skills allows you to introduce your puppy to more environments, travel more often and leave the house without having to worry about coming home to a disorganized living room.
Another desirable factor for training a puppy is an increased level of safety. Common behavioral skills that are vital for a puppy to learn early on include leash training, teaching a puppy to come when called and proper socialization skills that teach them how to interact with other people/dogs.
Once you’ve mastered these skills and start to introduce your puppy to new environments, you will have a deeper understanding of them, how they act in certain situations and how to better support them in any given situation.
OBEDIENCE TRAINING SUPPLIES FOR YOUR PUPPY
It’s important to be prepared before you get started on your puppy’s obedience training journey. These five essential items will help to make your training sessions much smoother, and you will have a well-trained puppy in no time.
1. CLICKER
Clicker training is a positive reinforcement based method that relies on marking desirable behavior using a ‘clicker’ and rewarding them afterwards.
2. TREATS
Treats can be used as an easy luring method when teaching a puppy new behavior.
3. LEASH & HARNESS
Leash training is one of the most effective, and useful training techniques for puppy’s to learn and can be taught as soon as they’re brought home.
4. BARRIERS
Puppy supplies like crates, pet doors and playpens help to create a more dog-friendly household that allows your puppy to roam freely in an area of your choosing.
5. TEETHING TOYS
Puppies love to bite, they will chew anything in reach especially while teething. Having appropriate teething toys for your puppy will make all the difference when it comes to re-redirecting their chewing behavior.
POPULAR PUPPY TRAINING METHODS
There are various methods for training your puppy with new skills, obedience and tricks — it can be hard to know which one to go for.
CLICKER TRAINING
Clicker training is one of the simplest, most effective training methods for teaching a puppy. With clicker training, you simply click the clicker after your puppy successfully performs a given command or trick and reward them with positive reinforcement and/or treats. Eventually, your puppy will learn that the noise of the clicker is associated with rewards and following commands, which will help to reduce the risk of unwelcome behavior later on.
CRATE TRAINING
Crate training is a helpful training method for puppies in various situations. A crate can be a safe haven for your puppy to retreat to, a tool for teaching your puppy how to be toilet/potty trained, and a safe way to transport your puppy when you decide to hit the road.
POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT
Positive reinforcement helps you teach a puppy desirable behaviors by introducing a positive stimulus or giving a reward after your puppy behaves how you want them to. Using this method reinforces the behavior that you want to see more of and will increase the likelihood of your puppy behaving appropriately in the future.
There are many ways to encourage your puppy and show them that they’ve done the right thing. I have listed a few below:
- Favorite toys
- Treats
- Positive tone of voice
- Plenty of pats & praises!
WHEN SHOULD I START TRAINING MY PUPPY?
Teaching your puppy basic obedience training can begin as early as when they’re eight weeks old — essentially as soon as your puppy comes home. It’s important to teach your puppy that you’re the leader right from the start, if you don’t, you might have to break their bad habits later on. It’s easier to teach puppies when they’re very young and susceptible to change, the older they are, the harder the habits will be to break.
Puppies have short attention spans, so training sessions should be brief but occur often. You can start to introduce basic commands such as sit, stay, wait, come, off, don’t touch and drop it using food rewards and positive reinforcement to encourage your puppy.
HOW MANY TIMES A DAY SHOULD YOU TRAIN YOUR PUPPY?
You should strive to train your puppy for at least 15 minutes per day in short increments (5-minute sessions) spread throughout the day to ensure your puppy doesn’t lose focus.
Remember to start your puppy’s training indoors where there are fewer distractions and allow them to get used to a confined space that they can associate their training with.
WHAT ARE THE 7 BASIC PUPPY COMMANDS?
Although there are numerous commands a puppy can learn (you can teach your puppy many things), the 7 basic commands that every puppy should know first include sit, stay, come, wait, off, don’t touch and lay down.
It’s up to you to choose which command you’d like to teach your puppy, although you’ll find they often work in conjunction with one another and various commands can be taught at once.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PUPPY TRAINING?
Puppy training provides your puppy with basic manners and skills that allow them to behave correctly around other people /dogs— from walking nicely on a leash, to coming when called. Teaching your puppy basic obedience commands allows you to live more freely, and safely with your puppy.
There are plenty of benefits when it comes to training a puppy, i have listed a few below.
STRENGTHENS THE BOND BETWEEN YOU & YOUR PUPPY
As you spend more time with your puppy creating new experiences and teaching them new tricks, the faster the bond between the two of you will grow. Puppy’s love to please their owners and will strive to do their best especially when it means they'll get a positive reaction in return — which is why it’s so important to encourage your puppy when they behave correctly and avoid scolding them harshly when they make a mistake. This will only make them fear you and take longer to achieve your desired behavior.
LEADS TO A MORE SOCIABLE PUPPY
An inexperienced puppy can often feel overwhelmed when they’re first introduced to new environments, new people and especially new dogs! If your puppy has not learnt to control their excitement, or how to socialize around other people/dogs, it may lead to your puppy being fearful of other dogs in the future, or perhaps get too close to being an unfriendly dog. Teaching your puppy the correct way to behave will help them to properly interact with other people and animals in future.
IMPROVES YOUR PUPPY’S SAFETY
As i have mentioned earlier, obedience training is important for your puppy’s safety. Puppies are curious animals — they love to explore, sniff and chew on just about anything. If your puppy hasn’t learnt that you’re the one in control then they’re at risk of putting themselves in danger.
KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR TRAINING A PUPPY
The biggest benefit of training your puppy from home is that you can control the environment and reduce the number of distractions in the room — which plays a major role in getting your puppy to cooperate. Once a puppy has understood what’s asked of them, you can slowly start to introduce them to different areas outside your home to practice commands and/or tricks to get them used to behaving well when more distractions are introduced.
I have put together a few key points to remember while training your puppy at home:
BE CONSISTENT
Training is a confusing time for your puppy, don’t add to their stress by reacting differently during their training. Instead, try to keep your reactions/methods consistent every time to help your puppy learn faster.
BE CLEAR
Puppies need clear direction. Creating multiple commands for one action is confusing and unnecessary. Keep commands short and to the point, for example ‘sit’ is a lot easier for your puppy to understand than a sentence like ‘it is time to sit down.’
BE PATIENT
Training takes time and effort from both puppy and owner. The most important rule to remember during puppy training is to be patient. Puppy’s love to make their humans happy and will be trying their hardest to get it right. Remember that your puppy is still a baby, so expressing your anger will only scare them and slow down the learning process.
BE IMMEDIATE
Don’t wait too long before starting your puppy's training, remember 8–12 weeks is the prime time to begin your puppy’s training. The longer you wait the more time there is for bad habits to form.
DON’T STRESS
This kind of falls under the ‘be patient’ bracket. Puppies are extremely intuitive and will be able to sense your energy when you’re stressed which in turn will stress them out and likely cause problems to occur during training. It’s important you remain calm, take a break for some minutes if you need to gather your thoughts before trying again.
Remember, patience is the most important skill you’ll need to foster during the whole training process with your puppy. Mistakes are inevitable and frustrations will arise during certain training exercises for both you and your puppy which is why it’s extremely important that you remain calm, in control and offer plenty of support to help your puppy get through their training. In doing this you’ll be giving your puppy a healthy, active life that will lead to an even happier household.
