Let’s talk about Puppy Training!
Training Lifeskills, tricks, games and safety with your Puppy should be fun but can also be challenging. To be fair, it can be challenging with a Teenage, Adult or Senior Dog too – Puppy tips can work great for all ages of dogs including Rescue and Foster dogs!
We have four of our top training tips for you to help your Puppy Training go well:
1 Keep Training Sessions Short.
Puppies are learning constantly as life provides lots of new experiences as well, but when we are working teaching a skill or exercise keep the sessions shorter. You can do more than one in a day but only a few minutes for a single skill so that it stays fun for you both, and fresh in your puppy’s mind.
2 Practise All Over The House.
We often practise our training in one or two places in the home. For me the Kitchen is a main room, and then my spare room is my training room. This is great as helps puppies to learn to focus in those rooms.
However, puppies and dogs don’t generalise very well so they learn a skill in one place and the location becomes part of the skill! This is why you may train something like give paw in your lounge at home but then visit someone and ask your puppy to give paw and they look completely confused!
So once your puppy is doing well with something try practising in other areas of the home, including the garden, driveway etc. You may need to go back a few steps in the method to help them but they will pick it up more quickly than the first time you taught it.
3 Vary Your Praise.
Utilise all different types of rewards and praise for your Puppy. We use food and treats mostly as this is quick and easy to deliver, most dogs like food, and it tells them instantly when they do something right.
But food isn’t the only way to reward your puppy.
Including additional types of praise such as stroking, fussing, smiling, praising verbal, grab a toy and have a gave, bum scritches, belly rubs, run for them to chase you …. anything they enjoy can be used to praise and reinforce a new skill.
Using multiple types of praise also helps in the future if you want to reduce the number of treats used but still have some kind of praise.
4 Practise Out Of The Home.
At some point we want to try some of the skills learnt out of the home. For example recall, heelwohk, focus on me are all handy for walks. Sit, Wait and Down might be handy visiting someone or at a Dog Show.
Remember tip 2? Dogs and puppies don’t generalise well. So once your Puppy is doing something well at home start trying on quiet parts of your walk. Not on the rec while there are football matches happening. Not in the park while there are other dogs running over to say hi constantly. But a quiet part of the walk.
Remember to go back to basics with the exercise. For example at home your Puppy may be able to sit on your word ‘sit’. But on the walk get a treat in your hand, show your puppy, lift up and over their head and ask for Sit to remind them what to do in a new and distracting location. Praise, reward etc.
Gradually you’ll be able to do what you do at home but help your puppy to get it right by considering how difficult it is to concentrate with so many stimulation around them!
I hope you find these tips useful – if you know someone with a new puppy or who will soon be bringing home their puppy, forward this to them too!
To help you with your Puppy Training here is the link to our Free Puppy Socialisation Plan download:
Enjoy your Puppy!
Joe Nutkins
Kennel Club Accredited Dog Trainer
