5 Things to Keep in Mind When Training Your Puppy

Training puppies is often just as intensive as raising a child in the early stages, if not more so. The amount of misplaced energy they have can turn even the most patient of us into Homer Simpson after Bart makes another bad decision. We wanted to make the process of training a puppy more straightforward for owners by sharing five things to consider when training your dog.

5. The Leash is your Best Friend

Make your puppy earn their freedom. Yes, that sounds a bit extreme, but it is one of the simplest ways to teach your puppy what they can and cannot do in any setting. Are they jumping onto strangers? They wouldn’t be able to if they were on a leash. Are they jumping all over your countertops? If you tethered them to a leash, that wouldn’t happen. Let them earn their freedom from the leash, even in the house.

4. Set Your Puppy Up for Success

Your pup can’t take food off your counter if there isn’t food there, and they won’t bark at what they can’t see outside. Put systems in place to minimize the chance of bad behavior, whether that means keeping food out of reach or closing the blinds so they can’t see the mail carrier. Also make sure you are tiring your puppy out. A tired pup is a good pup, so make sure you are taking your puppy out for exercise as well.

3. Set the Time Aside and Be Consistent

Like building that dream gym body, training your dog takes daily consistent effort. Set aside the time daily, it doesn’t have to be a lot of time either. 30-45 minutes a day is more than good enough as long as you stay consistent.

2. Positive Reinforcement

Owners have a tendency to punish bad behaviours much more than celebrate good ones. If all a puppy knows is punishment it will not know what is wanted from them, making them feel like everything they do is wrong. Try to avoid saying “no” as much as possible, some owners even go as far as ignoring bad behavior as much as possible, in order to not get reactive behavior from their pups.

1. Train in New Settings

Puppies are not very good at applying behaviors they learn in one setting to another. Teach them the same skills in different places and for different reasons. You should teach them how to sit in the park, in your front yard, and at your parents’ house.

With all that being said, the most important thing is to make sure you are treating your pet well and they will respond to you better.